What Is Your Quintessence?

          Hi. My name is Joelle, I'm 24, and music is the only thing in life that has ever made me quintessentially* ecstatic. I've been told I make very interesting faces at concerts (shrugs awkwardly).

       Music saved my life. When I was 16, I had to stop my dance career because of a sustained injury, and I fell into a horribly dark mentality. When I started writing music, my life had meaning again, and now I know that I'm meant to do something with music.

       The world needs music; something that transcends language, culture, belief, and opinion-- something that brings people together. And I intend to contribute to that. 

          Please join me on my journey; I can't do this alone. God has given me the ability to create, and I just wish I knew how to share that. At the moment, I can barely get people to share my two official songs. They listen, and then they forget. I need to figure out how to get the opposite result: sharing, being inspired and thinking and moving forward.
           It takes a village; we need to support each other. Is there anything I can encourage you with? Email me or comment below.
           Share your dreams and make them stronger!

           With encouragement, 
           Joelle


P.S. 
My new braces have moved my teeth just enough that the molars don't currently touch enough to chew, so I now want to impart unto you, my dear reader, the joy for and realization of the extreme under-appreciation that we as a species have for chewing. 
Thank you.


* Quin·tes·sence   /ˌkwinˈtesəns/   noun. 
1. The most perfect example of something.
2. The central, most refined essence of an idea or substance.

YOU'RE GONNA DIE IN SEVEN DAYS!

DEAR
     Worriers:
           Since the beginning of time, humanity has had an obsession with the future. We try to predict the future. We try to control the future. We worry.

            Worry is fear while it is still curious.

           Worry is simply some degree of insecurity about the future. Why is it we worry so much about things we can't control? Why is it we can't simply let go?

       'Since time immemorial humans have longed to learn that which the future holds for them. Thus, in ancient civilization, and even today with fortune telling as a true profession, humankind continues to be curious about its future, both out of sheer curiosity as well as out of the desire to better prepare for it..."

-Rabbi Ronald H. Isaacs

           God gives you next to nothing about your specific future in the Bible. In such an insecure world where there is so much hostility and war and famine and pain, why would God be so vague about our future? Why would God tell us so much about Jesus' future and not ours?

     'Therefore, I tell you the truth: do not worry. Who of you by worrying can add a single moment to your life?'

-Matthew 6:27 NIV

          I think the reason is because we will have trouble no matter what. We will go through difficult times no matter what. Do we really want to know about all of the terrible things to come? That will only make us worry more, and stop concentrating on the here and now, which is what matter most. We will walk through the shadow of the valley of death. I can't speak for anyone else, but I can say that I certainly don't want to know about the darkness in my future. I have a hard enough time dealing with life as it is.

            This is where I begin to come to a conclusion: the goal of this life is not to figure out the future- it is to love. It is to better the lives of those around us. And when you wake up in the night in a cold sweat and feel scared and alone, know that the creator of the universe holds your future in his very hands. He is with you in every moment.

The goal is not to figure everything out. The goal is to know that God will help us through everything.

            Try not to worry. It may not seem like it, but the universe is on your side.

With Hopefully Receding Pensiveness,

Joélle.