"No natural music ability whatsoever"

Many years ago there was a little girl who wanted to become a musician just like her Mommy. Going into the 4th grade the opportunity arose to learn to play the violin. It required passing a test to determine musical ability. She failed. The music teacher determined that she had no "natural ability whatsoever" and he would not take her as a student. The little girl was crushed. Just months before, her mommy had died and she so very much wanted to be a musician just like she was.
The little girl's dad went to bat for her and insisted that the music teacher try so she started on the violin. And, she played it very badly. But, kindly, the music teacher switched her to the cello and she did much better. As she was ready to enter 7th grade, she excitedly looked forward to joining the high school orchestra BUT that year, they dropped the orchestra. What could she do? The new music teacher suggested that she learn to play the guitar and spent that summer getting her started. Then, she took lessons for some years from Mr. Young who was a student of Bill Huber Sr. And she sang under the instruction of Doran Gilhousen. She never stopped playing and singing.
That was my musical start. That first teacher would have never imagined that I would one day be co-owner and manager of a music store in Franklin. He was right that music is not a natural gift for me but it has been my refuge and the greatest gift in my life. I've learned to experience it from a broad perspective. I've combined the love of sound with the love of tinkering in a woodshop to make something and a love for words put to sounds. It's offered opportunity to get kids and adults excited about making something that might also make cool music. It doesn't have to be perfect or worthy of a great audience to bring joy. It's whatever you want to make it. It can be shared or yours alone.
All of these things combine to make Porch Music Store something very different than you might experience anywhere else. Holly and I saw something very different - an "everybody can" kind of space. We saw a space where anyone could find a way to experience and experiment with music. As it has grown, we have been blessed with collaboration of truly gifted musicians and instructors who share the vision of simply allowing others to find their own musical space.
The great Mel Bay once said something that I will paraphrase. It is not about your natural ability for music, it is about the joy you find as you explore it. That's what Porch Music Store is all about. That has been my experience and my musical journey. And I am so very thankful to all who have joined in and collaborated as well as those who continue to jump along.

Relationship Mindfulness

Our success, individually and collectively, is dependent upon relationships. The stronger and more healthy the relationships, the stronger the family, business, organization, neighborhood, community.....
Just one person can cause a substantial drag for everyone around them. Most of us can recall a workplace where one person wasn't pulling their weight or was constantly creating trouble and it affected everyone around them. Or that one person in the organization who consistently threw bombs to disrupt things or causing arguments among the group. Or that one family member who is constantly angry about something or at someone.
How we treat others matters. It matters most when there are problems to be solved or work to be done. There are always going to times when we see issues that need resolved. There are going to be times when we believe someone else is not pulling their weight. We're going to see wrong doing that need corrected. How we address it matters. We first need to be mindful of the relationship and the long lasting effect.
The difficult times are opportunities to build long term, positive relationships with long lasting success. Every time we choose to throw a bomb to try to fix it, we damage the relationship. We make it harder to achieve long term success. Often, the person on the receiving end throws a bomb back and the damage escalates. Nothing is solved.
At the heart of "do unto others as you would have others do unto you" is relationship mindfulness. It doesn't mean we need to agree about everything. It means we need to be respectful in all we do and say. Even if we believe the other person is wrong, we need to ask ourselves how we would want to be addressed if we were the one in the wrong. And we have all been wrong.
Relationship mindfulness is the single most important ingredient to success. We need to ask ourselves how what we are saying or doing affects everyone around us. Is it building a stronger relationship or damaging one? It doesn't mean we always tell a person what they want to hear or fail to listen to things we may not want to hear. We may even need to keep a distance from some who are obviously bomb throwers. We just don't throw bombs back and we don't burn the bridges that can lead to mutual understanding in the long run.

Upside down and Inside out

We throw a lot of labels around. Take something and through the right label on it and BOOM - it's viewed as worth something OR worth nothing. Labels go on the surface. They are intended to be easily seen and quick identifiers of something. But the label is worth nothing if there is no substance - no context - behind it. A good label becomes devalued when the substance - the context - behind it is devalued. The label is representative of a standard. When that standard washes away, the label looses value.
In business, we know that one bad review requires more than 10 to overcome the negative. We have little margin of error. Perceptions matter and they are driven by the experiences of those who deal with us. If it's the first time person deals with us and they have a bad experience, they may never come back. If we have dealt with the a dozen times and one time something goes wrong, they may give us a chance. They may no label us badly.
Also in business, we know we need to be very careful about our associations and collaborators. They need to align with our values. They need to treat people the way we would treat people. They represent our label and we will be labeled with them - right or wrong.
The label "Christian" is pretty important if you believe in salvation and afterlife attachments. It means "Christ like" - to be like Jesus. It means that we do the things that Jesus would do. That's a very high standard. We should be very careful about putting a Christian label on something. It's a very high standard. What does that label stand for? What did Jesus stand for? If it doesn't meet the standard, it doesn't get the label.
There's been a lot of turning that label inside out and upside down to try to make the label work. Doctrine can get in the way of what is right. Re-read the story of the Good Samaritan. Jewish doctrine prevented helping the man. What did Jesus say?
Find a Bible with all that Jesus said in red. Read just the red text.
Compare the things said by current leaders to what Jesus said. Compare your own thoughts and opinions to what Jesus said. Who is your teacher? Who is leading you?
Is upside down and inside out? Look for the spiritual answer.