As a songwriter, musician and creator, one of the most exciting things about music is the awakening of previously stagnant parts of us that all come together in motion when we open ourselves to feel the all the edges and nuances within music. When you open your mind, close your eyes and allow a song to wash over you, take you away from the day and somewhere completely different in time, and to combine it with flashes of memory, glimpses into our lives, and allow them to be woven together through melody; everything suddenly clicks into place. The world from where you sit can make sense, even for a moment; and it can be ethereal, beautiful. That is the power of creation: adding purpose to our existence, even the seemingly mundane routine of daily life, especially during a pandemic, within an isolation bubble — to create and present art, to say “here are my memories, here is my life, as seen through the lens of a song that speaks to me, that makes me feel something” — can make our past worth looking back on, worth creating something beautiful from, so we can move forward with our shoulders back, facing the light.
Even if it was something that became painful, even if it was something that tore us apart in the end — hearts remain alive and beating, we grow stronger, we grow wiser, we learn, yearn, rise, breathe, leave, stay. To live is to learn to be resilient, and to create is to heal. To weave those beautiful moments (even if the situation becomes sour, outdated) into song, into a collection of visuals, is to preserve them as they were, or make them something more. This is how I heal —as my past lives on through my art.