Sparks from the Fire

Picture of Peter Link???

Yesterday I contemplated the bone head of a skeleton.  I thought to myself, “Is that what I look like inside?”  Pretty weird.  Then I thought of my pancreas.  I don’t think of my pancreas very often.  In fact, I don’t even know where it is.

It’s mine.  I’ve carried it around for over 5 decades and I don’t even know where it is.  I mean, I know where my shoes are and I’ve only had them for about 3 months now.  But my pancreas!  Come to think of it, I don’t even know why I have it!  I mean I guess I’m glad I do, but why?  What’s it for?

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Why do we resist change – especially as we get older?  Admit it.  It seems to be the way of the world.

But the other way of the world is that a change is gonna come.  It’s inevitable.  Today, in this next hour, things will change in your and my life.  My day will not go as planned.  This year will not shake out the way I now want it to.  Our company, Watchfire Music, will, of necessity, change its direction or fail.  Yours will too.

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Lately I’ve been feeling an inordinate amount of stress before vocal sessions in the recording studio.  As a music producer, I have spent years in the NY studios producing thousands of sessions and producing vocal sessions is one of my fortes, so why this would now happen after all these years of experience was a mystery to me. (more…)

Part 1 – As a company:

Life is good.  One of my New Years resolutions was to rebalance my life and get back more to my creativity in the recording studio as a composer/producer.  Funny how things just happen when you simply put it out there.

I was feeling like I was getting stuck in the daily excitement of Watchfire Music as an executive with the company and along came more studio projects than I can handle.  All good.  These problems I can live with.  It’s what I live for.

When it rains; it pours.

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As a teenager I discovered the cure for car-sickness.  Just drive.

I would drive down through the Ozark Mountains in Missouri to our lake cottage each weekend from St. Louis where I grew up.  I’d sit in the back seat and be fine until we got into the mountain curves and then that life-long problem would come rushing on.  Yuck.

I’d ask my dad to pull over and let me drive.  The minute I’d get my hands on the wheel sitting in the driver’s seat, my illness would clear up and immediately disappear.  I’d be fine from then on as long as I drove.

It got so that whenever we got to a certain little town, Dad would just automatically pull over and I would take over the driving.  I don’t remember the name of the town, but I do know that it was just before we got to the mountains.

Years later, when I was in my 30s, I found myself one afternoon on a mini vacation out at sea with some friends standing out on the bow of a pontoon sail boat hanging on to the mast enjoying the salt spray and the afternoon breeze.

We had gone pretty far out into the ocean and we could no longer see the land.  The boat was small and the swells were large; it was not at all a storm, but out little craft was kind of going up the side of one swell and down the other.

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OK, so here’s my head start on our Christmas List for 2010 for Watchfire Music.  Getting ahead of myself?  No, not really.  Just puttin’ it out there in the atmosphere.  As you will see, it’s a pretty heady wish list, but I believe entirely possible and necessary for the continued development of the company.

Is this an announcement of what’s coming?  I’d like to think so, but I know better considering all that would have to happen to get it all done.  That’s why I’ll still consider it a wish list rather than an announcement.  But you can bet on the fact that we’ll be bustin’ our tails this next year to try to get these things done for you.

First, our new major effort of expansion will be an entirely new division of Watchfire Music entitled “My Father’s House” – a spiritual community for youth of all ages to visit, meet, discuss, workshop, interact with, and explore.  Watchfire Music is partnering with youth leader and visionary, Matthew Hoffman of Tampa, Florida in this dramatic build-out of the site.  The first focus will be Hoffman’s modernization of the Ten Commandments, a musical trans-denominational interpretation on CD entitled “Laws 2 Live By”.

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The Art of Healing – Steps 2-4

Note: This is a 2- part series. If you are interested, but haven’t read Gift from Mom – The Art of Healing – Step 1, I suggest, for coherence purposes, that you read it first.

The Art of Healing is based on certain principles or laws of existence that exist today and are shared truths between most of the world’s major religions from Christianity to Buddhism to Hinduism to Islam. In most circumstances I find that it is language that separates us, and the truths of existence that unify.

There are a few simple premises that this Art is based upon. If you do not accept these premises, this post will not make much sense to you. If you do, the post simply serves as a reminder of what you already know. I believe that the fact of the matter is that we all know these truths anyway. Some of us just don’t know that we know it.

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The Art of Healing – Step 1

At a young age I was taught the art of healing by my mother. She taught me to use basically four steps. The first was a protective or preventative measure and 2-4 were the steps I should take if I were to fail to practice the first.

Because of step one I rarely get sick or have physical problems. If I, for whatever reason, get lazy, forgetful, confused or even afraid, and have to move to steps 2-4, I at least have a plan to follow. When I’m smart or prescient enough to follow that plan to a ‘T’, I have always been a successful healer.

What proof do I have of this? I’ve never taken any medicine, I’ve only had one short visit with a doctor in my life, I’ve never felt the need to carry medical insurance and never been admitted to a hospital.

This, by the way, does not make me special. It is not really what some would deem as a ‘gift’, it’s really just normal practice. If your mom taught you to look both ways before crossing the street, you got a gift from mom. I got many gifts from my mom. Healing was one of them. Besides the fact that she gave birth to me, it was probably the best one.

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