There is a bit of a story to how I got to writing “Resilient Soul”, so if you are interested…..read on!
In 2007, I started my own coaching business assisting people connect with their best so they can be inspired and inspiring in their personal and professional life. In February 2008, I started exploring why I was put on this planet – in other words – what my purpose is. After much belly button gazing and pontificating I came up with something that was somewhat a surprise. My passion was for coaching and transforming people’s lives …. It turned out that what came up for me as my purpose in life was to “sing a song in my heart”. Now, this was a trifle confusing. The only song I remember writing if full was a song for a children’s play I put together for a drama class I used to run. So, I thought about what this purpose meant for where I was in my life now. I decided that “singing a song in my heart” was a metaphor for being authentic and I extended my purpose to include my clients. I wanted to help others sing a song in their heart by following their true purposes. That’s where I left it….
Moving onto 18 April 2008. It was a Friday and I was attending a personal development seminar – coaches tend to do a lot of that sort of thing. During this time I was developing some goals for the year. Among the other goals that just seemed to pop out of my head, I wrote down that I wanted to write, record and publically broadcast a song. I didn’t give this much thought after I had written it – it just seemed a goal amongst the many and wasn’t front of mind for me.
On Saturday morning, I received a phone call from a friend’s mother. My friend’s name was Candy. Her mother, Joan phoned me & told me that Candy had died the night before. I phoned a friend who also knew Candy and we arranged for me to go over her place the next day to put together a slide show for Candy’s memorial service. During the day, I tried to think about what we could do to make the slide show special. I used to like writing poetry, so I thought maybe something along those lines would be appropriate.
On Sunday morning, I got up early and started to think of words that described Candy and my association with her. I was thinking about putting the words into some type of verse. For some reason, I got up and grabbed my guitar, which I had only used spasmodically over the last five years. I had taught myself some chords when I was 15 and I use to play guitar for the kids at school when I was a teacher, and to myself at home, but that was about it.
So, this song – “Assistant to the Lost Souls”, or “Candy” as most people called it was written. I took it over to my friend’s house to finish it off. I then rang long time friend and professional singer, Daryl Murphy and asked him how I could get it recorded. Daryl helped me get it recorded and even played guitar on the track (I just couldn’t get it right under the pressure of a recording studio).
We presented our slide show of photos with my song as a sound track. It was just as well that I had recorded it – you could barely hear the song over my blubbering at the service!
I continued to write songs on and off. I had been focussing on a joint business venture in 2009 which ended in December. At the beginning of 2010, I made another call to my friend Daryl, and asked if he would be interested in helping me complete some songs I had been working on. He again said yes (isn’t he gorgeous?) ,…. and the result – “Resilient Soul”.