Leaving an ancient mark

Before those old fashion and overgrown lizards (dinosaurs) left this earth, they were sure to be discovered and factored into the scale of historical significance. Well I figure that even through I am not old, that since I think like an old soul, I might as well take a page out of their book( through they definitely didn't have books back then.lol).

When the peculiar species of Rhetorical Artz is extinct, I want my bones to bare witness to the heart felt story of why I was hear, and what I was roaming around this earth for. May my fossils forever foster the endeavors of my souls passions, perspectives, and positive energy that I emitted within this worldly existence.

When scientist look at dinosaur fossils, they are able to tell us both what the particular dinosaur ate and how they looked. When scientist look at my fossils, may they see that I devoured food from the depth of love, meaning, and contribution. May they see that I looked like what I felt like on the inside- a fine work of art.

Despite the whole being wiped out thing, I think that dinosaurs got somethings right. So like I have always been told, I will take the good and leave the bad of these crazy beast. I'll particularly be leaving the whole getting extinct thing behind. Not really diggin that dinosaur quality too much.  

The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

Why I go Wild

Why do I act up?

Cause I am changing for the better

And am bringing attention to it so that the world can catch up

"Realities" Reflections

Take off the hats and chains

Of telling dreamers their insane

Take off the shorts and shirt

Of treating people like dirt

Take off the sock and shoes

Of telling people they'll lose

Now look in the mirror

And ask how that reflects you

The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

Overcoming the Odds

This is a perfect way of portraying the message that we can reach any height regardless of what may stand in our way. The Lookout(Derek Kelly)- a speak life storyteller like myself- despite facing countless obstacles has continued to overcome and is speaking life to every one he sees as a teacher, a poet, and ultimately a storyteller. I hope that this may inspire you to reach for your goals and push pass anything that may stand in your way.
The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

Go with the flow

Me and my musical family (Speak Life Storytellers) improvising at the Shadow Lounge. Music at this finest!!!


The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

How I got here

When who becomes what, and whats becomes how

And how becomes why not

Where-you-wind-up-elicits-"wows"

Crowd don't always get it

They ask-how-you-got-to-where-you-are-now

You skipped some steps

Answer's not there yet
I'm still breaking barriers down

So I guess if I was to give an answer on the fly

You'd be surprised

That the reason why I got "here" is because...

I never really arrived

The Movement Continues...

- Rhetorical Artz

Life can be appalling/ but so what? Stop stalling!/ tupacing in this life/ still ballin without falling/ from my calling that ive called in/ flow fishing bringing hauls in/ before the perfect storm/ where my poem performs flawless/ the cause is the effect/ that causes people to respect/ what i do/ making a dead art...resurrect!
The movement continues...
- rhetorical artz

Talk is Cheap

Advice, only adds to my vice

Of eatin up what others say like cheese to some mice

Instead of being good to em, I’m just being nice

Which is currently the currency I use to pay the price

Why- do- I- sacrifice- what- I- write- for- others- amusement

When what they say to me with a smile ain’t that amusing

Taking in what they say makes life ser-i-ous-ly confusing

It’s ser-i-ous-ly- to- abusive- for- my- mind- to- even- use- it

Yet- I- tie- it- like- nuse- around- my- head- to hang

Why the hell won’t the world just let me do my thang?

Sayin I shouldn’t ave sang the last lyrics I dropped

And- I-Adopted –your-words

That’s the only reason I stopped

But-no-more-will-I-sacrifice-my-soul- for-sounds-your-blaring

Cause- words-that- your- saying- are- only- based- on-what-your-fearing

That-I-might-just-be-successful

Making life less stressful

My glass is half full

Won’t make it empty for fools

I let people say what they want to say
They want to talk the talk, but they don’t want to walk my way
I would let people try and show me the way
But the blind can’t lead the blind
So they won’t be paving my pathway
Nah, Nah, Nah

