"I've gotta get to sleep, it's getting late in India."
That was 8:35AM California time yesterday morning.
I was on Messenger with my friend and collaborator Luiza, a Brazilian singer-songwriter who's teaching in a university there for a bit. We were talking through marketing logistics for #MeninasDeBerlim, a series of music videos and interviews she created (and is now launching this week) with female musicians in Berlin.
Each of the six artists shot an interview, one original tune, and one Brazilian duet with Luiza. And I'm one of them. 👋🏼
My videos will come out in a couple weeks. And f*ck, I'm really excited to show them off.
And this week? Here I am, sitting in a hotel room south of San Francisco. Luiza, in India. Both going through videos shot in Berlin, being released on the internet, being captioned in Portuguese, and viewed all over the world.
I closed my laptop before 9AM, and I felt that rush.
That kinda addictive, life-affirming, fire-breathing feeling of doing even just one single thing that brings you that one single inch closer to the kind of person you'd like to be. The kind of career you'd like to have. The kind of life you'd like to live.
It's a feeling I am determined to continue chasing in every one of its iterations, as many times as I can. Achieving that feeling, even when it's fleeting, is something to be very proud of.
Maybe you feel the same.
I'll tell you something. I feel lucky knowing I can name at least a couple things that, so long as I keep poking at them, keep watering them--they'll give me that rush I want. Creating musical content is one of those things. It makes me feel like I'm creating the best version of me.
Even when it's a video from three months ago, and all I'm doing is talking about it on Messenger at 9AM on a Tuesday morning before work.
If you have that thing, I'd really love you to write me back and tell me about it. Genuinely. Because there is so much joy in watching other people be alive, don't you think?
And if you can picture that feeling but you don't know how to find it, please know that I believe you will. You're not looking for a secret talent or a pot of gold. You're just looking for a spark. The promise of a spark.
All I ask is that you be wise enough to acknowledge it when it happens. Poke at it, enough to see if it's going to give you that rush.
That's what I want for us. F*ck, do I want that for us.
Let's go chase it. Again, and again, and again.
As always, I'm rooting for you. I love you very much. I'll talk to you soon.
Big love,
xxA