Advice for the Dreamers: 3 Things you did not know were destroying your dreams

I am really enjoying reading The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho. The book chronicles Paulo’s pilgrimage along El Camino in France and Spain. While on the trip he has a guide that is not just guiding his steps but his heart.

At one point, Paulo and the guide are talking about dreams and how dreams come to life and seem to quickly die. Paulo note 3 things that particularly challenge our dreams. Here is my interpretation through my own process of working out my dreams.

Lack of Time: Dreams take hard work and plenty of hours. If you have a dream AND a full time job, you have 2 full-time jobs. Your dream will not happen by chance but because you fought to bring it to life. I believe your dream will only come to life once you have exhausted your days and nights working to bring your dream about.

Paulo says that we should stay busy while are dreams are coming to life for the lazy person will never achieve much. Stay busy dreamers!

Forgetting that Fighting for the Dream is Living the Dream: Oh! How I forget this! All the while fighting for my dream to make music I have been making music! Playing my own songs and selling my own CDs for hundreds if not thousands of people! My dreams are not in the future but are my reality. I need to live in the joy of the present dream. I need to delight in the joy of the living dream.

Paulo says of those that live in the present delight of their dreams: “For them, neither victory nor defeat is important; what’s important is only that they are fighting the good fight.”

Living in Peace: Who would have thought that peace is a danger! Paulo writes, “When life becomes a Sunday afternoon; we ask for nothing grand, and we cease to demand anything more than we are willing to give.” He goes on to write, “When this happens, deep in our hearts, we have renounced the battle for our dreams.”

I know the danger of peace. After a successful tour or a great show there is a danger to rest on the laurels of a victory. Trying to achieve a dream is a difficult adventure. If you find yourself at peace, you probably have taken a break from fighting for your dream. The real danger during peace time is you may never go back to fighting the fight for your dream.

(Note: Breaks and vacations are good for the soul and for your dream. You can’t go at it 24/7. Just make sure you pace yourself for a long battle fighting for your dreams.)

While reading these 3 pieces of advice by Paulo Coelho my heart and soul were saying, “Right on!” and “So true!” I have found all these pieces of advice worthy and valuable while living my dream of making music.

New Music – Life is Beautiful

Below is the first song from my new album Hymns of Hope. This song is a reworking of another song called Life is Beautiful.

The song and theme are simple. Life is tough but there is hope and beauty all around. Sometimes it is very difficult to the see the beauty in our lives. Sometimes we are blind to the beauty because we are consumed with pain and suffering. Sometimes we hold onto our pain and think we are supposed to just live with it our whole lives.

As the lyrics in the song suggest, sometimes we need to, “Let it go,” and “Let it die,” so we can, “Start over with a brand new life.”

I try to have a theme for all of my albums. Since this is the first song on the album, it initiates the Phoenix/Hope theme. The phoenix is a mythical creature that dies to its simple former life and comes back to life as a new creation. The phoenix knows that through death comes new life.

I believe the lesson of the phoenix applies to us as well. Enjoy the music and please share it!

Recording is Finished!

This week I finished recording my new album Hymns of Hope. I had a beautiful experience recording in Corpus Christi, TX at Sound Machine Studio.

I am so excited to share these songs. I believe this is my most joyful album. I am grateful that these came into my own life. As a musical artist I find that the gift of a song is first a gift to me. I needed these songs of Hope to come into my life.

Below are some pictures of the recording process at Sound Machine Studio.

Winter Has Passed

I have hibernated from music the past few months. No inspiration has come my way and therefore no songs have come forth.

I do not think this is writer’s block. This break from traveling and performing has been good for my soul. It is good to fast, even from things that are good. Taking a break makes me realize why I love music so much.

Winter is a time when the trees and grass appear to have died. Their branches do not produce fruit or leaves of life. We know that their life has not ended but that winter is just a season. Soon the season will pass and the new life will appear.

Now this winter hibernation from music has passed. Next week I will travel to Corpus Christi to finish recording the album Hymns of Hope.

Soon I will start sharing some of my new songs. Until then, here is a beautiful song by Noah and the Whale.

“Blue skies are calling…”

Pain is Part of the Journey

One of my new year’s resolutions is to learn how to longboard. I have had this desire to longboard for a long time. Years have passed and I have kept putting it off.

A few weeks ago, I had a day off and went ahead and bought a longboard. It is awesome! I am really enjoying learning something that is active and new. It makes me feel grateful to be alive.

It must be noted that I am not an awesome longboarder… yet.  I have a funny story to share:

While in the skater store looking to buy a longboard I was trying out a few to see if they were the right one. The salesperson suggested one for me. I took one step on it…

Then I brought up my second foot…

…and the board shot out from under me.

I flew into the air…

…into a rack of clothes.

My pride and my elbow injured.

This small injury made me think of the first gigs I played at coffee shops. I was nervous about those gigs. I was not exactly comfortable with the guitar, with my voice, with my songs and everything else that it takes to have a successful gig. I wanted to play music so bad that I was totally content with failure and mistakes. I had much to learn and I could not let fear hold me back.

This reminds me of my experience with snowboarding. I really enjoy snowboarding but I am not good. The first time out snowboarding I had some major falls. I think I might of even had some concussions, but I don’t remember. The point is: I wanted to snowboard so bad, that even though I knew pain from many falls was coming, I went forward with it. I was resolved to take on the pain in order to grow in skill.