I’m always in aw/ in how they look my flaws

Making them so much worse/ then what they actually saw

Com-ing- at me- like-a-saw/ They- cut- into- me- raw

Every cut is colder/ and I’m unable to thaw

These words ain’t geishas

For your entertainment only

I expect you don’t neglect these words

But treat them holy

Cuz their wholy apart of my soul

They console me

To be, calm and control instead of calmly controlled-see

Cause- that’s-how-they- ya

They, tell ya to rememba

To be sure to think first and not lose your tempa

But-they-won’t-tell-how-losing-it- at- times-forms-a-reunion

Between- the-mistakes-we-make-and-what-really-makes-us-human

It’s-time-to-take-communion-with-emotions-that-are-brewing

Blend them into your soul, and feel the renewing

Theirs no rewinding the clock

Theirs no redoing

But-their-such-a-thing-as-getting-back-up-to-keep-it-moving-so…

I let people say what they want to say
They want to talk the talk, but they don’t want to walk my way
I would let people try and show me the way
But the blind can’t lead the blind
So they won’t be paving my pathway
Nah, Nah, Nah

Time to reload

When nights feel so low

And hope can’t be seen with a microscope

I might be able to cope if I had a rope

Pulling me towards some clarity

Cause this much man is clear to me

People in this country are working without a cause

Working 9 to 5 while denying their life flaws

I don’t need a clause to back this

Just look at the people who claim their Moms and Dads but lack the practice

To focused on their practice in professionalism

That they won’t teach their kids how to beat the system

Making them into victims

Lacking the know how

Of how to dilute the pollution that killing their youth now

And if society was a tank, their shooting blanks

Lacking ammunition from those of higher ranks

The higher ranks are those who have some insight on topics

But won’t give a little unless they gain a little profit

I’m not doing this for cash or flashy clothes

I’m doing this so that your souls guns can re-load

So you can decode , this superficial road of false gold

So open up your mind and let life’s mystery unfold

let life’s mystery unfold

So you can decode , this superficial road of false gold

So open up your mind and let life’s mystery unfold

I let people say what they want to say
They want to talk the talk; but they don’t want to walk my way
I would let people try and show me the way
But the blind can’t lead the blind
So they won’t be paving my pathway
Nah, Nah, Nah

THIS IS THE 1TAKE MIXTAPE

The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

1TAKE MIXTAPE: Intro

I’m done seeing people claim, that- their- potential’s- missin

Time- to- protest –for- your- talents- civil rights- like- a- sit-in

Better stand up quick before-these-words- become- forbidden

Cause the biggest truth before burrecracy, always stay hidden

Always shuffled away, before-it-gets-it’s-beginning

That’s- why- I’m- blastin- truth- past- theirs- walls

Through-the-words-that-I’ve-written

Hoping to break the hypnosis that we all have been in

Tried of losing out on life

It’s time we start winning

At first I was timid to- spit-out- what I got

I guess I wasn’t sure if you would think it was hot

But it’s truth, so- I- don’t- care- if- you- think- it’ll- a- flop

I’m still taking my shot

And like ripleys

You-can-believe-or-not

I’m not gonna stop

Just cause some say it’s no use

That’s like a black slave

Hanging himself with his own nuse

You’ll hear a verse like that one next

I said that just to introduce

What’s coming

So your not running when I hit ya wit the proof

Now the time’s finally here

So there can be no mistake

To get this truth into your ears

I’ll have to do it in one take

This is the 1TAKE MIXTAPE

As you hear this I hope you use it

To push forth

And start your own life’s…

next Major Movement…

LET DO THIS…

The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

A False Start

My eyes are monsoons when I want something/


But then they're sealed like a tomb when they find nothing/

Nothing as in Fraud/

Nothing as in Frontin/

Cause what I'm talking about now/

Are fake disscussions/

The Movement Continues...

- Rhetorical Artz

You have the talent, the energy, the drive, the smarts, the vision, the spirit, the disipline, the power, the INSPIRATION. The only thing you dont have, the only thing no one in this world has, is the time. That's cause time is not something your supposed to have. It is something your supposed to make, choose, and create. Make the time to do what you believe is great. Choose to have the time to believe in the things, people, and more importantly self that you know to be great. Create the time for greatness to always happen and it will happen ALL the time. That is the time i believe in you, and that is the time that you should believe in you.
The movement continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

State of Emergency

Silence is your only crime

The opposite of mine

To-be-honest-I'm-a-novice

Who talks way too much at times

But every time has a place

Maybe that's why I'm out of place

Cause the words I convey, come from outer space to hit your face

So-now-I'm-faced-with-first-degree

States-are-in-a-state-of-emergency

All-due-to-the-emergence-of-an-emcee

Like me

The Movement Continues...

