Beautiful Life

This morning while getting dressed, I was receiving my daily dose of bad news from CBS This Morning. As the program dragged on describing in detail every evil in the world, a short segment caught my attention. It was a story about Grammy nominated Jazz musician Jimmy Greene and his family. You see the Greene family live in Newtown Connecticut and their daughter was one of the innocent angels killed at Sandy Hook Elementary.

In the piece Greene along with his wife described how they have coped with the loss of their young child. The focus of the story is the fact that Greene has used his talent as a “sounding board” for his grief and love for his daughter. The music he created during this time has been recorded in his latest work the Grammy nominated album Beautiful Life. Briefly the album itself is soulful and captures both the artist grief and the peace he has found. I would highly recommend this album; it is on Spotify and is available on iTunes.

Bottling up your emotions is never a good thing. In my life it was the practice of keeping it all inside that lead to my life of depression, panic, and stress. While I thought I was managing those symptoms, all it took was one pea under the mattress to nearly send me to the end. It wasn’t till I was honest with myself that I finally got a handle on the stress that was killing me.

The secret is to be honest with yourself and to not be afraid to say, “I need help”. Now I am not saying you have to be like me and put your business out there for all to see. But sitting in your house hiding the pain under the covers or drinking your troubles away won’t help either. Realizing that you can’t handle it alone is the first step on the road to a better way.  So no matter what path you take either through art, or professional help, or through faith. Don’t let the weight of a tragedy or just everyday living ruin your beautiful life.