Worth the Effort?

Sometimes I wonder if it's worth the rehearsals, the time, the effort to keep on with the music. We're a small band in a tiny niche. Within our niche, we are small (but well liked) fish. When it comes to The Music Scene, we aren't even poppy-seeds on the lemon-poppy seed muffin on a secretary's forgotten breakfast muffin going stale on the corner of her desk in the office of the smallest indie-producer known to music-kind.

Yep, we're that small.

We'll keep at it until no one wants to hear us; I suspect we'll keep at it even after no one wants to hear us, because we love making music together.

Still, much though we love it, fun though it is...sometimes I do question if it's worth it.

And then we get a MySpace message, an e-mail, or someone tells us a story.

"I bought your CD and wore it out - every time life got rough, I listened to it."

"I listened to your CD when I was getting cancer treatment - you got me through radiation and chemo, and now I can dance to you again."

"I wasn't going to live through last year. I made up my mind that it wasn't worth it any more. I changed my mind while I was listening to you guys."

"Your songs lift my spirit."

"Your songs brought me closer to my spiritual self, made me stronger, give me something to dance to."

It's an odd thing to hear your voice floating out someone's car window as they drive away. We are in people's cars, motor homes, houses, iPods, computers, heads and hearts.

To touch one life is a wonder - to touch dozens is an honor beyond words. So yeah, even if we don't ever make it big or get the big bucks...its worth it.