Growing up, one of our favorite regularly watched movies was The Sound of Music. I bring this up because I learned a phrase of great importance from the main character, Maria Von Trapp. Maria sings for us to “start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.” Taking Maria’s advice, I suppose that is where we will start with this blog post. (Our first blogpost! Woohoo!)
In August, 2017 our family took a vacation to Newport Beach, California. We scrunched together in the car and after a 14+ hour drive we arrived at Newport Beach. We had a lovely week of swimming, eating and simply enjoying being in the sun with our 110 SPF sunscreen and full length suits on to protect us. (More on our #gingerproblems in a later blog post.)
As we drove to the adventure that each day held, we (Arielle, Melou and I) would start singing in three part harmony to pass the time. Something very sweet happened on one of these occasions. We were singing the hymn “How Great Thou Art” and the harmony clicked in and felt good. The kinesthetic energy was tangible. It was like the car was full of light. All of a sudden I had a very specific idea. I thought, “We should start a music group that releases good music attached to music videos which will be posted on social media.” I voiced the idea…and within 10 minutes we had a social media strategy developed. The group name came later. We decided that our brand, goal, purpose and vision would be to “spread light.” Everyone, including my dad and brother, was on board. With our handy iPhone, we decided to film our first music video right there on Crystal Cove Beach. The videographers for our first shoot were my 11 year old brother Isaac and my dad. How's that for an inauspicious start!
I worked to edit the footage we took to create the video that initiated our official launch. We decided that the first week of September 2017 was a great time to get going. We focused on that date; creating a website, Instagram handle, Facebook page and content. The preparation was fun and exciting, but there were also moments of doubt. Mostly in my own mind.
Music is a big part of my life. When I was in the womb my mom would sing to me. And every Sunday and sometimes during the week, the sounds of my mother’s organ strains must have penetrated my environment. (I don’t actually remember this but learned about it later.) When I was born I would likewise respond to her singing. (I don’t remember this either.) Since then, music has set my soul afire and performing has given and continues to give me an unparalleled rush of excitement. Suddenly in the time leading up to the launch, I had moments of fear. The idea of putting ourselves out there in a digital sense, became hugely more than simply performing for an audience on a single occasion. We were exposing ourselves for people to tell us what they thought and for people to tell us whether they liked what we produced. It was like taking a part of me, a part that I held so integral to my identity, and telling everyone to look at it. “What if they don’t like it?” I would think to myself. “What if they don’t like me?”
Frankly, I was afraid of rejection.
My mom, being the wise sage that she is, would remind me of our decided purpose. That purpose was to spread light. To put something out that can potentially help someone else. Ultimately, she would tell me, our music isn’t about us. She told me that our music is about you, dear reader. As long as we do our best to deliver something we can be proud of, which fulfills our purpose, we can be at peace. I realized that if I have faith in our purpose, then I could have faith that we will receive divine help to fulfill it. That erased any doubt I had. There was no longer any reason to doubt.
Over the ensuing 10 months since our launch, spreading light has been our main motive. It is the phrase that we go back to again and again as we finish a performance, a video or an interaction. It is through this idea that we strive to operate.
In life we are going to receive ideas, thoughts, impressions and promptings about a variety of things. Sometimes those idea might be so big that they scare you. Believe it or not, that’s a good thing. Pushing past the comfort level and doing hard things is what life is about. It helps initiate our personal growth. It helps initiate my personal growth.
Starting this blog is one of those ideas that has been bopping around my head for a while. So....tada!! In our Three Red blogs, we hope to give you a look into who we are, what we are doing as well as share some insights that we learn along our journey. To be honest and real with our beliefs and thoughts is a little scary for me, but I’m grateful for our THREE REDS team that encourages and pushes us along.