Music Mondays

I'm a sucker for great covers and this one fits that category perfectly. Sam Smith received the crown of winning the most grammy's at last nights awards and for a person who was barely heard of a year ago, that's really an achievement. I had my bets on Sia, since her album moved me in a way that I haven't experienced in a while, but in the end it's just one opinion against another. For some reason we have this need of placing everything into a ranking order…who achieved the most? Who is the smartest? Who has the most followers? 

Competition can be healthy, pushing us to work harder and getting inspired by other peoples achievements, but so many things in life can't be measured just that simply. How can we evaluate creativity? Was Picasso more skilful than Rembrandt? If we reduce creativity to just technicalities we are blinded of its true essence, which is the ability to touch us in a way logic or reason never could. True art is able to completely override our thought process and move us deeper by impacting our hearts. It's such a lie to think that creativity is only for people who know how to make a living of it. Every single culture on this planet has art intwined into their everyday lives but somehow in our western (or is it just Finnish?) culture we've separated ourselves from it, only to run after money and effectiveness. I'm always saddened to hear when schools save money by reducing funds from the arts. Whether arts are your profession or not, I think we all have a need to express ourselves creatively and if that feature in us is diminished, we won't be able to live at our full potential. We would be suppressing our very nature and reduce our abilities considerably. 

I once read an article on a class of young students who wrote letters to different authors and Kurt Vonnegut was the only one to reply. His response was pretty simple but it impacted me incredibly. He told the students to "practise any art...no matter how well or badly, not to get money or fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow." Then he asked them to write a poem, making it as good as one can, tear it into pieces and discard them into widely separated trash recepticals. The reward of doing that is in experiencing becoming, learning what's on the inside and making the soul grow.

What's on the inside can't be measured or ranked, it's rather invaluable. We prosper as our soul prospers. Experiencing becoming by seeing the work of our own hands is life at it's best. So better start working on that poem :)

xxx

Ps. You can find the authors full response here.

Mud Walk

This week has been a rougher one. Going after my dreams and running fearlessly towards those goals might seem fancy or special, but in reality it sometimes resembles more walking through knee high mud than dancing in flowery fields. Taking risks means putting yourself into a vulnerable position and that's exactly what I've felt like…vulnerable. I realised that that's the emotion I have to get used to. I've often thought that when I make it to this point or I achieve these goals, I'm going to be good and everything will be easier, but it couldn't be further from the truth. As a dreamer (which we are all created to be) I will come up with new, even bigger dreams after achieving the first ones. Even though at that point I will have some victories in my personal history to pull from, I'll still have to push myself to the edge, again, to fly even higher. So no, it won't get any easier, quite the opposite. With greater achievements comes greater responsibilities and challenges. My part is not to fight off these feelings, but to find my peace in the midst of them. I'm learning how to enjoy the uncomfortable.

Having people backing me up has been one of the most important factors on this journey. If it wasn't for the uncountable encouraging words, ass-kicking pushes and loving advice, I would have given up before I even started. None of us are supposed to make it on our own. Even if you're a hundred precent confident in what you're doing and feel like you can do it all by yourself, you still need people to cover your blind spots if you want to secure your place. We all have our moments of feeling overwhelmed, letting that fear creep in with it's poisonous lies and that's when we need someone reminding us of the truth. I've found out that it's not weakness to need others, but strong people know when their resources are low and aren't afraid of asking for help. At times that can be the most productive thing to do. Building that core group around you, who you can trust through thick and thin, is a crucial step towards your full potential. Without the people in my life, I wouldn't be where I am today and I know I couldn't go where I'm heading...

And the day came

When the risk it took

To remain tight and closed in the bud

Was more painful

Than the risk it took to bloom

This is the element of freedom.

~Alicia Keys

xxx

Photos by Adriana Dobrin

Leather Jacket: Zara

Wool Sweatshirt: Zara

Leather  Pants: Rock'n'Blue

Boots: Aldo

Bag: Calvin Klein

Music Mondays

In honour of last nights Super Bowl I decided to choose a half time show for tonights Music Mondays. Super Bowl is pretty much the biggest event in the US and being the star of the night means you have arrived. Performing to a packed stadium and millions of people watching live (Katy Perry had an audience of over 100 million people last night) is a dream come true for many of us. Michael Jackson tore it down in 1993 (only the king can stand still for over a minute and have a crowd go crazy) and legends like U2, Prince and the Rolling Stones have left their mark with their historic performances. But today I wanted it to be about fun. Music can be an outlet for all kinds of emotions and world changing ideologies, but in the end it's supposed to spring forth from enjoyment. When you do what you love, it can be felt in the production and I think music looses it's essence when it's created with only a greed for money and fame. To me music is something divine and sacred, but also the most natural expression of life. Music doesn't belong only to a chosen few, but we all carry a unique sound in us. There is no culture on this planet that doesn't have music and it seems like it is written into our DNA. So whether you love to sing in the shower and want to keep it there or are an aspiring artist, keep enjoying the gift of music. Feel the power of releasing those tunes and the joy of producing your own melodies. That's what music is about. Reducing it to how many records have been sold or how many singles made it to number one is like defining life by how many likes you get on Instagram, pure silliness.

So I picked Bruno Mars' performance today because the love for music is so evident in it. Everything about this show is effortless and you can see how they enjoyed every minute of it. I hope you enjoy it just as much!

xxx