"The litmus test [for success] is a feeling of gratitude." - Byron Katie
Many people have great aspirations. They believe that if they learn more about the thing they want to do (usually this involves taking many expensive courses), they will one day be able to manifest their dreams.
Often they are in jobs that do not satisfy their creative potential. The jobs are just so they can survive while they continue to seek that which they seem to lack: the key to their fulfillment.
The years go by. Now they are in their 40's. Now their 50's. Now their 60's.
Meanwhile I just keep following my bliss, doing what I do with a deep sense of satisfaction, knowing that it is what I am meant to do.
Meanwhile, thousands of people from all over the world discover the joy of drumming through me. I meet amazing people, including some really famous people, because of what I do. I get to travel to foreign countries. I visit prisons and convents, homeless shelters and million-dollar mansions.
All the activities that turned me on as a child are utilized in my vocation: acting, singing, dancing, composing, being funny, helping people, teaching, performing.
And then there are those times when I am lost in the rhythm, when I disappear into it and I am being drummed. My body thrills and every part of it melts in the ecstasy of the holistic expression of rhythm.
When those times happen, I believe that my whole life was worth it. All the pain, the trauma, the suffering -- it was all worth it.
To know that I have arrived, to understand that there is nothing I need aspire to because I am at every moment at the pinnacle of my success, to see my life play out before me as a dream more wonderful and exciting than mere imagination could have ever conceived - this is what the Spirit of the Drum has given me.
Ashé, Ashé!
– Simone LaDrumma
