Guest Blog from STING*

*In Absentia 🙂

Did you know that Sting started out as a teacher?  Well, teaching math may not have been a fit for him, but he absolutely IS a teacher! In today’s article, STING will share a lesson with us from a page in his life and the surprising twist comes from a very unexpected band member!

I hear the tune start to play, an instant knowing smile across my face, my head starts bobbing immediately, as the familiar beat of “Englishman in New York” begins.  As I happily sing along to every word, STING changes up ONE spot in the song…asking the audience to sing one verse repeatedly with NO music.  I stop and listen as the entire theater repeats over and over…

BE YOURSELF…NO MATTER WHAT THEY SAY

I’ve sung this part of the song a million times.  I get it, he’s an Englishman, he lives in NYC and everywhere he goes, he notices that he’s different than everyone else.  He doesn’t quite fit it.  Others may not notice it all the time, but he feels it all the time.  From “taking his tea” instead of “drinking coffee”, to his position on war and arguing…he feels different than the rest of the people around him.

But I heard that differently this time.  I felt that message differently this time.

Then an amazing thing happened.  This “kid” with a violin began to play the most intense, crazy, out of control brilliant “fiddle solo” I have ever witnessed! Look, I’m not much for the violin, so I don’t even know how to explain this to you except to say that for about 3 minutes this kid went into a performance that can be described as nothing short of “god given brilliance”.   I’ve never seen anyone move that fast and create that much power from a fiddle before.

In just a few moments time it was very clear to me, and everyone in the room, why Sting selected this kid Peter Tickell to be in his band for this tour.  I refer to him as a kid.  He’s probably in his 20s.  In his early 20s and he’s touring with STING! Holy crap!!!

But in the next moment, something else occurred to me.  Now, I could be totally wrong here, but just humor me for a moment.

Peter clearly has an incredible talent on the violin.  As a mom, I imagine him wanting to play that violin night and day as if it’s a part of his arm.  You know what I mean right?

Also as a parent, I can imagine his parents possibly telling him to “stop playing the damn violin all the time”.  Not in a terrible way, just in a “I’m raising four kids and working and I can’t listen to that loud thing all day” kind of a way.  Now, what are the chances that as young Peter grows up his parents completely believed that this violin thing would totally pay off and that he would be world famous for the violin?

I imagine Peter played, and played and played…sneaking around to play…running into the trees to play….staying up at night to play.  But it’s also likely that the people in his life who truly loved him and wanted to look out for him encouraged him to stop with violin all the time, get an education and get a real job so he could support himself.  Out of LOVE they would do that.

And yet here’s young Peter, on stage with STING, playing the violin in a way that only god himself could manifest.

And I’m reminded of the lesson from Sting…Be Yourself No Matter What They Say.

And who gave this kid his chance to SHINE all day and all night playing the fiddle?  The man who teaches us the lesson, be yourself, no matter what they say.

So I ask you, in what ways are you the Englishman in New York?  How, in your life, do you feel like young Peter?  In what ways do you not “fit in”?  What does your loving family/friends try to “normalize” you out of?

Take a lesson from Sting today….Be Yourself, No Matter What They Say!  And take it from me, there’s only ONE YOU! You’re the only one of YOU that we have on this planet. So we need you to be the best YOU that you can be….no matter what they say!

Today I hold a space in my heart for you to step even more fully into being the best YOU that you can be!! I’ll be waiting for you! I can’t wait to see the smile on your face!!!

Sending love,

Stacey

p.s. Decades ago I heard an interview with Sting and he said that his definition of success was being able to do what you want, when you want to, with the people you want to do it with.  As I watched him perform, at 60 years old, HAPPINESS just oozes out of this man.  Clearly, he embodies his own definition of success!  And I realized something about Sting that I never saw before.  He’s SO happy, he’s NOT working.  It’s NOT work when you are this happy doing it!

It’s the same with your relationship.  When what you are doing isn’t working, it FEELS like work! But when you begin to do all the things that actually work to bring in more love and more passion, to reduce the hurts and upsets, to bond you closer and unite as a team….when it’s all working, and you are SO HAPPY… then it doesn’t feel like work anymore!!!

Check out this video of the Violin Solo…this guy is amazing http://youtu.be/TvJEQPNZR3s