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Editorial: The unknown is our greatest gift.

By on September 18, 2013
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In a flash of clarity, I recently got a small glimpse of the road ahead. And it is so much better than I could have dreamed for myself in younger days.

In my teens and twenties, there was a fog of self-serving thoughts that kept me from understanding my usefulness on the planet. I couldn’t connect up my gifts and talents to a higher purpose; I could only perceive how these abilities might serve my own self in smallish ways, like hoping people would approve of me if I was “good enough.”

I spent the first part of my thirties as a new mother, mourning the loss of my youth and thinking I was already “washed up.” What room was there for a thirty-something singer/songwriter in the music industry, where being young and sexually charged is prized over being wise and perceptive? Feeling more than a little stuck, I retreated into my home and my babies and put music on the back burner for a spell.

Motherhood is an incredible thing, and I’m sure all of you parents out there understand. Maybe it’s a fringe benefit of raging hormones, sleep deprivation and extended time away from society, but the birth of my babies only deepened my cravings for a meaningful life. I knew they would need an example of how to live.

I had to step it up if I was going to provide a place of growth for them.

 

The really deep work started in my thirties… slowly but surely removing the barriers that stood between me and that purpose-driven life. Lasting change can be slow moving, but over time the old pathways begin to grow over while the new ones become more filled with light. As these steps become more illuminated, I can see my life more in the way it was meant for me: creating music that resonates with truth and beauty, sharing it as far across the globe as it will travel, and opening up my life in words that have the power to connect all of us in compassion for ourselves and one another.

 If someone had told my twenty year old self that I was headed here, I would have sarcastically replied, “Yeah, right!”

Are you in a place where the future is still shrouded in mystery? Do you have those moments, as I do, where you feel stuck and can’t decide on a direction? The truth is, life tends to make better sense in retrospect, and only time can give you that gift. The muscle we have to exercise in the here and now is Trust.

Trust that each bend in the road has a purpose.

Trust that each person you meet has something to teach.

Trust that you are the starting point for infinite possibility.

Celebrate the unknown!

I’m so grateful that I didn’t quite know where I was headed, and that it took this winding pathway to lead us together on our journeys.

With love and gratitude,

Natalie

natalie aug2011headshotNatalie Hughes, editor, writer, performer and songwriter, is a gifted interpreter of the human experience, expressing passion, humor, heartbreak, healing and freedom to a depth that few writers reach. Natalie is also the Musical Director for Crystal Andrus Productions, providing music for short films, international speaking engagements, and powerful meditations. Hear her in music and conversation weekly as the co-host on The Crystal Andrus Show. Natalie lives along the picturesque waterways of Peterborough, Canada with her husband – photographer Michael Hurcomb – and her two children. For more, visit nataliehughes.com and find Natalie on iTunes,  Twitter and Facebook.

 

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