Fear Limits Our Dreams

Recently I was watching an interview with Jazz great Ramsey Lewis. In the interview he shared how he never considered himself as a composer. He thought of himself as a jazz performer of others’ music. He stated that to him, Burt Bacharach and Duke Ellington, were composers not him. He then candidly shared that at one point he realized fear was a major factor in his mindset about this matter. He shared how this limited him and he felt more peaceful and more joyful about his music once he opened himself to accept that he could be a composer as well.

His newest album, Songs From The Heart, is all compositions written by Ramsey Lewis. The following You tube link has some samples of the music and thoughts from Ramsey Lewis about the album. Take a listen to the video and listen to the music and what he says-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s82tbVWpNqI In the video you can hear his feelings about his being considered a composer. He shares as this new album came up he immediately started thinking of other peoples’ songs he could put on it. It took someone else to remind him he had his own songs for people to enjoy.
Reflecting on the interview reminded me of how fear can limit our progress in our life journey and the dreams we are attempting. Fear can smother and weaken us so we give up on what we want in life. The fear may be of what others may think. Fear of failure in making fools out of ourselves. Fear of imagined negative consequences often chain us into being stagnant and not growing.

With anything new in our lives there will be fear. So with each new dream, each new learning experience; we will be faced with fear. The important thing is what to do with the fear. John Maxwell in his book The Success Journey quotes Dr. Susan Jeffries, “As long as I continue to push out into the world, as long as I continue to stretch my capabilities, as long as I continue to take risks in making my dreams come true, I am going to experience fear.” Fear is a reality and we can’t hide from it. It is part of the risk process in trying new things in life. We need to keep pushing out into the world on our journey each day. Fear keeps us hiding from our journey.

Another fear quote in the same book is one I have shared often with students, “The hero and the coward both feel exactly the same fear, only the hero converts it into fire.” (Cus D’Amato). It is how we react to the fear that is important. It is about our attitude. Do we give up, or reevaluate and continue in a forward motion. There is nothing wrong about feeling fear. The wrongness is in letting fear control us and conquer us.

Going back to Ramsey Lewis, he conquered the fear by beyond open to his skills as a composer. He now has an album of his own compositions to share with the world. New songs that would not be here if he had caved into fear. What is being withheld from the world in bringing more beauty and joy into the world by our letting fear smother our dreams?

Reflection: Take some quiet time to reflect on dreams and new learning experiences you have been desiring. Is fear holding you back? Brainstorm some ideas on how you can get back on track on things you have put off in your life but really wanted to do.

Too Rushed To Notice the Joys In Life

Many times we are too rushed in life to notice moments of beauty in the world around us. Our schedules are packed with an overload of activity, so we look like we are whirring around throughout the day. Too much of this wears us down. This constant tiredness from being in a rush can skew our thinking that life is drab, boring and exhausting and we only look for troubles and problems which usually generates more negativity with more problems occurring.

In a recent Sunday church message the Preaching Elder told a story that relates to our changing how we use our time. To learn to slow down in life to capture the moments of beauty and joy that God places in our paths but we are too hurried to notice them. The story was a true one of a study done by the Washington Post to see how people use their time and their priorities. Do people recognize real talent in unlikely places? They had Joshua Bell a famous violinist, go to a Washington D.C. transit station. In the lobby he played for about 45 minutes. How many people of the crowd of hundreds of passerbys would stop, listen and enjoy the talented musician? Click on the link here and you will see a short snippit of the film done while he was playing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnOPu0_YWhw

The study found that only a handful of the hundreds that passed through actually stopped to enjoy his violin music. If only they knew people pay hundreds of dollars to hear Josh Bell play in concert halls. The video reminded me of my time of living in Chicago taking the trains for transportation. Many times at the station there would be street musicians playing. Most of the time, depending how busy I was; I would take a few minutes to listen and if I really enjoyed the music I would toss some coins or a dollar in their case or box. Why? Because, I enjoyed the beauty of the music. The sharing of their talent many times made my day better. Far too many people are too busy to take the time to enjoy a little portion of beauty.

Some may say catching a train is very important so they were right to rush by the musician. Yes, I did have my rushed days where running to the train was the most important issue. The important issue the Washington Times experiment drives home still, is do we stay in the rushed mode all the time or take times to savor the little beauties in life that come our way. Do we have to always quickly rush into the garage and miss the hummingbird in the front yard flower garden?

Jesus in the gospel writings says Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (Matt. 6:28-29). In the context the meaning is focusing on overcoming our anxiety and worry. Yet in relation to being mindfully aware and savoring the beauty in life which the Josh Bell video speaks to; we need to consider, take notice of the beauty of the lily to learn what Jesus is getting at. If we are too rushed and hurried in life to notice the lilies that come into our lives we can’t learn from the beauty around us.

In making the most of our life take time to take note of the little things in each day of your life journey. Learn to slow down. Go to www.slowmovement.com for ideas. The little beauties and joys can perk up a dull boring day or brighten a downright terrible day. At the same time do not forget the big joys as well. Last week we enjoyed a big joy as jazz great Ramsey Lewis performed a concert at our local Arts Center. The concert was 90 minutes of sheer joy with an ending with inspiration as he ended his concert with a medley of gospel songs, Precious Lord and Amazing Grace. Looking for Joy and Beauty in each day helps you in living a more than OK life!

To see a World in a Grain of San
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour. (William Blake)

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower--but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is. (Tennyson)

Reflection
Write down three little things that you saw or occurred in your life today that could be considered a joy or a beauty in your life. Do you feel you are mindfully aware of what is going on in your life to savor life to its fullest?