It's easy to think your right. Until you realize it's all a crap shoot. Hope is such fragile thing, something we all try to constantly renew. Once one path dwindles, we're off looking for the next best thing. I suppose being "burnt out" is when you feel you've traveled all of those paths in pursuit of your goal and begin to lose hope that a new path will take you anywhere different. We all need a little success along the road to renew our hope, to strengthen our faith in what we are doing.

In my late twenties and early thirties I began to question my own values and faith in the world. However, nothing shook my faith more than being "witnessed" to by someone from another religion. I didn't see that one coming. Sure they had some good arguments based on their holy book, but none of it felt like the truth. It never added up. And when posed with questions based on fairly basic logic. The answer always seemed to come back to, "just because...the book says so." Wow, this sounded a lot like what I had heard my whole life regarding my own faith! After this encounter the spotlight was of course turned on my own beliefs, which also crumbled under the same scrutiny. Being raised to believe a certain thing wasn't good enough anymore. Anyway, Truth and the essence of spirit isn't ultimately about religion or dogma, and I think most people feel that on some level or another.

And "What is truth?" Maybe that's a more important question. I laugh as I write that that because I remember the same question being posed to me by a former music agent. Of all people. Everyone likes to think that they are right. Christians, Muslims, Jews, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Democrats, Republicans, Conservatives, Progressives, Peace lovers, War Mongers, me, you...you name it. Hell, there are even dogmatic Buddhists!! Anyway, inspite of all the answers offered out there, the world can still be so whacked, this constant struggle for money, greed and power and everyone seems to be locked in the race from the ruling class to the plebes.

The older I get though the more I realize that music...my music anyway...can't be controlled by these values (for better or worse). It's not mine to control. It never has been. For me that's a truth, I have faith in it's power and it offers me a bit of hope somehow. A pure connection to something bigger. It's something I constantly need to seek in my own musical practice and prayer, just to try to feel normal. In many ways, that's also what the beauty of Montana represented for me when I first visited many years ago. The sheer grandeur and beauty transcended anything that could be controlled or manipulated. The land and the place itself was a truth, without need for explanation or defense. I think that this type of truth will always be the essence of inspiration.

I leave you with a quote from one of my favorite musicians:

“You can’t make your music good. You can’t try to be good. You can try to be present and you can try to remain open so what is going to speak to you can speak through you.” - Michael Hedges