Imagine

Do what you love- Do what you can (& What I’m Listening To)

To see more by Brian Andreas visit “Flying Edna”

A few years back I did a couple of tours in India. The American Center (an arts outreach program out of the American Embassy) invited me to travel throughout the country performing concerts in the evenings and visiting Indian social service organizations in the afternoons. Many of the notes I took during those weeks became the heart of my interfaith hunger relief benefit album with Indian Sarod Masters Amjad Ali Khan, Ayan and Aman Ali Khan, Everything is Everywhere.

The programs I visited in the afternoons often utilized the arts in beautiful and creative ways. I remember a music program run by a band of young Indian fusion musicians. The group brought together little children from different religious and social backgrounds to sing. The idea was that somewhere in the hearts and minds of these children would be the memory of sharing music together. In communities that were increasingly conflicted, they would remember that singing together was possible. This music program was grounded in the belief that small things done with love matter and that a song can resonate for years. It is harder to treat a person as “other” when you’ve shared crackers and juice and held hands while singing.

One afternoon I was scheduled to visit and sing at a home/school for boys who had been intentionally blinded to be more pitiful street beggars. I honesty didn’t know how to enter a space where children had suffered so much in their young lives. But when I arrived I was graciously shown the grounds and classrooms and finally taken to the small auditorium where the school choir had been set up to sing. I sat and listened for a number of songs, which ended with John Lennon’s “Imagine”.

“Imagine all the people/Living life in peace
You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one”

These boys, who had suffered so much, were singing “Imagine.” They were smiling and so proud of the program they had created with their teachers. Then I sang a few songs and we all sat together in a circle with a translator to talk about the power of music to inspire ourselves and others, to groundand lift us up every single day. I don’t know what happened to those young boys who have by now have become young men. I hope the skills they learned gave them meaningful work, resources and safety. I hope the songs of resilience they learned are resonating still, because I know their voices and ability to sing and imagine has continued to resonate for me. Imagine and envision — I may be a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.

Sometimes I hear people sincerely ask, “what can I, just one person do?” We are in a time of great challenge and need in the world and it can feel overwhelming. Its a question I continue to sincerely asked myself. The response I keep coming back to is “Do what you love and do it with all the love you can.” I believe our greatest activism and contributions for positive change usually arise out of the things we love. They grow out of our natural affinities and gifts. There is a power and sustainability in that kind of effort. I can’t be an engineer solving what engineers will solve. I don’t have to be a doctor to solve what doctors solve. But I can lean into what I love. I can create art that reflects the kinds of beauty that inspires us to be worthy of it. I can be a good friend and neighbor, plant a garden and be a responsible citizen of the natural world.

We are not without resources to be an conduit of love in the world if we can only imagine.

If you are a baker then bake. If you are a builder, then build. If you are a farmer, farm with all the love and envisioning you can. If you are a parent, parent with all the love and imagination you can. If you are a teacher, teach with all the love you can pull up from your heart. If you are an artist, create the kind of beauty that heals a broken world. You are not alone in feeling overwhelmed and worried about the change and challenges we are facing environmentally, politically or personally. You are not alone in your deep longing for community that actually comes together across differences for the sake of the common good. But you are also not alone in the possibility of taking loving and imaginative action each day,

We have a responsibility to the next generation to not despair, but to continue to create communities of care and to imagine.

Imagine

Then imagine some more.

Hope as daily action.

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New Album Project In The Making

Its been a great week in the studio with some amazing musicians. I’m so excited to share the new recording with you all! Many thanks to The Gathering of Spirits Supporting Subscribers for helping to make this new recording possible.

I’ll be continuing to be work at Airtime Studios with my friend and long time co-producer, David Weber for the next couple of weeks! What an incredible experience I’ll be sharing photos and more fun stuff soon.

What I’m Listening To

Seven Psalms by Paul Simon

Paul Simon continues to write powerful, lyrical, important music. The voice and poet of a generation.

Haas

This is the first duo album for Violinist Brittany Haas and cellist Natalie Haas. This is a beautiful, lyrical, soul stirring instrumental album from two brilliant musicians. Highly recommended.