SOS2016 Update - Finding the Why

I am sitting in my office this morning at our venue, The Space. There are 60+ business people here for a breakfast and I'm here serving them coffee.  Just one of the many jobs I have to try and keep this songwriter thing going.  While I've cleared my schedule of a lot this summer, there are certain things that can't be cleared and this business is one of them.  

I was hoping for an hour or so of downtime - quiet time - to get my bearings for another busy day and weekend ahead. Instead, I'm sitting here listening to construction workers pound away in the bay next to ours.  Holy moly, it ain't peaceful here, folks.  To say it's a distraction is an understatement.  Kinda feels like my entire writing world right now.  

I'm constantly fighting for the space, peace, time, and everything else needed to stay on this Summer of Songs journey.  And it's tough.  There are distractions everywhere.  Mostly just normal life stuff vying for my attention.  But the distraction also comes in the form of professional discouragement.  A recent Department of Justice ruling has left my writing community pretty disheartened.  I won't go into all the details here, but I'll just say it's another blow in a long line of punches that cause a lot of us to ask ourselves why in the world we keep writing.  

The truth is, many songwriters just can't do it anymore so they've walked away.  Many others are having tough conversations with themselves.  Why do I write? Does what I do matter?  Where is my place in the creative community?   I feel called to do this - so where does that calling leave me?  I don't mind asking myself those questions.  But the answers are sure hard to come by some days.  

On one of those days a few months ago, I decided to jot down all the reasons I write songs. I needed the reminder.  Those thoughts became a song that will likely have no life outside of me sharing it occasionally. So here you go - I've posted the lyric before, but I'll post again below.  If you're a songwriter, maybe this will help get you back into the writing room today.  I sure hope it does.  Because even though some things have happened lately that are pretty discouraging to us songwriters, I still can't shake that voice in my head and the piercing in my heart that compels me to write.  I am praying you feel that too. 

The Writer’s Song

To make a heart beat faster, to slow a moment down
To pose a question asking, to give an answer found
To capture fleeting seconds, to chronicle the years
To soothe a wounded lover, to calm the mourner’s fears

I answer to the call in me
To fashion words and melodies 

CHORUS
And the poet won’t be silenced
The composer can’t be tamed
And It’s futile even trying
To attempt my own escape
From this sacred place of honor
Where my soul forever longs
For the duty and the privilege
Of breathing life into a song

To celebrate the victor, to sound the loser’s cry
To wonder at the mystery, to beg for reasons why 
To bless the gift and giver, to curse the days of pain
To quiet to a whisper, to shout a louder praise

I answer to the call in me
To fashion words and melodies 

CHORUS

To tell the old, old story, to grace the sinners ears
To lift my eyes to glory, to pray that someone hears
And if the only listener, is He who gives the song
I’ll be the foolish minstrel until my days are gone 

CHORUS

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