Music is now so intertwined with my life and learning’s that it would seem like something were missing if I didn’t talk about the effect my music has had on me personally.

Coming back to music late in life has meant that I have had to learn quickly and often be guided by others. Equally I have had to learn to maintain a trust in my own instinct. Making an album has been a far bigger life absorbing and life changing event than I could ever have imagined. Almost two years on from the crowd funding campaign, it is hardly surprising that there have been the usual ups and downs within it all.

I truly believe that when things go wrong it is because there is something to learn/something better out there to be had. The desire to protect the integrity of my music has taught me to voice my needs early on. I have been lucky enough to be quite clear on the direction I have wanted to take and as such, I have been able to move towards those that listen and gently move away from those that don’t. Each time learning to trust more and more that when you have the courage to close a door that is wrong, you gain the key to another door that is so much better.

It may take a while at times to find the new door and yes, at those moments it can feel excruciating, but that’s another thing I have learnt – life has its own sense of time and the more I can let go and allow myself to tune in with life’s wheel, the more I seem to be shown a new door with so much ease it can make me laugh out loud.

The consequence has been creating music that I truly love and working with people that I truly love working with. When life has all got a bit much I have been lucky enough to be able to pick up the guitar, feel the vibration through my body, engage the soothing hum of the voice and be lulled back into an open heart and a sense of knowing that with a bit of patience and trust it all works out in the end.

So with that in mind, I would encourage everyone to follow their passion in whatever form it takes and to whatever degree is possible.

Maybe our passions are there to teach us and help us in everyday life, as much as they are for us to gain joy?

Maybe they need to be seen as a critical part of who we are as opposed to a luxury for the talented few?