In my journeys I have been accompanied by some amazing people whom I'm proud to call friends. Over the next few weeks I hope to introduce you to some of them. Today I get to start with my friend Laura Martin, who makes music from the heart.

My name is Laura.

I'm a musician struggling out in the world to make a difference. I've been told on numerous occasions that if I ever want to 'make it' I have to view myself and my music as a product or a business over seeing myself as a person. This is something I've struggled with for a very long time for multiple reasons, the first being that I've always had a hard time valuing my own ability and the second...well...what I love about music is the heart behind it and something about selling myself seems too separate from my goal of connection.
That's what music is to me, connection. I listen to music to feel something, to relate, laugh, smile, dance...it's all feeling. I've recently started promoting myself on every social media I could find but in doing so I don't feel any closer to my goals.
I grew up in a small town in New Mexico and recently moved to Austin, Texas in hopes of pursuing my music career and expanding what I know of the world. It feels incredible to be a part of such a large city as opposed to a tiny little town that closes by 9. There is music and art everywhere I look and I don't think I've ever felt more inspired. Being here has finally opened my eyes to what I truly want, what will make me happy.I realized that it's not the idea of fame or fans (though support and ego stroking are wonderful things) that keeps my passion for music going, it's breathing it. Living it. In a place like this you don't have to go out and find the 'music scene' because it's everywhere. I don't think I understood just how desperately I needed to move to a place that was bursting with creative people, people who appreciate any and every talent.

Here, I am not a business or a product, I am that girl at the open mic with the cool guitar. My music has made me a part of a community, a part of a group where I feel accepted and appreciated, known or unknown. I feel welcomed. Thanks Austin, TX for embracing me with open arms and making me feel more at home than ever before. With my incredible husband and my beautiful guitar by my side, I feel so alive and determined to share who I am and what I love as humbly and honestly as I can. Thanks, Debbie for letting me share that with you and your readers.

If you want to stay posted on my adventures here in Austin, check out my blog at http://www.facebook.com/l/wAQBvq3bmAQBgWmHC6ciyMNGilK9MmXLfW7vOKdqWOnP3ZQ/guitarlady.wordpress.com/That link should take you where you need to go! That's all for now!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for many more wonderful blogs from the intelligent, witty, talented and beautiful Debbie Doggett.

Blowing in the wind

Seventeen years ago, my life, which I had trusted up till then, kicked me out onto a freaking highway with traffic whizzing by me on all sides.  With very little warning I found myself scrambling to pull together some semblance of a new path that wouldn’t allow me to be run over by a passing whim of fate.  I told myself I should see this as a second chance, a do-over in which I could change some things.  And I did.  I made choices, good and bad, and learned there is a great deal of possibility in the universe.  I finished the obligations and responsibilities I’d begun before my detour and felt a sense of satisfaction with their outcome. 

Today I stopped the car and got out of my own free will.  Perhaps it’s wrong to try an old technique to gain a new perspective but I thought, hey, it worked before.  And this way I have a small bit of control over the impending consequences.  Or at least a bit of warning that they’re coming.  Every fool has his mantra and mine seems to be “change”.  Back all those years ago I lost the belief that life has any sort of permanency beyond letting us wake up and breathe enough mornings to call our existence living.  Then one day, true to its nature, it changes the plan on us.

At least this is the truth for some of us.  There are those out there who have lives with connections that keep them in place, like tie-downs in case of windstorms.  They don’t get blown off path and they never feel like they’ve been chunked out into a maelstrom.  But there are some of us who the universe apparently sees as dandelion seeds, meant to be carried along by the wind for the purpose of planting a kind of beauty not everyone can accept.  Or meant to blow in that selfsame wind until we reach the next plane of existence.  We touch down now and then, to plant bits of this and that along the way before we’re taken off on another torrent of change to face new landscapes, new highways.  And we always hope that what we leave behind roots and grows, allowing us a legacy of beauty that is some comfort along the road.