Music & Nature can well be a path to peace.  Mt. Bonnell is the highest point in Austin, Texas and has been a tourist attraction dating back to the 1850’s.   This was on my list of to do’s while I was in Austin, knowing that it was a hippie hang-out and one of Stevie’s favorite places in the wee-hours of the morning.  A place to get lost and remove yourself from the everyday world.

I trekked the tough climb of over 200 or so limestone steps and found myself in a place I found similar to a “comfortable song”  What is it about music and nature that bring us peace of mind and can calm a restless soul, as well as bring memories flooding back as if they happened yesterday?

Great Musicians and Scenic Places bring us to a place where we fit in, where we are comfortable and the worries of the world can be shut off for a brief moment in time.  When you turn on the Ipod, or crank up the turntable to hear your favorite oldie,  you become part of that sound a part of the music, it’s the great musicians that draw you in and you become part of the music, your inner soul begins to dance and that sound is branded within your subconscious.

It’s a place where you can be home, it’s a place where you can re-charge your batteries and the dam can be opened to release the rising waters of thoughts that well up in of our daily minds,  if those thoughts are not released from time to time they can drown us.

Living with two musicians, I have a greater appreciation of music and I don’t just hear the it anymore, I see it and feel it and become a part of it.  Nature also has a way of provoking a peace of mind, as I stood at the top of Mt. Bonnell, closing my eyes and listening to the screech of a distant hawk, I could smell the mist of the Colorado River and feel it’s touch deep within my senses.  Tuning out the world around me, and feeling the energy of Nature and those that came to this place long before me, was refreshing and it was an brief escape.

We are not meant to be in overdrive all the time, and finding ways to remove the chaos that depletes the natural order of our mind, body and souls should be a part of our daily routines.  Take a moment this weekend to listen to the music around you,  whether it’s the music of a great musician or the music of the screeching hawk you may find that missing cord….

One of my dreams was to visit Austin Texas, and I did! You have 6th Street, Congress and Red River in Austin, where on any given day just grab your copy of the Austin Chronicle and you can find music of your choice. Walking the streets of Austin you could feel the energy of guitar players and musicians, current day and past.

One of my son’s dreams has always been to own a Johnson Resonator guitar, he is still working on the owning part, but in one of the vintage music stores that we found on South Lamar, he sat himself down in his worn out old Chuck Taylor Nike hi-tops and played for over an hour.

Walking the streets of Austin and finding off beat record stores, guitar stores and pawn shops was a daily activity. Winding down Congress Avenue and seeing a sign for a used Record store, we fell right in, turning the corner, walking the alley, up the sidewalk, down the flight of stairs, and into an old basement warehouse, to a little hidden LP haven, with boxes and boxes of great old LP’s, such as Pacific Gas & Electric, Box of Frogs, Ry Cooder – The Slide Era, Uriah Heep-Innocent Victim and “IF” Silver Cover.

Traveling to Austin, gave me a bountiful amount of energy, but yet the early morning hours were spent reflecting on one of our greatest guitar master’s that in my opinion ever hit the stage. Stevie Ray Vaughan, stoked ‘em, smoked ‘em and kicked America into a blue’s frenzy not like many others before him. No matter what venue he played his steamy and throaty licks on his ’59 beat up, un-beautified Stratocaster, people would come to life and begin a relationship with the Blues. He was living his dream, sharing his music.  Austin is full of artists, musicians and just interesting folks, Keep Austin Weird is seen on T-shirts & billboards alike.

I morphed Jake’s picture of him playing the Johnson in that back alley guitar store, into a drawing of one of the many Johnson Resonator Guitars that he salivates over. Capturing in time, a dream for my son, a memory he will not forget and a dream to strive for, this one’s going on his wall. Keeping him focused on living his dream.

~ Delve into your dreams and desires, and come out with your destiny! sdk 2008