I am NOT sadistic. I don’t enjoy failure or pain. I tell these stories because I feel there is a great lesson in this: Don’t let pain and suffering hold you back from pursuing your dreams and goals.

No one is perfect at the first gig. No one makes it down the mountain the first time without a fall. I did not even make it out of the skateboard store without a fall, but now I am enjoying my recreation time on the longboard.

Pain is part of the Journey.

Let It Go

This week I have found myself in an unpleasant situation. Work is busy, my stress level is high, and the result is daily migraines. I’ve had migraines since I was in second grade. I’ve gotten so many migraines from stress over the years. With all humility, nowadays I think I can handle them pretty well. Not all of them, but most.

This post is not about migraines but about dealing with stress. Stress steals my peace, my joy, my patience and replaces all these well-balanced virtues with vices. I am tired of stress winning these mental battle.

After trying everything else to deal with my stress, including checking out, working out, and shopping… I turn to prayer.

This week I started praying: “God, help me with my work.” To which He replied with silence. The week kept going, more work was added to my load, and more stress came with it. I again went to prayer and asked, “God, help me!”

More silence.

Finally by the end of the week my stress level is in all out freak out mode. The image that comes to my mind is this: I am struggling to roll a boulder up a hill! I keep asking God to help me with this difficult task but I don’t hear His voice or feel any consolation.

So I continue on with my struggle… Until there is a break through of Grace and Peace.

I finally heard the Voice say, “Let it go.”  I replied, “I don’t want to let it go. I want your help to move this boulder up this hill!”

The Voice spoke again, “David, I want you to let it go and trust Me. I want you to let all of this stress go.”

Its hard to argue with the Voice. He speaks Truth.

I let it go.

Year in Review

At the end of 2010 I set many goals for myself for 2011. These goals included traveling, playing music, making new friends, and going farther than before.

Many goals were not accomplished.

I only sold about 400 copies of my last album. This was just enough money to break even in the cost of making the album. I am not any richer.

I did not win a Grammy or the praise of any record executives or music critics. I am definitely not creating any waves or causing any buzz in the indie/folk/spiritual music genre. I am not any more famous.

I did not go to all of the places on my dream travel list. I wanted to play over 60 gigs this year but fell short of this goal.

What did I do? I went on another summer tour with my best friend. I recorded and released another album, Fighting Fear. I played 55 concerts and made many new friends. Just these three things would have made this year beautiful for me but so much more beauty came into my life.

My name, David Paul Thies, means Beloved LITTLE Gift of God. It was another little year in terms of taking my music career farther but it was not a little year in terms of adventure and beauty.

I am not rich. I am not famous. I am blessed. I am so blessed and so grateful to be a little artist. I get to write, record, and perform music for a few people each year. I have already lived the life of my dreams. That is enough for me.

What is Christmas all About?

“Isn’t there anyone that knows what Christmas is all about?”

Its not complicated. We make it complicated. Its not stressful. We make it stressful. Its not expensive. We make it expensive.

Christmas is a simple story. Christmas is a beautiful story. Christmas is a story of Hope.

I need the eyes and heart of a child to see this.

Desire into Action

Tomorrow I am heading out of town to record another album in Corpus Christi, TX. Last time I was there I recorded Fighting Fear in three days and it was a really joyful experience. I have some new songs based on a theme of Hope that I can’t wait to share.

Though I really want to record I do not want make the effort to go and do it. It is not the best time to go down to Corpus Christi to record. First off, its about a 4 hour drive each way from Houston to Corpus Christi. Second, this has been a really busy week and there is much to do this weekend. The past few months I have gone back and forth debating whether to make the trip or not.

I finally was pushed into booking the recording studio time by a quote from Paulo Coelho, author of the modern masterpiece The Alchemist. Right now, I am reading another one of his books that I find to be truly beautiful called The Fifth Mountain. In this novel the story follows the Old Testament prophet Elijah and his struggles with doing the will of God. In the story Elijah reflects, “Life is made not of desires but of the acts of each person.”

It is not enough for me to desire to play music and write songs, I must also sacrifice, lose sleep, and miss out on family dinners. I must be willing to sleep away from the comfort of my own bed and spend 8 hours alone in a car. Desire is the spark I need to pursue my dreams of creating music, but desire must move into action.

No one remembers a person that desired to do great things. You never will hear someone say, “Oh Tom, such a great guy. He really wanted to help the poor. He never did. But he always desired to help.” Either your desire moves you into action or your desires fades away.

Listen to your heart. Follow your desires. Move into action.

I am going to Corpus Christi. May God bless this desire and this action.

Movie Making

In 2002, my senior year of high school, I took the class Video Technology. It was taught by a young man that had a passion for film and art. It was such an eye opening experience. The class was filled with Mac computers which made our silly dreams come to life.

I made a short film set to music called Ralph. There is no deep message to the story of Ralph. I hope you enjoy.

This video was sitting in my closet for almost 10 years. It was originally a VHS and I had no knowledge or way of converting it so I could upload it to the web. A friend of mine owns a company that  takes old forms of media (film, tape, slides, etc.) and converts them to DVDs. I highly recommend his company, Rewind Memories, if you want to convert any of your old tapes. Converting and updating is also a great gift idea for a family member this Christmas.

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