"A Sweet and Sour Blues" - The importance of You

Often time, in this day and age; and because of all the constant distractions of living life; we  tend to forget about what is "most important in our lives".
The concept of "Truly important things in life" changes from person to person. How ever, I do believe one things presents itself as more important than the rest, yourself.
As  egocentric and narcissistic as this might sound at first, There is a good reason to think this way, and an actual path to practice that philosophy in a more altruistic approach.

In judaism there is a principle of "taking care of yourself".
No one else will do it for you, because no one else knows you like you do. The manual that tells how you'r hearth and brain works is written in a language only you can understand. Thus we should try to learn how to work the machine properly, and how to take care of it.

You are happy for yourself...

If you look for happiness in someone else's gratitude or acceptance. As harsh as it might sound, you will never find it; simply put, it is just not there.

Initial Sketch for "A Sweet and Sour Blues"

But as hard times comes, it is hard to accept this way of thinking; what is more, we forget about it in hopes of concentrating on our instant troubles. - which also should be taken care of - It is all a matter of balance If you have ever seen "The fiddler on the roof" you will know exactly what I mean.
Taking care of yourself can mean a variety of things; and most certainly this will change from person to person. In her fantastic book "The artist way", Julia cameron gives tools to achieve a reconnection, or reconciliation, with your artist self, "Artist dates" with your inner child and "Morning pages" to clean up your mind. I can't recommend enough this book. Something I find helps me is working out; I know that for a lot of people this will be the case to. It allows you to "talk"with your body in a sort of way.

Other way of talking to myself is music (both listening and playing) is a great tool for self identification and stress relieve. And one of my favorite genres is blues.
Blues is a very interesting music; it has a peculiar distinction. It allows oneself to swim head first into the vast ocean that is melancholy. You can make the more than valid argument that this can be achieved with any kind of music, it just so happens that I managed to experience it with blues first.

This idea, of acceptance of sadness and melancholy is a very tricky subject. We learn trough most of our lives to avoid these things. But as the key point to pixar's inside out storyline shows us; you can't live without it. Of course, to much of it can be dangerous as well; Again, balance.

Rough Colors

Trough sadness and melancholy, I learned to connect with myself. It was (and is) a very hard process, especially for someone who has avoid it for so long. The more you prolong it, the harder it will be to understand what you really want and what you truly need (when one is truth-full the other will resolve itself with time). When something makes you cry, more often than not, the answer lies there. But, again, it is not always that easy.  I guess it is like a crying child; you cant really understand what it is they want until they calm down.
Go for a walk, play with your pet, read a good book (there are millions out there), play or hear some music, or draw yourself playing the blues. But be sure to hear yourself and attend to what your heart is truly asking for.

"A sweet and sour blues" - 2019