Last week was Malcolm and my official first week of work as startup entrepreneurs in proximity to one another. We are not starting off fresh as spring daisies, but we are present and passionate.

For the past several years, Malcolm and I have been working together from a distance with very intermittent opportunities to work in person. Whenever we have worked together in person, it has become immediately apparent that we are far more effective and find the experience enjoy more enjoyable.

Malcolm arrived in Arizona last Wednesday, and there has been little time for quiet contemplation. We spent a good chunk of Thursday practicing for our first paid gig at Prescott College for the PhD Symposium. It was a no small ordeal, as we found out. We played during meals and offered 20-minute creative interludes activities where we taught people songs and how to use their bodies to become percussion instruments. We offered a songwriting workshop for the graduating students where each student had the opportunity to contribute phrases and stories in what became a collaborative song. In just under an hour, we developed a refrain and devised a series of phrases that students could sing out, shout, or speak between renditions of the refrain.

We then performed at the celebration party that evening at Prescott College’s Sam Hill Art Gallery. At the end of the performance, I made an announcement that we would be singing the song we had written that afternoon. I walked out into the crowd in search of graduates who might sing a line or make up a new one. I felt a bit like a DJ at a Bar or Bat Mitzvah and wondered if I was making my Jewish ancestors from the entertainment industry proud.

Sunday may have been a day of rest for the lord in his creation of the known world; however, for us songwriters there was no rest for the weary from the work of creating beauty and opportunities for healing through music.

We met with women from my yoga intensive studies cohort, who we excited to try songwriting on for size. I would say it was a good fit. Malcolm and I always learn about ourselves and each and how to be better musical sherpas with each workshop we offer. This was a remarkable gathering, small and intimate, with a group of individuals versed in vulnerability and ways to offer love and support to each other. In less than two hours, we had a refrain with three possible grooves, and I felt an even deeper kinship and appreciation for the souls in the room.

Finally time to rest? Yes!

We had a quiet afternoon with time outdoors and visiting with friends and family, human and canine and feline alike.

Stay tuned for semaine no. 2, coming to a blog near you very soon!