This week's Friday blog is a day late -- where did Friday go? It was completely given over to the drive home from music camp, unloading, unpacking, and doing laundry, all to my mental soundtrack of tunes that were played and shared, conversations over meals, and laughter (lots of that!) I would close my eyes for a moment and the visions of new friends in a beautiful Carmel Valley setting would pop up and bring a smile to my face before I slipped into short catch up naps…

Yes the late night jams and early morning class schedule I kept means I came home in need of a good night’s sleep, so rather than turning on the computer to get my blog out, I waited until now – Saturday morning – to get back online, gather my thoughts for this week and write!

So, my main thought to share this week is about community. As musicians, whether at the beginning of your journey, or well into it, we all can benefit from being a part of a larger community of musicians. Like in any community – small town, church, work, school – there is a wide range of personalities, skills, and mind-sets. Not every person in the community will be part of your inner circle of supportive friends, but those within your inner circle will also have an inner circle that includes some in yours, and some outside your circle.

Okay brief detour – remember math class? Remember Venn Diagrams? Here’s the picture in my mind:

These circles will connect outward to include everyone within the community. I remember looking around on the last day of camp and thinking “I don’t think I was ever in a jam session with that person there, or shared a table at mealtime with that one over there.” But there were people near them that I did either play music with or have in my class, or met up with in some way. And I am thinking, "Wouldn’t it be nice to have these circles spread out all over the world until no one feels left out, alone, or isolated?”

And yes, there are some you won’t want to include in your own inner circle, but if you can see how they are connected through other connections, maybe we can put aside differences like “I don’t play bluegrass, only jazz” or “I attend this church, not that” or “I voted for… not…”

Okay, and yes, I have a song to share. It’s on Spotify at: https://open.spotify.com/track/627SpLxlxHTApBdkwvsWoi

 Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts!