Tuesday 28 October 2014

The circumstances that birthed Miksy's Playground

It's been a while folks!

While browsing the web, I found the Miksy's Playground launch video on a 3rd party site. I watched it and was reminded of a time not so long ago when I had almost nothing (materialistically speaking).

Back then I had recently been diagnosed with adrenal burnout and had chronic fatigue after writing a 200+ page thesis (excluding Appendix) on a specific branch of Music Theory. I needed a well-deserved break after almost 7 years of tertiary study (and gigging on the side).

After a few months of rest, I could finally bear the thought of trying to do something again. Those of you with chronic fatigue know that the idea of having to do even the simplest task is extremely draining.
But I didn't want to do just anything - no. This was way too risky. My motivation was low, my energy was lower and all I wanted was to regain my strength and live life.
It was during this time that I came to realize there were really only 2 things I wanted to do.
1) do some low energy craft activities for amusement, joy and satisfaction (hopefully to aid recovery)
2) write and produce music.
 
The frustration was great though, because even if I did have energy to write music, I had no resources to do it and no money and savings as I spent most of that on my studies! I also couldn't put myself in the workplace yet, because I was too sick.
It was as if God had placed me in a corner.



But this corner was not a rock and a hard place. It was more like an incubator!
Option 1 appealed to me because I felt like I could perhaps do this and start building my strength, but option 2 was really what I wanted to work towards. How on earth could I use 1) to get to 2)?
And instead of over-thinking it, I just started Miksy's Playground.

There have been many little bits that I left out. For instance it would have not happened without my crazy-supportive boyfriend at the time (now husband) and my family - especially my mommy, who fed me all this time! - and community that bought sour yoghurt from me and braved winter with a hot-water-bottle-holder-upper. This support has been the invested currency that has kept me going through the tough times (and there are always tough times!)

It's been over a year now, and I wouldn't have believed back then the amount of composition and production projects I would have been involved in if it hadn't been for these little fundraisers.

My studio is far from complete, but daily God is growing my passion for music and the industry and my desire to form meaningful relationships in the process.

Perhaps you can take that tiny step towards the thing you feel might make you truly come alive?
It could be reading that book you've wanted to read, sleep more so that you can do more or start an extreme sport or your own business. No matter how daunting or impossible it seems, just take a baby step in the right direction. That is, after all, the only one step that really counts.
<3

@MaikeWatson
www.soundcloud.com/maike-watson


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