Last night I went through so much!! It all happened after reading a comment of @Chanie Twersky in this post. I cried ALOT realizing ALOT!! I realized that all my life I was ignoring the wants and needs of my soul and putting others first even if they don’t deserve it… If I could help - I always did. It felt like my duty. It felt like if I didn’t help when I can, I’d be a bad person. But some people do not deserve our energy, time and efforts. Reciprocity is a key factor. And, I am not saying to do things for others with an expectation of receiving something in return!! I am saying, that if there is a proven track record of this person consistently treating you like a doormat, set healthy boundaries!!! Protect yourself!!! Takers… just take! It’s up to US to lay those boundaries. And something to be said about… sometimes we just outgrow friendships. And we got to let go to let in… Do you regularly audit your “friends”?

I am forced to play by a friend whose dad passed away. She asked me to play piano and it just didn’t feel right to say no… So, I am doing it… at the moment I only have 2 keyboards that I can bring. One is a full sized (88 keys) rainbow colored one and the other one is small (61 keys) but black… He was a big shot in the music industry and musicians from all over the world are flying in for his funeral. There will be all kinds of musicians playing… I have no idea what I will play but not worried about that - I can always slap hours of anything playing… I am more concerned about wearing colors (like in the photo) and my having matching rainbow keyboard… The small black one is just very restricting… Would it be inappropriate to be full on colored and sparkly at a funeral!?? 🤷‍♀️ What are your thoughts on this?

I love funnies!! Everyone can use a lil laugh, no? I did share a funny earlier this week already in this post cuz I couldn’t fckn wait till today. But I will share one more in here!! Happy Friday and if it’s in the flow, let’s get together at our Friday Tribe Fiesta starting in an hour! Maybe we will go some more holiday music?

Hi Tribers - we here, started as piano community in April. The point was to learn piano, stay motivated, improve skillset, meet friends that are likeminded. And then, we started getting in Tribers that do not play piano but play all kinds of other different instruments. We also have been getting in a lot of Tribers that do not play any instruments but like to vibe with us. A ton! I came to Skool cuz I had 2 back to back accidents and had to cancel a summer European tour (AND BURNING MAN!!!!) and needed to go to therapy 5 days a week and stay put… I made a piano community cuz I was new to Skool and knew that there is a learning curve - so I picked the lowest hanging fruit… for me… PIANO — as I have been playing and teaching worldwide for the past 30+ years… with great success! So why not use the piano tribe as a learning ground and help a ton of people in the process?!! But, I am not gonna lie, I just can’t. I say it how it is and often people don’t like it, but oh well… Piano only - felt, umm restricted… to me… believe it or not… that’s the truth!!!! I also produce my own music — in different genres and even became a DJ — so I can spin my own records… cuz none of my DJ friends wanted to spin them — the tracks were either too complicated or too long until getting to the point or had too much classical piano in them — pretty much “too sh1tty” lol, to be spun in a club setting… Even when I founded Alexandrova School of Music in 2010 and included more instruments and teachers in our curriculum - still felt restricted and not to mention I was close to burnout the majority of time due to overwhelming amount of quality control that was required from me. I gradually slowed that down… In 2020 (we all know what happened then) I founded V1B1N - and did a series of virtual worldwide fundraisers for victims of natural disasters (typhoons, tsunamis, wild fires, hurricanes, etc). The collected funds were going directly to the associated charities and I have not taken a dollar from those.