- Rhetorical Artz 

The 1TAKE MIXTAPE:The Sky's No limit

In a flash, sip this, lyrical-liquor-in-my-flask


It'll rebooted ya

Driving you forward

Like back to the future

Your mainframe breaks down

I'll reboot ya

Your drive gets dug out

Then I'll reroot ya

So-you-feel-planted-in-the-planet-of-your-soul-God-damn-it

It's granted

The-force-of-these-flows, flow-like-water

Many Lukes with the force

But I'm Lukes Father

And-if I'm lukes Father

Then I got the death star

But I would change the name

From death star to life star

And-if-I-got-the-Life-Star-then-I-need to- go-to-lightspeed

But-in-light-of-this-life-space

That's highly unlikely

Except, if you got a friend named lifespeedz

That sends a hyperdrive beat, that'll help you succeed

In successfully

Celestially Soaring

Over the disconfort, were abhoring

Know way you could hear this and think "life is boring"

The mind's,-on-mental-mission-got-no time for snoring

Gas pedal flooring

across galatic highways

Stars are sweeping back and forth like their starwave

Imagine this as you close your eyes

Now open them back up and be surprises

By the real cosmic causway that's at your side

Buckle up everybodty cause off we ride!



Chorus: (repeats this)

The Sky's, the limit

For those who can't see

What's in,their-imagination-naturally





2nd verse:

I'm a maverick/

Litting -inspired- fires- through- one- stick/

Dipped in the ink

Of my intellegence/

Elegance/

Making, empowering statements/

Staring at my tales wondering?/





Were these words written

Before-I- started-telling-em?/

Will these word be here

When I start sellingg em

Wll these words be clear

When I'm not selling em

Will my heart steer clear

Of those not feeling em



I shell em

Out for a possitive outlook

I sell em

So you could feel how your soul looks

I tell em

In hope that, I can leave this world shook

Shoken up beyond the- image- given in- one-book



Cause I'm shook out of my mind

Already/

I'm Shells pumping poetic gas

When ready

I'm really

rhyme ready

and steady

Too unleash all rhyme bites in these papers

Confeti



Not contented

That's why I get ahead of myself

To remind my future of it's past, present self

Cause I've felt the future

And it's flying jet packs

Might I've changed the future

Maybe shouldn't I've said that.



Forget that

Forge the future as you see it

Bleed out blessings, the way you believe it

Live in this world the

way you wanna leave it

Work on your world,

don't be afraid to weave it



Weave-it- so-the-mountains--become-fountains-when-you-thristy

Weave it so your still 13, when your 30

Weave it like a child

Make clean still be dirty

Write-papers-and-be-wordy

That's right, you heard me



Or don't write at all

Don't fight at all

No fight or flight instinct

Your flights fights to fall



Use your instinct succintly

And naturally see

no limits

are really in sync with thee



This world is meant to be traveled

Your stories meant to be unravel

Were meant to marvel at our castles

Were meant to pay no mind to those assholes



And as I sit in my mental castle

Gazing at the star

It's clear to me were not that far



From reaching em...

From standing on the beach

Not only seeking dreams but being em



Chorus: (repeats this)

The Sky's, the limit

For those who can't see

What's in,their-imagination-naturally



3rd verse:(spoken word) (Start this a 3:43)

I see, I seek, I seeth...

Cause every single time I breath

A Course of air come backs to me



Collobarating with the causes of collages

Lodged within the back of me

And althrough they are little

Even a lion can be locked down by a thorn



A piece of me taking causallies

And in that collage of causes

The big one I name are the powers that be...

But is that honesty

Maybe not, but that is the norm...



But To place blame on the mainframe of another hard drive

May work in this world

But in my world that is a damn hard bargain to drive.



Cause in a world where place blame on others

One can only try to survive

Understandable

But in my world that I live in

Instead of blame or shame

We proclaim ourselve the kings or queen

And are made alive to thrive



Survival, vs Thrival...

