Hello Everyone,

I trust that you are in full Holiday mode at this point, complete with Christmas parties, ugly sweaters, white elephant gifts and the all consuming Christmas shopping. I wanted to take a moment to talk about something that is near and dear to my heart, and could potentially help some of you.

Life seems to turn into a whirlwind in a hurry. Between work and family, your daily routines and the some times monotonous errands of everyday life, and then bam! the holidays are here again? I swear we just did this, right?! I promise I have point, hang in there..

Some of you might not know this, but Real Estate can be a stressful business. As a young professional I recently was thinking to myself during a particularly stressful transaction, I need something to help unwind, decompress, and take my mind off of work when I get home, however late that might be. Then the answer came in a blast from the past. You see, I used to play the piano when I was a youngster growing up in Austin TX. I had a knack for it, or at least my Mom always told me I did 😉 but I decided that the one big piece that was missing was the lack of art in my life. I don’t know about you, but I haven’t utilized that side of my brain in quite some time and it was surely lacking in my life. I decided it was time to change all that. I found an old friend who still teaches piano lessons, found a cheap piano on craigslist, and 100 rehearsals of Beethoven’s 5th later, Presto!

Aside from driving my Wife insane with playing the same songs over and over again, this has been just the change I needed in my life. Playing the piano, using both hands and sometimes feet while reading music doesn’t allow for much outside thought to linger, and really helps alleviate the stress of the day! I hope this little diatribe helps someone who may be in the same place I was not all that long ago looking for something, anything small to help decompress. Besides, I believe we could always use a lot more musicians out there, more fans of the arts, and calmer, less stressed people wouldn’t hurt either! So My hope for you is that through the turmoil of the holidays, work, and life, you get a chance to find your Piano as well.

-Ryan Oswald