What are we doing here?
I had the realization a couple of weeks ago that maybe we are built differently. Maybe there are some people that don’t know how to NOT follow their dreams.
How else do you explain two kids that grew up as extreme people-pleasers that internalized all the stress around them and bent over backwards to avoid confrontation to arrive at a decision that we should absolutely ignore and disobey everyone we knew to pursue a career in music?
To be honest, Scully took the brunt of it. At least Kate is not crazy, they thought to themselves, because she is keeping her reasonable and practical job as a teacher. Well guess what? Now, I am all in on this wild business, too.
Something snapped inside of me during COVID when my kids were struggling. All I wanted was for them to be happy. They needed me more than ever and encouraging joy became my number one priority.
When Scully was streaming from our living room, I was the one that saw all the comments popping up while he sang. I felt everyone there together experiencing the joy of music and the love that was being shared within this special community. This is what people needed most; a community that celebrated being together and singing along. At this point, music to me was no longer art that enhanced the quality of life. I saw it as life-saving. And this was confirmed during many in person conversations that I had once we
were all back and out in the world again.
We have always told our kids to follow their dreams, but since joy has become my top priority for them, I am proud that we are actually living these words. They see that we do not have everything figured out yet. They see us work crazy hours, talk things out, make decisions, take risks, have hard and honest conversations, fail, succeed, keep trying, keep inventing, keep creating. They know many people have screwed us and many others have tried. But most importantly, they have experienced the magic of Dalton & the Sheriffs live performances first hand and have become friends with -- and look up to -- the incredible humans that we have met on our journey.
I read an article a few months back that challenged parents to think about how the relationships in their lives serve as models to their children. I smiled because our Dalton friends celebrate life by consistently showing up for each other and us by gathering in places to sing along to the songs that we wrote and are inspired by. They work hard, give back, root for each other, open their arms to new community members, and are dreamers.
What are we doing here? Spreading joy.