It's equalvalent to comparing Departing vs. Arrival

Souls Lost vs Souls Recyled

That is the differencial gap

That makes the map

Of my universe



So Seperate from the solely survival universe

That I can't even converse

When it would only take a conversation

To move that world toward emanipication



Yet every man or woman waiting

And debating...

On whether or not too leave their dying planet

Are already fading...



But those in a world of thrival state are elating

At the fact that they can breach the peek

Of everything they've been innovating



In no way

Will we ever say

The words...

I wish...

Cause in my universe the wish and the work happen in one beautiful dish



And people aren't mentally scared or hurt by the words works

Cause in my world work worked on for your self-worth is fun and always put first



In my land

In my plain

We use plane as cars

Cause the ground is too plain

The sky to us seemed like a far

More grounded road...



So where will you go

Which universe will you live in

Which universe will you give to

Or better question to ask...

What universe...

is with in you



The Movement Continues...

- Rhetorical Artz

Clear Clare Clarity

Clear…Clare… Clarity...
I seek to find her, to see her one last time outside of the vision I have of her in my mind. We were basically raised together; lived right next door to each other in fact. As I look back, the most memorable memory I had of her was that...

Every night I would wake up from a nightmare to find her on my rooftop waiting to be let into my little window. And every time she came to that window our ritual would begin. I would give her the same glare that said "NO NO NO NO, your not coming in." But with every glare I gave her, Clare would respond without hesitation by shining her smile upon me. An encapsulating , enchanting, extravagant smile. A smile that always- like the strong man I was- made my yeses be yes, and my no's' be...well... she made those yeses too. 

Well this secretive ceremony lasted from when we were just kids to when I grew into a guy's guy. You know what I'm talking about right? Right around the first time when you were clearly told that you had to have been a fag to not be hitting that. And as I walked away prepared to show the guys just how much of a faggot I wasn't, their words gave me a flash back to the good times before that comment. 

 And as I reflect back, I actually remember one time that she had offered me an opportunity to touch and feel the fullness of her content. To which I firmly and absolutely said… no. Cause I didn't need to touch her body to feel her glow...I still don't know why she made that offer. Maybe at the time she was getting pressured by the confusion sisters down the street, or getting laughed at by her older compromising cousin that came to her families Christmas once a year. All I know is that when I looked at her face the day she made that offer and saw her tears, I knew I never again wanted to see her make such a shameful face of that kind. 

Yet, as we flash-forward to my attempt to prove my manhood by forcefully trying to seduce her, I am shocked to see her face rewind right back to that painful time. Speechless... I step away. Wanting with all of my breath to say... "God Clare so I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what I have become. I couldn't resist following in the steps of my bloodline. After all, I'm conformity's son." But I can see in the eyes of Clare that it's clear the damage is done. As she slaps me and runs, leaving pain shooting across my face and leaving my soul... numb…

Since then out of shame I've shed my family name. But yet still she hasn't returned. Despite how I’ve grown since then and despite all I’ve learned. So if you’re hearing this clear, than Clare...
Please come back to me
Please come back to thee
Please come back to be
My clarity...

The Movement Continues...

- Rhetorical Artz

Entrepreneurs are Artist

The term "entrepreneur" gets thrown around way to much these days. More and more I see this word being slapped onto resumes, strapped into cookie cutter corporations, and declared by people as if they are declaring their major for college. Sorry to say this guys and girls but it's not that easy. You having a network marketing business, multi-level marketing business, being any type of small business owner, or declaring entrepreneurship as your college major does not make you an entrepreneur.

The very same misunderstanding happens when asking the question of what it means to be an artist. You being a musician, a painter, singer, or rapper DOES NOT make you an artist. Artists put their hearts, souls, and personal being into their art to birth something into the world that is unlike anything that has been seen before. With their gut instinct and spirit as their guides( they do also get help and inspiration along the way), they are able to take an empty piece of paper or canvas, and place upon them visions that stretch the imagination; expanding the realm of what was thought to be possible. The art that they create is something that can not be copied close to well enough to amount to the real thing; many may try, but none will succeed.

