Oct 05 2020 82 mins
Hi everyone. Hope you're all okay, coping, surviving, learning, growing - it's hard to know what to say these days - we're all experiencing the same thing and whilst the experience is so shared sometimes . . . the more I talk to people the more I understand, at times, how very differently we're all experiencing it.
This conversation is a good example. It's a conversation with Matt & Lucia, husband and wife, both professional singers, parents to Persephone, neighbours of my friends Caramel & Roger and most recently the creative and operational geniuses behind mini music makers which are fun, energetic, educational music classes for pre-school kids.
Back in March, both Matt's & Lucia's incomes dried up overnight. This is the story of what the business world calls a pivot but it's so much more than that.
It's really a lesson in both fighting and rolling with the punches.
Matt and Lucia are very different. Matt was born with huge talent, Lucia worked hard to develop hers. Matt, the teenager, rebelled. Lucia didn't need to. Lucia's parents encouraged her to follow her dreams. Matt's parents less so. Matt is lazy, Lucia wants to be. These differences, together with a shared vision are probably why they're such a good team.
Matt has achieved more in music than most people even dream of but he doesn't like to say he's a professional musician . . . because he's been this since he was 9 years of age. He really wants to do something different but money and more have been barriers.
He says "I feel guilty that I've found music so easy . . . I could always just do it . . . but I didn't make the decision to be a singer . . . it just happened"
Lucia seems unafraid to change her story. She spent her childhood dreaming of becoming a professional opera singer and as soon as the box was ticked, moved on to become a music educator.
Matt's teenage motto of "there must be more to life than this" is still there. He seems to have nailed curiosity but hasn't quite yet converted it into the life done differently he's looking for . . . . . but a huge nudge from Covid and an old story or two swapped for new ones, continued support from Lucia . . . and they'll be in a Costa Rican jungle dressed as Shady the Racoon.
The lesson I've learned from Matt and Lucia is that to get where you want to go you have to decide when it's time to fight and when it's time to roll with the punches. It seems to me you have to fight when you have a plan and energy . . . . and you need to roll with the punches and see what happens when you don't.
It works for Covid too. Embrace the chaos rather than fight it. When change happens you can hang on to what was if you want . . . . but you're better off saying to yourself. It's changed I've got to change.
When am I going to be able to go back to the way it was before? is not a healthy response . . . because there's no knowing when or if that will ever happen.
Enjoy Matt & Lucia Long - I'm actually an opera singer
https://minimusicmakers.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=mini%20music%20makers
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMArwTF8UQ8amxrP8NAkdRw
http://matthew-long.co.uk/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Turn_of_the_Screw