Do What You Love....

Do what you love, the rest comes, take it easy.  Those were the words that spoke to me on a poster in a bus stop a few years ago.  I've never forgotten them.  The poster was a photo of a saxophone player, blowing into his horn, leaning with his back up against the side of a brick building, one foot propped on the wall, alone, crying out in the night...I could almost hear the soulful voice of his horn.
Do what you love, the rest comes, take it easy. 
Very zen.  And yet it was an advertisement for Southern Comfort. 
When I was fifteen, I drank Southern Comfort with a few friends of mine.  It was a crisp clear winter night.  Crunchy snow on the ground, we huddled together.  The liquor went down like liquid lightning.
But I digress.
Last Friday I returned to busking on the streets of Philadelphia from the back woods of Maine.  It was a good night.  Some familiar faces.  Many new ones.  Nods, and smiles and tips.....
I ran into Clinton, my jazz-trumpet busking mentor.  We chatted, talked about busking beyond Philadelphia.  New York City.  Key West.  The different vibes...just happy to be playing. 
It was a slow night for tips, for both of us.  But we both shrugged it off and smiled.  After all, that wasn't why we were out playing.
It's a only about the playing.  And the people we meet.   When we're playing, we're good.  I told him about the Southern Comfort poster, the zen quote.  Words to live by, he said.
Yes, do what you love, the rest comes, take it easy.
Aum.