Entrepreneurs are artist. They create, innovate, and originate ideas into ventures that have never been done how they are doing it. Like an artist, NO ONE can tell them how to do so; you can't tell anyone how to do something that has not been done before( but you can get help and will often need it at some point). Now don't get it twisted, their is nothing wrong with running a small business or declaring entrepreneurship as a major. And you can always become an entrepreneur or be an entrepreneur despite having one or both of those things slapped onto your resume. But being an entrepreneur DOES NOT happens just because of a major, a business, or simply because you say you are. It's a choice to venture pass the cut and dry canvases of society, risk it all on the bold paint of your ideas, and shake up the world; creating works of art that change the way we look at life. So now let me ask you two questions: are you an artist, are you an entrepreneur? Before you answer these two questions let me give you a hint: choose carefully, cause your answer hits two birds with one stone.

The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

From Craft to Calling: The path to finding my purpose

What a crazy year this is turning out to be! I came back to school with so many unquenchable uncertainties; both about how this final college year would turn out for me and what I would do after graduation. But as a mentor of mine said, "this year I sense that things are going to come together for you." That has proven itself to be undeniably true. I can now see how my active quest for self-discovery(which will never end) is beginning to reap fruit. A quest that was put in hyperdrive this past summer break as I toke summer classes, traveled around the country and to the other side of the world, and spent hours upon hours soul my searching. A quest that began to develop in a whole new way 3 years ago.

For the pass 3 years that I have been in college, I have struggled with the question of what I am supposed to be doing professionally. It is a question that I have wrestled with because it was never as simple as just finding a job that I can do well. In fact it was never even close to being that simple. For I have never really wanted a job. I find personality that me getting a job is the same as me getting a justification; a socially conditioned distraction to take away from what I am called to do for the temporary sake of security. So for better or worse, a job has never really been an authentic option for me.

I found myself in 2007 walking into my freshman year of college; desperately looking for a possible career option to cling to. What I found was the beginning of an inner division between the artist- who wanted to write world uplifting rhyme and books- and the entrepreneur- who wanted to birth a business that made the world better while meeting the bottomline- within me. The two began to drift away from one another like former friends on bad terms. And like two angry former friends, they both began to greedily want me solely to themselves.

Choosing to hang with them both did not seem like an option. For when the artist got more of my time- during my freshman year- the entrepreneur would respond with an angry rants about how "being an artist was not respectable nor would it allow me to live the lifestyle I wanted to live" (a stance which most of my family and associates supported). Yet when I began to give the entrepreneur in me most of my time- Sophomore and Junior year- the artist began to respond by stating that "it had been their much longer(since elementary), seen me through the worst of times and thus deserved first place in my heart." This tug-o-war eventually tore me in two- especially in the face of personal turmoil- and I found myself in the final summer of my undergraduate college career; more lost than ever.

As I arrived home with this question running through my mind, it was clear that if I did not make a choice as to which one I wanted, that I would never move beyond my conundrum . It was this past summer that I began one big push to figuring out my direction in terms of both my career and calling. During this time I began hanging out with both the artist and entrepreneur in me(which neither were two happy about, but they consented to do to the confusing times). But a hopeless feeling began sinking in me that maybe this was all for not. It was at the moment when I felt that my searching would be meaningless and I would just have to start listening to the family and friends that said "just take a break from finding your calling and focus on school," or "right now your not ready to pursue your calling," that I found a way out of my dilemma.

It came as I was watching an interview with Quincy Jones. They were talking about what he has done in his life so far- traveled around the world numerous times, movies, music, art, giving back, and just about everything else you could do that screams an amazing life- when the interviewer asked him one of the most important questions that could be asked: "how are doing all this?" Quincy Jones simple reply hit my heart so hard that I thought it would bust out of my chest. He said that once you find your core skill[the things that we all naturally have developed] that things became easier for him. As those words echoed in my head over and over I knew that was exactly what I needed to find. But what was my core skill?

When you ask the right questions you find the right answer. For as soon as I began asking myself that question, the answer began to repeatedly reveal itself. Every time I sat down to watch a show, read something, talk to people, the word storyteller would riddle across my eyes and into my soul. The more the words came up, the more my heart thumped. I don't remember the exact day, but I do remember the feeling I had. It was as if I just got out of an extremely hot car to be embraced by the blissfully cool breeze outside. I had found my skill.

