Welcome

Dear Dreamer,

A few months ago, I released a song with my band called “Die Trying”.  The song is about having big dreams that are assaulted constantly, and about being strong and courageous to follow those dreams despite the difficulties and obstacles in your way.  I wrote “Die Trying” out of my own personal experience of pursuing my dream, but I was floored by the response it received.  I wasn’t particularly surprised when a lot of my fellow musicians related to it, but then people from a myriad of different pursuits and backgrounds started coming up to tell me their biggest unspoken aspirations!  “You wrote the anthem for my life,” someone said.  It was at that point that I realized how many people hold a big dream and are waiting for someone to tell them to chase it!  And that’s what inspired me to start this blog.

Perhaps I should tell you a little of my story, so you understand how I got here.  My own dream, to sing and touch people with music, doesn’t have a start date.  I guess I first put it into words during high school, when it was met primarily with feigned enthusiasm and a general sense of good-luck-with-that.  Somewhat discouraged by a lack of direction, I chose to channel my musical purpose into music recording, but after four years of college and two years working in a studio in New York City, I found it wasn’t enough.  When my husband and I had our first child, I became a harried stay-at-home mom with only the rarest moments to wonder if my dream had expired.

Two years later, I was 25 and two kids deep when it suddenly hit me that this thing wasn’t going to land in my lap by accident.  If I didn’t chase my dream — and do it now — tomorrow I’d be an old lady wondering what if.  Baby, I had all the valid excuses in the world why I couldn’t make it — no time, no money, no connections.  I vividly recall a conversation I had with my sister, where I was lamenting all of these obstacles.  Her reply? “So what?  What are you going to do about it?”

Challenged by my sister’s words, I began to find creative ways to defy my own excuses, throwing myself into practicing and writing.  A year later, after an unsuccessful attempt to build a band off Craigslist, I recorded my first EP with a great engineer and friend from my studio stint.  Through this, my band The Audible Dark was born.  (That’s a story for another day…)  I had the an incredible privilege of learning from my bandmates for a little over a year.  When my husband accepted a job in Denver in February, The Audible Dark played our last show in NYC with the current lineup, and I moved my family across the country.  And so here I am, prepping to build the band all over again!

I tell you this not to show how amazing I am, but to say that when you are determined and refuse to accept defeat, you can overcome your difficult circumstances.  If I can do it, so can you!

So why start the blog now?  Lord knows, it’s not out of boredom — I’m swamped with a to-do list that only seems to grow, no matter how hard I work.  No, it’s really because my own song is preaching to me right now.  I’m the one in need of inspiration and motivation!  So as I write this, know that I’m speaking to myself as much as to anyone who reads this.  I hope you’re inspired as you read, but I hope you don’t just read.  What’s your big dream?  What inspires and motivates you?  All of us, we dreamers, need to be pushed from time to time.

It seems appropriate to leave you with some of the lyrics to “Die Trying”:

What’s your excuse today?

Why don’t you fly away?

Are you waiting for a sign?

Don’t you know no one can make you chase your dream?

 

I am not afraid of the dreams I’ve made

I’m not afraid to fall

I am not ok with living life this way

I am not afraid to die trying