In light of the recent 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia, I wanted to take a moment to share my thoughts and my deep sorrow for the country my parents were born in, and the city (Pereira) my mother was born in, which was one of the hardest hit. Cali, Pereira, Chocó, Manizales, and Armenia (amongst other cities/regions) have all suffered major destruction. Just in Cali and Pereira alone, the death toll is already in the hundreds in each city. Colombia needs our help, whether you can physically be there to help, or maybe you can participate in a donation drive to send out essentials to those affected by this natural disaster, every little bit helps.

I also feel immense gratitude for various reasons. The fact that all of my extended family and friends find themselves with life and safe, with only minor damages to their homes and businesses is something that I can't get over. The immediate response of the communities in each affected city, and witnessing how the Colombian diaspora has come together to pool resources to be able to send some type of assistance as soon as possible, has been such a thing of beauty.

Just in my immediate circle, I know of my wife's family putting together a donation drive that filled up three truckloads with essentials. Or donating funds to trusted sources to provide food and housing materials. My brother (see poster art below) put together an event with the help of other talented DJs, to bring music, an auction, and delicious food, with the majority of the proceeds going to those affected. In Colombia, we have family members providing a water and food service to the surrounding neighborhoods, and even free eye health screenings. People are showing up without being asked in the most essential ways, and it's gratitude that I feel amidst the immense destruction and loss. The road to recovery is long, but the people of Colombia are strong, innovative, and resilient. Though we mourn those precious lives that were lost, the Colombian community also rises up in hope of a new day to be able to continue helping our brothers and sisters in need.

If you'd like to contribute to the cause and donate to the earthquake relief in Colombia, I've asked my brother to share his trusted donation contacts. The first link details where and to who the money will be sent, the second link contains the QR codes for various financial partners that go to an account where the donations are then split up to go to their respective destinations.

In the spirit of transparency, all of the solidarity partners have been sending videos and pictures showing what is being done with the donations. This is all very grassroots and improvised, but we're working with individuals that have boots on the ground in the most affected areas.

I've been thinking quite a bit about the habits that we form and how some are just not beneficial to bringing out the best in us. I've been thinking about the preciousness of free time, and having moments to reflect and perform deep work. It seems to me that as our time to have true moments of genuine reflection about life as we live it, and how we exist within it, becomes more scarce, the habits that bring out the worst in us seem to take a stronger hold of the ordinary and extraordinary moments within which we carry out our days.

In this piece from Craig Mod's Roden newsletter, which he titles Too Much Movement, he talks about this. He also uses “Phantom Thread” to illustrate his point, which is a movie I absolutely love.

In that scene in “Phantom Thread” that Craig describes, the creative mind in deep focus is being disturbed by even the most minimal and mundane of activities. Buttering bread and pouring tea are likened to "riding a horse across the room." Scrolling through social media, taking out the trash, taking that call, answering the email, are all those same mundane activities that rob us of the precious energy to do any meaningful creative work for the day. I laugh cause it's so true when he says "All bureaucracy is a lie of the highest order" or "Bureaucracies are confined and small and hyper-particular about details that exist to crush a soul and deflate a heart."

I write this paragraph, (a continuation of the thought above) squeezed into a ten minute interval between having a conversation with my wife, who was momentarily residing in an adjacent city, and having to go pick up my son from his early morning cross country practice. I feel Craig's thought thoroughly, I feel it in my bones, I feel it like no other. Yet, if I identify with it too much, then I'd never get anything worthwhile done. Yes, I want to block off time (and I definitely should), but this year has shown me that my plans for life are utterly useless. I just have to ride the wave, and catch some creative air whenever I can.

There's also this adjacent idea that when I sit down to meditate, I all of a sudden begin to feel itchy or uncomfortable in my body. All of me, within and without, wants to squirm, and move, and get the hell out of there. Yet, if I push through I'll reap the reward of the settling of my mind. The settling of all these unsettling thoughts we carry with us, and that we just accept as reality on a daily basis. This everyday (and unchecked) busyness - and also, this busy state of mind - allows room for fear and doubt to set in in a way that feels extra-permanent. That's a scary thought! When this state starts to resemble your reality, then it's time to shake up the routine vigorously.

One last quick thought before I sign off. I've been tinkering with this idea about building community, and also about creating a live community event. I had plans to have an event running by early in the last quarter of this year, and then life smacked me in the face and ran me over. As a result, I spent the summer working from Orlando, and it's only been about two weeks since we've been back in our home on the west coast of Florida. The summer months spent with family in Central Florida were fun, busy, intense, and sometimes stressful with a whole new routine that I had to put in place.

Now that we're back, I'm revisiting this live community event concept. I have many ideas on how to connect the local creative community, but nothing is confirmed yet - and especially not the timeline. What I really wanted to do here is put the idea out in public so that it's much harder to just let it go by the wayside. I naively thought I could keep the original timeline, but that's not looking very feasible. Right now, it's looking more like end of the year or early 2027 to be able to pull it off.

In the meantime, I'm experimenting with building an online community. Right now, I have a barebones structure built in my Lucesca Creative WhatsApp community, which you can easily (and for free) check out HERE. Please don't judge me too harshly if you get radio silence from me for moments at a time. I've basically been sharing stuff with myself to test the capabilities of the Communities feature on this platform. It's a work in progress, but I've decided to make the link public for those interested in continuing the conversation. I already have a few groups set up within the community, and I'll also be adding one that allows me to add more resources connected to what I speak about in this newsletter. Feel free to drop by and just say hello, it would be excellent to hear from you.

Oh yeah! Connecting to this idea of taking risks from the last edition of Recoveco, I took a chance and ended up doing two guided meditations at my day job for an online wellness group that they host monthly. I was nervous as heck, but it was such a fulfilling experience. The feedback I received was very positive, and it's got me thinking that perhaps I should record a version of this to share more widely with others.

As always, If interested or curious about my artist development services, whether it be audio engineering, music publishing, distribution, consulting, or anything in between, I’d be happy to hear from you. If we follow each other on social media, feel free to send me a DM. We can also chat in the Lucesca Creative Community or just send a few words to [email protected].

‘til next time! Abrazos!