With that understanding in tact, I began to feel an uncompromising necessity for the growth of both the artist and entrepreneur inside of me. I no longer give them a choice; they had to work together. It was because of this that an interesting thing started to happen. The artist and the entrepreneur inside of me began to see that they had more in common with each other than they thought. In fact as we all started working together, both they and I began to see that we were in fact one being.

The integration of the artist, the entrepreneur, and the storyteller behind them has lead to a movement in myself that has needed to happen. I realize that I don't have to- and never again will- compromise one for the other. I can clearly see that the artist- who writes slam poetry, floetry, fiction, articles, and will soon be writing a book-, the entrepreneur- who launches ventures, builds cultures, and consults to create better world business models- and the storyteller- who tells tales about inspirational adventures and empowering lifestyles- are meant to journey together towards greatness and paradise.

So for those of you that have read this far (much appreciated) and are wondering "what's my core skill" or "what am I called to do in life," I leave you with these calling questions. I am not saying I have the answer or formula to finding a fulfilling calling, but I do believe that if we can ask ourselves the right question that the answers that are meant for us will find us. So here's a couple of questions to consider on the quest of figuring out your craft(core skill) to finding your calling:


Finding Your Craft:

- What do you find yourself doing when your bored?
- What are you doing the moment when times seems to fly by?
- What do you find excites you? What are you passionate about?
- What are the things that you obsess about?
- If you had to teach a class about something, what would you teach them about?
- What are the things that you have fun getting better at?
- When is work not work anymore? What are the things that you can do naturally, that others seems to have to work at to do?
- What are some things that you do on impulse?
- What are some things you do(that adds value into the world) that you see others pay for?
- If money wasn't an issue, what were some activities that you would find yourself constantly engaged in? What are you doing in these activities that make you feel so engaged in them?


Finding your Calling:

- What situations, opportunities, or circumstances calls you to summon every format and ounce of energy from your craft together to engage it in the best way?
- When are the moments when your craft is at it's best?
- What consistently challenges you to use your craft in ways you have never used them before(which betters them in the process)?
- What are you willing to risk everything for?
- When do you use your craft in ways that uplift both you and others?



If you have more questions that you have found helpful to discovering your core craft and calling, please post them in the comment section . These are the questions that have help me immensely in finding my passion and purpose. I hope that they will help you as well. That said, I leave you with this final thought:
Instead of focusing on the career that is best for you, focus on finding what your craft is first. That craft is what you offer to anything that you do, and that craft- if you listen to it carefully- will lead you to what you were called to do. I wish you the best in answering the life purpose that calls out to you.

The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

When I hear artistry like this, it reminds me why I am an artist, an entrepreneur, and a storyteller. It's to birth beauty into the world that reflects that radiance inside your soul. I pray to God that everytime someone hears my art- whether it's a story, rhyme, or venture- that they feel that bliss inside their beings.
The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

Be Uplifted by this one...

May this track fill your soul with paradise!
The Movement Continues...
- Rhetorical Artz

Paradise Found: How to realize paradise

Two days ago, I finished all the lyrics for my Hip Hop "floetry" album- Paradise Found. It has been something that I have been talking about doing for the past two and a half years, but never actually put my mind to fully accomplishing it with vigor. Rapper T.I. once said in his track titled Goodlife that "fear ain't in the heart of me, I learned just do it, you get courage from your fears right after you go through it." These word ran through my head as I sat down after my anthropology class with the completely finished lyrics for my album before me; courage and confidence racing through my veins. I realized than that the reason I never really moved forward on finishing all the lyrics for this album before was because I was afraid. I was afraid that I wasn't a good enough lyricist/writer, that I had nothing worth saying, and more importantly that I wasn't capable of creating a full album- a finished product.

For the past few years I have had a habit of starting things but not finishing them to the best of my ability(if I finished them all). I had a lot of reason and excuses for this constant theme song in my life- being to impulsive, ADD,  it not really being what I wanted to do, and flat out not knowing how. But I think the real reason why I struggled to finish things was due to my desire to see things realized to perfection immediately- if they were to be realized at all (which lead to procrastination). My desire to see things realized in a way that reflected nothing less than the absolute paradise within my mind often hindered me. I found that if what I was doing was not reflective of what was in my head/imagination, that I would eventually lose interest and end up not putting my best into it.

