Studio Notes: Musical Interlude - why it’s good to shift gears sometimes

My new drum set arrived this week.

It’s sitting in the basement right now, waiting for me. It’s an electric drum set, and I finally have everything hooked up and working right. I’ve played a little, shifted things an inch this way or that, but the real playing hasn’t started yet. There are random wires everywhere. I still need to get comfortable with it. I have a lot to learn about all the settings and options. I need to make it my own, and I’m really excited about it. I haven’t felt this energized about something new in a long time.

I know this is going to pull some of my attention away from my art for a bit. I’m not going to pause my art practice. I’m just making room for something else to pull focus for a bit and seeing how the balance shakes out.

I’ve always been this way. Too many interests, not enough hours, and somehow trying to hold all of it together. It makes focus a challenge. It makes progress difficult. But it also makes life feel full. I used to think that was a flaw. Now I’m not so sure.

When I was younger, that was the dream — be a musician, somehow make a life out of it. I probably would’ve gone to college to be an actual musician if things had lined up differently. Music runs through my veins 24/7.

My parents weren’t exactly discouraging, but they wanted me to have something “safer.” I can’t blame them for that. They were doing what parents do, and I ended up with a completely different life.

What’s great is that it worked out for the best. Most things usually do with time. I love my wife, my kids, and the life we’ve built together. I have a rich life as a business owner now, too. I still get to experience making music, making art, and living a life that is, at the end of the day, much more enjoyable and rewarding than being on the road as a musician.

Still, that musician in me wants to see the light of day.

Now I’m giving it some.

Am I struggling with this just a little? Yes.

I’m trying to give myself some grace, though. You don’t have to treat every shift in interest like you’re abandoning everything else. Sometimes you just need to follow whatever’s lighting up your brain for a while. All of your other interests will still be there, and you can still move the other things forward in small ways.

And honestly, doing both might end up helping both. That happens to me all the time. In the end, I don’t want to regret not pursuing all the things that I enjoy in life.

Right now, I happen to be listening to a song by Jackson Browne on my playlist. The song lyric is below. I never want to feel this way.

“These days I seem to think a lot about the things that I forgot to do.” - Jackson Browne (These Days)

This is a recent seascape collage I created while hanging out with the family and watching football. True multi-tasking to achieve multiple goals! (Approx 8x10 - painted paper collage on paper - Christopher Auman)

Anyway — different topic, but connected in a strange way…

I saw a post on Substack about Green Sea Turtles no longer being endangered. At first, I thought it was one of those hopeful-but-not-quite-true claims people pass around. So I checked. And it turns out, yes — the major conservation groups really did update their status. After decades of protection and slow, steady work, the turtle populations finally rebounded enough to move off the endangered list.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock

That’s wild to think about.

We actually did something right long enough for it to matter.

It’s rare to get good news like this these days.

But it took time.

And that’s the part I keep circling back to. How much can change if we give things time? If we let ourselves trust the process without worrying that we’ve lost our way.

Maybe the real work is just showing up, even in uneven stretches. Even when we’re exploring something new. Letting the small steps and stumbles add up. Trusting that the things we love, our goals, our dreams, don’t fall apart the moment we wander a little.

The turtles rebounded because enough small efforts added up.

Graphic Credit: Chris Auman

I think we get to do the same with our own hopes and dreams — the art, the music, whatever we’re exploring. We get there by staying patient, giving ourselves grace, and letting the process take the time it needs.

That feels like a good place to land this week.

P.S. It’s Christmas time. Officially. My family has started to return our Elf on the Shelf after years of being missing. Now that all my kids are adults (speaking of things changing), our Elf has become a bit of a bad boy. ;-) Life is good.