🎯 TREE 787: Move to the middle

Welcome to the second of four posts from producer, engineer, mixer, musician and FFOREST friend Steven Lee Tracy. Missed yesterday’s post? Read it here. —Jeff

About 5 years ago my wife and I were laying in bed in the coolest apartment in the coolest city above the coolest grocery store and I blurted out something like, ‘Living here isn’t working anymore.’ She thankfully agreed, and I asked her what new things she might want for her life. Her list included a dog, home ownership, working from home, and being close to family. I had not yet become the person who has a smart phone full of pictures of my dog sleeping, but other than the dog, my list was pretty similar. For one reason or another our exciting and fringey life wasn’t working anymore, and we were beginning to discover that what would work was much more in the middle.

In my youth I had made a map of how to get where I wanted to go, and no matter how outdated that map became, I was committed… until I wasn’t. What had felt like an exciting art filled life of urban adventures had become a financial risk to my future self. How would I ever retire? What had felt like an un-compromised effort to pursue my passions had become tainted by big shifts in the music industry and a burden to my mental health. Immediately I realized I wasn’t skulking away from an old life, I was running towards a new one… smack in the middle.

As I began shifting my perspective on the middle, some unexpected side-effects began to show themselves. I was measurably happier, healthier, and doing by best creative work. I became a better partner, the studio was busier, and SHOCK!!!!! I had a much better ability to engage the dreamer, visionary, non-middle type stuff in a way that was actually productive and didn’t take me away from what was right in front of me. I’m so grateful that we have the option to change our minds when we’re presented with new and better information.

Here’s Blind Pilot’s new tune which includes the wonderful lyric, ‘Gonna stand where I see the truth. If I can’t see it yet, I’m gonna walk ’til I see it.’