I now realize that the only way to craft your internal vision into reality is to bring as much of it into reality as you can in the present. Lets put it this way: if your dream is to plant beautiful plants, but you're currently only able to bring buds into the real world, than plant the buds and raise them to grow into the plants that you them to be. Sometimes we are more concerned with creating a perfect plant than we are with actually planting the bud we already have in the first place. This hinders us. We keep our newly created bud in the closet; to ashamed to bring it out and show it to the world. We think "I'll bring this bud out when it's fully grown." But how can that bud grow up to become the beautiful plant you want it to be if you only keep it locked away in the closet? Plants can't grow without sunlight, and it surely won't be getting any sunlight in that closet. What it will grow up to be (if it even manages to grow up at all) is a plant that is weak, frail, and disgusting to look at. The worst part about it is the more we look at them- dying in the confines of that closet-, the more you don't want to touch them. So what do we do? We end up leaving these poor excuses for plants in the back of our closets to rot away when all we had to do was give the damn buds some sunlight, water, and overall care.

We do this everyday to our dreams, ideas, endeavors, art, and true desires in life. We forget that it takes sunlight and exposure for our dreams to grow into realities. We forget that we can't water the bud of our ideas in the dark and expect them to become the plants that we envision them to be. I saw this unfold clearly when I finally started making progress with my album. For there are two things that have allowed me to finish the lyrics for this album in a relatively sort amount of time.
The first thing was that I began taking "unfinished" past lyrics- that I had kept in the dark- out of the closet of my notebook, computer, or mind and into the spotlight. I began showcasing my lyrics at local open mics(and still do), performing them in front of friends, and presenting them to any random group of people that I would get into conversation with. I began uploading some of what I thought might be in the album to online videos and blog post(began to realize that a lot of the poetry I have written belonged in a different album, apart from Paradise Found). It was only after doing this that, in a period of a month, that I was suddenly able to find- with relative ease- the lyrics or "buds" that represented the concept of my album- Paradise Found. Thus I learned that, in the race to fulfilling your dreams, it becomes much easier to run towards the finish line when you appreciate what parts of the race you have already finished. If your trying to write a book, appreciate the chapters you've already written. If your trying to lose 20 pounds, appreciate the 5 pounds you may have already lost. Be grateful for the great works that you have already done, and part of a greater dream is what those works will become.

Yet as I began to appreciate my own past works/lyrics, I soon discovered that I didn't have enough of them to make a full album. Thus, I had to plant new lyrical "seeds". This led me to the second thing I did, which was to make sure I planted those seeds directly under the sun; giving them all the light they needed to grow. Now this can pose a potential problem. For if those seeds and buds get a lot of sunlight but not enough water, they will eventually burn up and die. In other words, if you listen to what others have to say about your work too much, or continually showcase/perform your work without continually working on it (and re-working on it), your work will eventually wither away into to something that others- but more importantly you- will fail to see any worth in.
But you see that is actually the whole point of putting your work under the brightest of sunlight in the first place; cause then you have to water and re-water them to keep them alive.  It was both the exposure to sunlight and consistent watering of my lyrical buds and seeds that allowed them to grow together into the perfect plants for my Paradise Found album. Shoot, I had to re-work this paragraph again- after already working and re-working it a bunch of times and then deleting some of it by mistake. In fact because of that, this paragraph got written far better than it had been when I first wrote it. My point is, when you realize that you have to take care of your ideas for them to grow into the realities you want them to be, you become the decider of whether your dreams or ideals truly live or die; instead of letting the world decide that for you.

In the process of planting paradise, many planters have chosen to give the deciding vote of whether their plants live or die to the world, or to their own doubts/demons, instead of giving the final decision to themselves. But you have to be willing to take control of your paradise in the face of those obstacles if it's something that you truly want("you get courage from your fear right after you go through it"). With that said, I leave you with this thought:
If you have something wonderful that you wish to bring into this world, don't focus on perfecting it first. Instead, focus on just producing it as it is, presenting it as it is, preparing it as it is. This will give you something to craft, cultivate, and more importantly create into becoming the very vision that you have always imagined it would be. I mean who knows, maybe it will be even better than anything you could have ever imagined. The best paradises usually are.

The Movement Continues...

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