Nathen Aswell

Encouraging people to live Big Lives one Small Step at a time

Everything Counts (Nathen’s Newsletter, September ’17)

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EVERYTHING COUNTS

Nathen’s Newsletter

September ’17

 

 

Warm greetings and blessings to you, dear Friend!
May you be filled with lovingkindness.
May you be safe and protected from all inner and outer dangers.
May you be well in body and mind.
May you be at ease and happy.

THIS MONTH’S TOPIC

For a while now, it’s been clear to me that the name of the game, the purpose of this existence, is to remember who and what we truly are – sparks of God – and to forgive ourselves when we forget. A big part of being human is forgetting, AND I’m always trying to “improve my batting average” and remember the truth more often.

What really helps me to remember the truth is to notice the small things… the small things that ruffle my feathers, and the simple “course corrections” I can make to restore my peace of mind… the small things that bring me joy, and the simple ways that I can feel that joy. Every small thing is a doorway to bigger things – a Small Step in the Big Life that I want to live – that I think each and every one of us is meant to live.

To put it another way, I believe that every small thing COUNTS – that every experience we have is an opportunity for us to expand and grow.

Thanks to some close friends and loved ones, I’ve recently come to appreciate a past experience in ways that I couldn’t before – to see how many small things about the experience actually helped me to expand and grow a LOT. I’d like to tell you 3 small things about that experience which turned out to not be small at all. (I’ll soon be expanding this story into a new Keynote Concert presentation.)

1) When I was in my early 20s, and still living in Montreal, Carlyle Miller, one of my musical colleagues, invited me to join a Jewish Wedding band – The Shore Brothers Orchestra – of which he was a member (one of the “front men”). Aside from a few “Top 40” pop songs of the day, there were no recordings or music charts for what the band could and would play (pop, rock, classical, jazz, latin, broadway, Jewish – you name it!). The only way that I could learn the material was to show up at one of the band’s performances, record everything (on a cassette recorder) that the band played over the course of the evening, and then go home and learn it all “by ear”. I did my best, AND, when I first started performing with the band, it was a “trial by fire” – I made a LOT of mistakes. 

The gift of that intense period of learning is that I became familiar with hundreds of pieces of music in many different styles, and could apply that knowledge to intuit where a song that I’d never played might go… And, to this day, I can confidently walk onto any musical stage and fit in quickly and easily.

2) The engagements were usually 4 or 5 hours long, and occasionally longer. The only break I got was short – just enough time to quickly eat dinner.

The gifts of those long hours on the bandstand are that I became able to perform for long periods of time without a break… and the good money that I earned playing those long hours allowed me to graduate from university with NO student debt (!).

3) A regular part of every performance was a singalong, in which Abe, one of the Shore Brothers, would take a microphone out onto the dance floor, reminisce with the guests about the Montreal neighbourhood in which they all grew up together, and then get various people to sing old favourites like “Bye Bye Blackbird” or “Heart Of My Heart”. At the time, being a cocky young man who wanted to be the next Sting (!), I thought that the whole routine was corny and kind of embarrassing.

The gift of Abe’s “schtick” is that it taught me how important and powerful it is to engage an audience, and to have them share an experience that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.

wooHOO!
It’s ALL God and it’s ALL good!
YES, YAY and AMEN!

So – with gratitude and curiosity – I eagerly say YES to noticing that Everything Counts.

In honour of “Everything Counts”, I offer you my song “Little By Little”, from my “Little By Little” CD; may it serve you well.
(You can listen to my songs and chants here.)
(You can find the words to my songs and chants here.)
(You can buy my CDs here.)

And, in honour of the Shore Brothers, I also offer you a link to this fantastic version of “Bye Bye Blackbird”:

How about YOU, dear Friend? What’s most resonating in YOU this month?
WHEREVER you are on your journey, I’d love to hear from you. 
Please e-mail me; we’re all in this together, and we have much to learn from each other.
(BIG THANKS to all of the kind souls who respond to my newsletters; reading your comments is always a highlight of my month.)

APPRECIATION

Every Monday on my Facebook business page, I post messages of gratitude.
Please have a look, join the conversation, and SHARE the posts with your friends. 

UPCOMING AND ONGOING EVENTS

– PERFORMANCES

(For the most up-to-date information, please click on any date in my online calendar)

– VIDEOS

May I be of service to you and your organization or community with my words and music?
My KEYNOTE CONCERT presentation can be seen here, and my PERFORMANCE VIDEOS, including my LATEST ONE (“Learn, Share, Grow and Belong”) can be seen here.

– MUSIC

My very dear friend and song co-writer Becca Palm has created “Community Songs”, a songbook/CD package of 23 songs which includes 4 chants that she and I co-wrote (“Ho-oponopono”, “Listen”, “Small Steps” and “Turning Within”). To get your copy, please click here. (You can also listen to and/or download the songs here.)

As a very dear and wise friend in Montreal once said to me, “All I can offer you is my experience”.

My sincere desire, in every one of my newsletters, is to encourage us all to live our Big Lives one Small Step at a time.

Much love to you, dear Friend. May you notice, with Ease and Grace, that EVERYTHING COUNTS, and may you go with LOVE.

– Nathen

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