What sound does your life make?

Last night I had a great opportunity to go and see "The Celebrity Dance Event" for The Spring as well as see Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) perform. It was an exciting night filled with music, laughter and a lot of running. It reminded me of the movie 27 Dresses because she would go back and forth to weddings to be a part of it all. Well that is what Carissa Caricato and I did last night...We went back and forth, and did it all-in one night.

We started at the Dance event, so that we could see our friend Aakash Patel perform, he did fantastic. We then went over to the theater adjacent and watched this "DBR" as they call him. I really had no idea what he would be like, considering the fact that all I knew about him was that he played "hip hop violin." With everyone anxiously awaiting in the dark, we began to hear some music from the DJ (Elan Vytal), with an occasional spin from the turn table. DBR began to play and then in a Haitian accent I hear, "My Haitian mother always told me to always bring a gift when you go into some one's home and my Haitian father always told me to always walk with grace." And from there he started playing his violin. The lights came on and there stood a man with dreadlocks down to his knees and energy like I have never seen before. I know most of you are thinking, "oook weird." But I do not think that I would do it justice if I tried to put my experience into words. It was truly an amazing evening.

A quote from his website:

A musical exploration between contrasting cultures and instruments of classical and pop music. The violin, the keyboards, the turntables and the laptop will sing, battle and rhyme together, honoring a full spectrum of musical inventions.

Amidst this eclectic encounter, Daniel asked something that penetrated me far deeper than his music...He asked, "what is the sound of your life?" I am sure that there are many different interpretations of this internal interrogation, however, I felt like he was asking all of us in layman's terms "What does your life stand for, what does it mean?" I'd like to think that we all make music by the way we life our lives. It is kind of like the statement "He/she dances to the beat of their own drum." Everyone has a melody that is essentially our legacy. What are we going to leave with people?

There is a beautiful verse in the bible that states: (1 Corinthians 13:1) "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."

When someone meets me, can they tell how much I love the Lord? Can they tell how much I value my family? Do they know that my friends are dear to me? Do they know that I care about them even only after 5 seconds? Can they tell that I am honest, and so on? It is so easy to take every human encounter lightly, but you have to remember that you are leaving people with your sound, with your song, what does it sound like? We all know what it is like to hear a song that greatly disturbs us. Are you that to others, or are you a beautiful symphony that soothes a stranger's soul?

We can either choose to harmonize and enhance or clash and crash. What will you do? Will you love? What sound does your life make?

Daniel, thank you for bringing us your gift and walking with grace..