Creative Connection

Lovelies,

The first place I ever found myself was writing a song.

There I was, thinker of thoughts, feeler of feelings. Beneath the scaffolding of chords and melodies I was free to wander about. For three and a half minutes at a time I could breathe.

The songs I wrote were lullabies, benign as butterflies. But for me they were, every one, illicit. Would I not be arrested for presuming to matter this much?

I no longer reach for songs with the same desperation. I am myself the great majority of my days. I've learned to breathe, even when there's no music playing at all. But I'll say that songwriting remains a heightened communion. The brightest flashlight. The deepest sigh. And it's certainly my only means of contacting certain aspects of myself: The time traveler. The alchemist. The queen.

But what I've noticed lately is that songwriting is, also, and these days even more so, a way I connect to others. This process that used to only take place in the still of solitude now magnetizes me to those around me like none other. Songwriting coaching is collaboration in an artist's self-expression. Producing is collaboration in an artist's very self-conception. Co-writing is as much eros as any kiss.

I also understand that knowing someone creatively is a partial view. It bypasses so much: The backstory. The logistics. The sharp shrapnel of ego. All of which just as validly define us.

But oh how I love it, this purest of the dances.

All my love,

Rachel