See the Love There That's Sleeping

I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
~While My Guitar Gently Weeps, George Harrison

Yesterday after we spent a somewhat frustrating morning getting my surround sound system hooked up, I pulled out an old DVD to check sound levels and quality. The DVD I grabbed is one I've been wanting to re-watch for quite a while now, and just haven't had the chance to. It was The Concert for George that was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 29 November 2002 as a memorial to George Harrison on the first anniversary of his death. I remember the first time I watched it, I was flattened by the experience. It happened all over again.
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at the floor and I see it needs sweeping
Still my guitar gently weepsI don't know why nobody told you
how to unfold your love
I don't know how someone controlled you
they bought and sold you
~While My Guitar Gently Weeps, George Harrison

The concert included such notables as Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison (George's son and spittin' image), Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Joe Brown, Jools Holland, and Billy Preston, along with several others. I was struck by the wealth of talent all gathered together on one stage, by their willingness to share their talent with each other (and all of us), and by their humility in playing their friend's music as a way of honoring him. And what greater honor could there be to George than to spend an evening rockin' out with his tunes?
I look at the world and I notice it's turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps
~While My Guitar Gently Weeps, George Harrison

However, what really deeply struck me was watching their faces and noting that these were people who passionately love what they do... so ardently that it's obvious they couldn't imagine doing anything else with their lives. They weren't just sharing their talent, they were sharing their passion. I love seeing that in a person, no matter what that passion is. I don't care what the person's propensity is aimed toward. If a person's groove is mopping floors and that's what they're getting to do, the love for it will show and it'll flow out to affect (infect) others.
I don't know how you were diverted
you were perverted too
I don't know how you were inverted
no one alerted you
~While My Guitar Gently Weeps, George Harrison

I've made practically no money at all, but in past months I've been striving to do what I love doing - to be an artist. I've never been more broke, but I've never been more satisfied. Yeah, it's easy to say that (in some respect) since I can't find a job, but it's also the truth. Further, I've noticed that people around me look at me as if I'm beautiful, as if there's some sort of light glowing in the attic window on a dark night... almost (annoyingly so) as if I've got some special secret that they don't. I don't have a secret. We all have at least one thing that we love to do, one thing that fuels our internal fire like nothing else does. I'm no different than anyone else... neither are the likes of Clapton, or Rembrandt, or Cousteau, or... you get the idea.
I look at you all see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps
I look at you all
Still my guitar gently weeps
~While My Guitar Gently Weeps, George Harrison

Please, please, please... find that one thing. Do it. Don't worry about recognition or perfection or criticism or whatever it is in your pile of fear that holds you back. Do it with all the love that it stirs in you and with all the love you stir while doing it. I'm sure at some point, maybe before he met John, Paul and Ringo, George sat in some coldwater flat, strumming his guitar, thinking, "The world is going by and I'm just sitting here in a hovel, playing a fucking guitar..." But he loved it, so he did it.

Do it. Enact a new paradigm. The world won't change until you change your world.

~While My Guitar Gently Weeps, George Harrison