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Nashville is such a city of promise, filled with the allure of fame and fortune. Like Hollywood, without the tan. My understanding was that if you wanted to be a movie star, you move to California. If you want to do music, especially country or Christian, you move to Nashville.
Like the California Gold Rush of the mid-1800s, I heard that there was gold in them there hills of Nashville. Gold records, that is. The adventurer in me knew I needed to pack up my wagon and trek across the country from Minnesota to see what I might uncover, even if it meant that I would simply become an additional anonymous person making the trek, crowding the streets of Music City with another wide-eyed dream.
Heck, I had as good of a chance as anybody, right? I remember thinking a well-intentioned, charismatic, halfway-decent singer like me stood a pretty good shot at a record deal. I had bought records and seen concerts by artists who appeared to be a lot more mediocre than I was. People say the record industry just puts out crap. I say, why can’t they just put out my crap?
I packed my wagon (a tiny Plymouth Horizon that used to belong to my Grandma) to the gills with my CD collection and enough underwear to last a week. I was lovingly sent off by an extremely encouraging group of people who had probably never met a prospector. Sure, they’d seen them on TV or in the movies, but a real life dream-chasing gold-digger? Probably not one. I know I hadn’t. I had no role models.
Was I leaving Minnesota because I was in a rut? I think I was too young to be in a rut, but not too young to see people all around me living lives that I didn’t want to live. I could see the future screaming toward me on the tracks where I was standing, and it looked…um, boring. Time to find some new tracks.
If you ever come to Nashville, you'll notice there are a ton of horse farms surrounding the city. Whether it’s to the post office or the grocery store, there is always beauty to be observed in the tree-covered hills and animal-filled farms. One particular area I pass frequently has a large ravine carved by water runoff. One day I noticed there were about fifteen horses hanging out in the dried-up ravine. But there was one lone horse standing on the side. For some reason, he chose not to be down in the ditch with everyone else. That’s I how want to live, I thought.
I don’t want to live in a rut. It’s easy to slip in the life we think we’re supposed to live, and then wake up one day wondering whose life we’re actually living, because it doesn’t feel like our own. Perhaps you're like me, in that you don’t want to live anyone else’s life except for your own. But not just getting by, you want to be all-in. You want to live the grand adventure of life, experiencing all you can. Living life to the fullest.
To reach the higher ground,
You might have to climb out of a rut.
I'd love to hear how you choose to do this. We can share stories. Please send me an email or leave a comment below! I look forward to hearing from you.
2 comments:
I keep on climbing, even when I slip back.
isn't that jim backus guest starring on the brady bunch?
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