Greetings, everyone. Happy New Year! Here we are in February 2021. We all have been through so much this past year. And as difficult as it has been for us, we can be sure that there are those who have been through devastatingly worse.

As a musician, many aspects of my life have been on hold. Practically all of my musical events in 2020 were canceled. Those that weren’t canceled were performed via online streaming. So far this year, I have had two major events canceled simply due to the uncertainties around the pandemic.

When this virus hit, I thought I might be one who would see this as a free ticket to doing nothing. I thought I might be binge watching a whole lot of movies. Well…that idea lasted about a day. I have found that, though I love a lazy day once in a while, it is not how I roll.

So rather than giving in to the temptation to make excuses for being non-productive, I determined that I wanted to do just the opposite. I wanted to be one who would walk through this difficult experience and come out the other side with something positive and creative to show for it.

I began a 100-hour course of training to become a Life Coach. This has proven to be a fascinating learning experience for me. I have completed more that half of the course. I began taking Spanish as a second language, something I have wanted to do, but have put off for many years due to time constraints. I reworked and recorded flute-only versions of two of my early original compositions, Voice Of The Trees and Gratitude. (You’ll hear them some day soon.) In August, I participated alongside Bansuri Flute Master, Sameer Rao. in a streamed concert entitled Winds Of Change. a concert which was created to bring awareness to social justice issues around the world. As I played in my Tacoma recording studio, my songs were streamed across the world to the country of Mysore, Karnataka India where Sameer was playing. Being a part of that concert was an amazing experience as well as a great privilege for me. I have provided inspirational messages and music for Unity Church services on several different occasions. I have also learned the vocal and flute parts for a new original recording of the well-known 60s classic, California Dreaming. I am just about ready to finish up that recording. Also, it should be mentioned that time spent with my family and friends during this time has been especially meaningful for me.

In closing, I would like to encourage everyone to stay positive and create beauty out of this difficult situation. As my Spirit Mom once said to me during an extremely difficult time in my life: “Start looking for the miracles.”