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The Long Point Biosphere Reserve

The Importance of Being Uncomfortable

The actor, Ashton Kutcher, once said, “I’m continually trying to make choices that put me against my own comfort zone. As long as you’re uncomfortable, it means you’re growing.” This sentiment particularly resonates with me. I tend to strive on having everything exactly the way I want it. I’m very particular. I function best with […]

Summer 2021

5 Things Iā€™m Looking Forward to This Summer

1. Scoring. I just blinked and have realized that many of my compositions for acoustic instruments need their score (aka sheet music) to be updated. In the past, I have had a love-hate relationship in prepping the score and parts for my compositions. But I’m feeling excited about getting these revisions done. I’m proud of […]

Good Friday Isolation

Today’s Outlook

I look out the window and everything is quiet. Toronto remains in lockdown but it’s also a holiday…Good Friday. It’s also 1 week before the new album comes out. Something that started as a reaction to the pandemic and it’s become one of my most special musical and life experiences. Normally, such an experience would […]

Am I Good Enough? (photo by Hello I'm Nik ? on Unsplash)

I Am (Not Good) Enough

When I’m feeling depressed, the words “I Am Not Good Enough” can easily roll through my mind. As a musician and composer, it’s easy to feel that way when someone says no to you or you get a rejection letter. What’s interesting about the phrase, “I Am Not Good Enough”, is that if you remove […]

Happiness in a Troubled World album by Frank Horvat

Me and The Dalai Lama

Lately, I have been reading and re-reading The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World, by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, MD. I have never had the opportunity to meet his Holiness but after reading this book and him sharing his wisdom on life, I feel like I have. If you’ve […]

2021 (Photo by Jude Beck on Unsplash)

Hopes and Dreams for 2021

Happy New Year! Here are my hopes and dreams for this coming year… Despite the threat of COVID, the flu or any other disease, everyone will get a chance to make themselves as healthy as possible so their body can fight off any pesky intruders that come their way. Everyone get’s a chance to feel […]

Building a New World (Photo by Dewang Gupta on Unsplash)

Positive Emotions and Building a New World

I’m currently reading the book, The Art of Happiness in a Troubled World, by His Holiness The Dalai Lama and Howard C. Cutler, MD. In Chapter 13, The Dalai Lama says… “This tendency to relate to each other on the basis of what differentiates us is so prevalent in today’s society. It’s given great importance […]

News (Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash)

My News Sources

In this day and age where the media’s integrity seems to be constantly questioned, I make it a point of ensuring that I regularly visit as many news sites as I can to ensure that I’m getting diverse points of views and frames of interpretation of what’s happening in the world. This includes local sources […]

Small Business

Discrimination Against Small Business

Toronto, the city I call home, is presently under a lockdown due to a rise in cases of COVID these past number of weeks. Now when I use the term “lockdown”, that does not mean people are not allowed to go anywhere or all businesses are closed. In fact, if you want to go to […]

Poverty Gap (Photo by Thomas de LUZE on Unsplash)

Worldā€™s Getting Sicker…Rich Getting Richer

Here are some things that I find very concerning… The unemployment rate in the US got to a record high of 14.7% when the pandemic began.1 Since then it has fallen to 7.9% yet millions of Americans continue to not be able to find a job.2 Meanwhile, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos saw his net worth […]

Daisy

Critiquing Self-Criticism

Sigh…self-criticism has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. Being a musician isn’t exactly the best type of pastime to avoid such a mental activity. Like many aspiring musicians, being critical of myself was part of my daily routine. When you’re trying to master something, it is near impossible to […]

Balcony

Getting Back to Important Little Things!

It doesn’t take much to get off course from important life habits. As disciplined as I tend to be, I’m also prone to getting off course with important everyday things. That’s not to say that I stopped completely, but I just haven’t been doing these important things as much as usual. Example 1, going for […]

Second wave (Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash)

The Second Wave Cometh

The whole point of having a blog is to share my thoughts and feelings and have people read them. So I’m not doing a good job of that if I pick topics to write about that people don’t want to think about. But for this post, I’ll do it anyway…the second wave of COVID-19. If […]

Photo by Angelina Kichukova on Unsplash

The Virtue of Rest

During the Pandemic, I am so grateful that I have been able to stay busy. Despite the shutdowns and isolation, I actually feel like it’s been even more busy than usual working on a number of great creative projects. Thanks to technology, I have also been able to continue to see most of my students […]