believing in things we can’t see

The most difficult things to believe in are things we can’t see.  Yet we do anyway.

We can’t know.  It hasn’t been proven.  It can’t be foreseen.

We think it may be possible given a difficult to pin down set of circumstances, some of which we control.  But we accept that it is not always a given even when those circumstances materialize.  And if we steady ourselves, choose hope, and take the risk, we may never know if they are proven true.  It may never be seen.  By us.

This applies to as much to the pursuit of our careers as it does to our personal lives.  World travel.  Home ownership.  Family.  Investments.  Nothing is certain.  We move in faith.

On a recent drive from Brooklyn NY to Asheville NC, I thought about the people in my life who have taken this leap.  Who take it every day.  And who no doubt will take it again tomorrow.

I thought about the large and small ways we leap.

We believe it is worth finding out if/how our creations can have impact on others.
We believe it is worth honing our craft or trade.
We believe the network is worth building, the relationships worth forming, the connections and conversations worth having.
We believe in the work we do to support one another and play a meaningful role in our community.

We may never see the fruit of these faiths – but we believe anyway.

We believe in the one fan we never meet.  That this song is for them.  That there is a person on the other end of that Facebook like, that email recipient, that package we put in the mail with the CD they ordered.  We believe they care.  And that it makes a difference.

We believe every ticket matters.  And every ticket holder is a person awaiting an experiential journey.  They have diverse reasons why they come to the shows – many we will never know – but we believe in all those reasons anyway.  We have gratitude for things we don’t know.

This is by far one of the most frustrating things about a music life.  And one of the most blessed.