Andrew McMahon: The whole world, myself included, seem to have one thi...

You can't control what goes on around you, you can't. But for me, I think there's staples of these moments, that crazy moment where you think you're indestructible. That moment where you find out that you're not. And then that moment where all of a sudden you go, okay, I'm not indestructible but I'm gonna be okay. You have this life, and we all have these lives we live but it takes a bit of learning before you realize not every drama's going to kill you and not every hard day has to lead to another one.

Andrew McMahon

crazy drama thinking

And seemingly as winter has become spring, confusion has become insight.

Andrew McMahon

confusion winter spring

With each new day it becomes more apparent to me that everything and everyone in this world is connected in some beautiful and inexplicable way, and the more I accept that, the more my world seems to come together.

Andrew McMahon

together beautiful new-day

You don't have to push or pull or fight or win, the struggle is illusory. Sometimes or rather, all times, you just have to be.

Andrew McMahon

fighting struggle winning

Today I felt like a part of something awesome, the human race. I know it can be ugly; it really is in so many ways. But today there was nothing ugly to see, just people trying to be better. And maybe that's the key. Not resolutions and forgotten promises, but instead a commitment to do this year a little better than the last. I'm feeling good about this one. I really am.

Andrew McMahon

keys race commitment

Things are fragile, but we're all being carried and I think we're all on our path in that sense. As fragile as things are, we're still getting there.

Andrew McMahon

enlightening path thinking

I am lucky. I did not choose this life. It chose me. It's strange like that; not picking my path, but rather easing into the water and letting it carry me where it will. Yes, there will be nights where I feel like my destiny is at my fingertips and there will be nights I wish the lights were off and I could just make these sounds in the dark. Still, I will always be there, wherever there might be, staring into blackness hoping the blackness stares back at me.

Andrew McMahon

destiny dark night

It's always strange to read the things you've hoped for in the past because by now those hopes may be spoken for or gone, transformed or altogether forgotten. Like time, hope can be so senseless. It can carry us up mountains or lie us in the quicksand. But like time, hope is unstoppable, inevitable, and blind. Sometimes we travel fast, hurdling towards the unknown, sometimes the unknown comes hurdling towards us while we watch time standing still.

Andrew McMahon

mountain lying past

I think human beings make life beautiful. There's a lot of beauty in everything. I think what makes life beautiful is the ability to acknowledge that.

Andrew McMahon

carpe-diem beautiful life

It's easy to love the snow because at the end of every snowstorm it's as if the world has started over. There is no dirt, no footprints, just a layer of seamless, indiscriminate nature connecting everything to everything else. Isn't that the amazing thing about the natural world? You can tear it down, you can drill holes in it, you can ignore its power with all your might, but one morning you wake up and it has selflessly given despite all of our abuse. I think I'll make a snowman.

Andrew McMahon

snow morning thinking

The present's just a pleasant interruption to the past.

Andrew McMahon

interruptions pleasant past

Suddenly it makes sense again. In no haze of mindfulness, staring down at this snow-covered quilt of America, I am the stars exploding. Voice shot down to hell, half sick, half recovered, alive and well and ready. The unknown for now will remain as such and in this moment that feeling is not one of suspension. It is the hopeful unknown. Reaching into the future could only be good now as the past is wrapping itself in ribbons and pleasant packing paper, rarely to be revisited.

Andrew McMahon

quilts stars past

I have a really hard time connecting to music that doesn't feel like I'm somehow solving a puzzle that applies to my life.

Andrew McMahon

connecting hard-times feels

I'm Doctor McMahon with a Ph.D. in sweet-ass rock with an emphasis in set list creation.

Andrew McMahon

doctors rocks sweet

No matter how solid or structured or set you think you are, there is, you know, a very thin line keeping us all from sort of chaos, in some perspective. And you know, I don't view that really as a negative thing at all, but it just is the truth.

Andrew McMahon

perspective views thinking

You're gonna get thrown curve balls left and right, and that's just the way it goes.

Andrew McMahon

curves balls way

I have found that searching for insight is more often than not a path to total darkness

Andrew McMahon

enlightening darkness path

I think that's the most important thing: when life kind of screws you over a little bit, you've got to learn from that experience.

Andrew McMahon

important littles thinking

But planes land and so do I, and suns rise, melting away the grounds cool protection. I am finally free, if only for this moment. And should that be the case, then know that I am throwing a parade in first class as I speak. Art has again saved my life, my love and me. What next? Who really cares? Certainly a toast will be in order. Make mine a double.

Andrew McMahon

land order art

If I've learned anything over the past 5 years, it's that you do not know where you're going to be tomorrow. You have to make decisions based on that; it's almost pointless. So, you know, whether I learned, I think I'm pretty aware, pretty conscious of that point to live in the moment. It's a hard lesson, but it's like, I'm trying to learn to quiet my mind down, know what I mean?

Andrew McMahon

mean past thinking

The whole world, myself included, seem to have one thing in common; we're just a crowd of people who don't really fit in anywhere attempting to convince one another that we do. I guess I'll put my sunglasses on and pretend, like everyone else, that I too belong here.