Realizing this album has roots in my stroke when you push way back. As chronicled for AARP's magazine in 2014 by Mark Miller:
Bouncing Back,Better
TRY THESE FOUR TIPS TO BOOST YOUR RECOVERY
1. Don't rush it. Take time after a shock, says Susan Bridges, president of William Bridges and Associates, which provides transition coaching: "We see it as a three-phase process, starting with acknowledging what has ended."
2. Consult others. Richard Leider of AARP's Life Reimagined suggests assembling a sounding board of friends as advisers. "You want a committed listener, who can just hear what you have to say without trying to fix anything," he says. "Then you want a catalyst, who offers inspiration through his or her own story. And then you want a wise elder, who helps you keep your eye on the big picture."
3. Think positive. "Whether people can access positive emotions in dire circumstances is typically a matter of what kind of sense they make of the event," says psychologist Barbara Fredrickson. "The reaction to a natural disaster could be 'I lost everything,' or it could be 'I'm still breathing.' "
4. Recognize your own strengths. "People say that they now experience themselves as a different person," says psychologist Lawrence Calhoun. "They see themselves as more vulnerable than they thought but stronger than they ever imagined."
A stroke jolted Andrew Revkin into recognizing dreams and priorities in his life. Chris Crisman
Revkin, then a 55-year-old environmental journalist and educator who writes the New York Times' Dot Earth blog, had to stop, bend over and put his hands on his knees. "My left eye had gone weird — it was like looking through a paisley curtain," he says. He wound up in the hospital with a blockage in his carotid artery; overnight he had a stroke that left him unable to use his right hand.
For a journalist who typed on a keyboard every day, it was quite a wake-up call. But the stroke also affected his other main pursuit: music. Revkin has been writing and performing on guitar, mandolin and banjo since the 1990s as a side gig to his journalism career. But he'd never pursued his music seriously. "We all have dreams of one kind or another," he says. "I always loved music, but I was lazy about recording it."
That stopped after his stroke. As Revkin worked to regain use of his hand, he started relearning the guitar by doing scales — and made plans to record his music. Last year he released his first album, a collection of 10 original songs called A Very Fine Line. Although he didn't quit his day job, he's keeping music in the mix, with a new album already in the works. "My journalism is important, but it's not a source of joy," he says. "Music for me has always been joyful. I'm not going to get rich from it, but as a creator of stuff you want to make sure it has some resonance."
Revkin says it took him about a year to connect emotionally with what had happened: "I distanced myself from my mortality by intellectualizing it. I was blogging from the morning I woke up with one hand not working. But it left me with a dark sense of running down a corridor, opening a door and seeing a monster there — and slamming the door just in time." https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/personal-growth-after-midlife-crisis/
Happy significant birthday, Andy!!
The poll didn’t respond to my clicks…..I say keep the music in the main mix.
It’s pretty freaky how kind-of-basically-solid that rockabilly remix is—but I do look forward to your human collaboration!
Suno blew me away repeatedly, as with this gospel rendition of my song Good Souls: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jkauoI9UU8E&list=RDjkauoI9UU8E&start_radio=1&pp=ygURR29vZCBzb3VscyByZXZraW6gBwE%3D
Realizing this album has roots in my stroke when you push way back. As chronicled for AARP's magazine in 2014 by Mark Miller:
Bouncing Back,Better
TRY THESE FOUR TIPS TO BOOST YOUR RECOVERY
1. Don't rush it. Take time after a shock, says Susan Bridges, president of William Bridges and Associates, which provides transition coaching: "We see it as a three-phase process, starting with acknowledging what has ended."
2. Consult others. Richard Leider of AARP's Life Reimagined suggests assembling a sounding board of friends as advisers. "You want a committed listener, who can just hear what you have to say without trying to fix anything," he says. "Then you want a catalyst, who offers inspiration through his or her own story. And then you want a wise elder, who helps you keep your eye on the big picture."
3. Think positive. "Whether people can access positive emotions in dire circumstances is typically a matter of what kind of sense they make of the event," says psychologist Barbara Fredrickson. "The reaction to a natural disaster could be 'I lost everything,' or it could be 'I'm still breathing.' "
4. Recognize your own strengths. "People say that they now experience themselves as a different person," says psychologist Lawrence Calhoun. "They see themselves as more vulnerable than they thought but stronger than they ever imagined."
A stroke jolted Andrew Revkin into recognizing dreams and priorities in his life. Chris Crisman
Revkin, then a 55-year-old environmental journalist and educator who writes the New York Times' Dot Earth blog, had to stop, bend over and put his hands on his knees. "My left eye had gone weird — it was like looking through a paisley curtain," he says. He wound up in the hospital with a blockage in his carotid artery; overnight he had a stroke that left him unable to use his right hand.
For a journalist who typed on a keyboard every day, it was quite a wake-up call. But the stroke also affected his other main pursuit: music. Revkin has been writing and performing on guitar, mandolin and banjo since the 1990s as a side gig to his journalism career. But he'd never pursued his music seriously. "We all have dreams of one kind or another," he says. "I always loved music, but I was lazy about recording it."
That stopped after his stroke. As Revkin worked to regain use of his hand, he started relearning the guitar by doing scales — and made plans to record his music. Last year he released his first album, a collection of 10 original songs called A Very Fine Line. Although he didn't quit his day job, he's keeping music in the mix, with a new album already in the works. "My journalism is important, but it's not a source of joy," he says. "Music for me has always been joyful. I'm not going to get rich from it, but as a creator of stuff you want to make sure it has some resonance."
Revkin says it took him about a year to connect emotionally with what had happened: "I distanced myself from my mortality by intellectualizing it. I was blogging from the morning I woke up with one hand not working. But it left me with a dark sense of running down a corridor, opening a door and seeing a monster there — and slamming the door just in time." https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/personal-growth-after-midlife-crisis/