I walk five miles most days. This relatively new habit means exploring the neighborhood more thoroughly than my minimalist shopping habits could ever produce. Today, a sign in the window of Treehouse Records stopped me in my tracks.
LOVE YOU
BYE
Wow! Who does that? Who closes a long time, brick and mortar, music business with LOVE YOU BYE?
I didn’t know the story of this place but LOVE YOU BYE made me need to know. So google. It turns out Treehouse Records has been around for decades (in one form or another) and the owner is doing the thing I teach every day. He’s releasing what no longer serves him to make space for what's next.
“I'm looking forward to doing something else with my life. I'm not moving on because business is bad. I own the buildings. I could keep doing this. But... it feels like it's time to move on.” - Mark Trehus, when interviewed by Kare11 news
He didn’t run it into the ground. He didn’t stay until he’d lost everything in the name of his dream. He flail around trying to reverse the inevitable evolution of the music industry. He held his collaboration with this place, and with this community of music lovers and consumers, loosely enough to be able to recognize when it was no longer true. And then he let go. This is such an invitation.
Let us be brave enough to let go when it is time to make space for something new, to remember that this is not Hotel California and we can check out any time we want to leave. Let's be committed enough to our communities to invest real dollars in the people and places we want to still be here tomorrow. And most importantly, let us remember to invest in our own dreams!
Take a moment right now to check in with yourself. Are you holding your dreams loosely enough to give them space to evolve? Do the people and places where you spend your time and energy still feel true for you? Is there something important resting on the back burner that you're ready to make space to pursue? Whatever it is that rose when you read this, know that it matters... that you matter. And if you need support to make it happen, I am here.
Photo by Valentino Funghi
