AUTHENTICITY

When I first started my spiritual path almost 30 years ago I read a lot about the qualities of the Buddha, and other awakened saints. I wanted those qualities in myself so I acted them out in my life. I acted honest, caring, compassion, wise and peaceful.

The problem was that I really wasn’t these qualities; I just wore them like a coat. They become my role, image or act.

Then, years later, came my real spiritual path. I started to acknowledge and accept all the judgement, lust, desire, arrogance and insecurity inside of me. All of which I tried to cover up with my act.

• By acknowledging these negative qualities to myself and others I became truly honest.
• By accepting these qualities in myself I became truly caring.
• Because I accepted these qualities in me, I started accepting them in others and so became truly compassionate.
• The process of self-acceptance is real wisdom.
• And the result of this work has been real peace in my life.

It seems like a cosmic joke to me that in acting compassionate, caring, wise and peaceful I was none of those things. I was actually arrogant and dishonest. But in the acceptance of my arrogance and the negative qualities I was covering up, real compassion, caring, wisdom and peace has arisen on its own.

While every single human being has their own individual act they play, I believe the process to the yummy qualities of honesty, caring, compassion, wisdom, and peace is the same. That process is self-acceptance; to love and embrace ourselves just as we are right now.

Allowing my authentic and real self to shine, un-restrained, has been my life’s work. It is my experience that when we accept ourselves just as we are that we then accept others just as they are. And this is how peace will come into our families, work places, and in the world. For it is un-acceptance of others how they are, and the insistence that they change, that causes wars.

Finding my musical voice has been an identical process. It has been a process of letting go of how I think a good musician should sound, and playing what feels authentic to me.

It is a lot less work to flow from an authentic inner place in life and in music, than it is to act a role. And after all, aren’t most of the jazz greats considered great because they brought their own unique voice into the world!!!

The State of Affairs 18 Months Later

It has been a bit over 18 months since I wrote my last State of Affairs for Theo Wanne Classic Mouthpieces. We have come a long way since introducing our first mouthpiece, the tenor AMMA, in summer of 2007. In that time, we have:

• Completed our tenor sax Pro-Line models: DURGA, KALI, AMMA, PARVATI and AMBIKA.
• Introduced many innovative saxophone accessories and products: pressure plates, measuring devices, ligatures, Stable Wood mouthpieces.
• Won the endorsement hearts of the top musicians in the world: Jeff Coffin (Bella Fleck and David Mathews Band), Jan Garbarek, Chris Potter, Jeff Rupert, Tim Price, Tom Politzer (Tower of Power) and even Lisa Simpson (Terry Harrington).
• Grown our dealer network worldwide.
• Seen wonderful participation in our online presence via our forum, YouTube channel, and Facebook.
• Drawn a very large number of visitors to our world-renowned saxophone mouthpiece resource site.
• Had three Patents approved with three more patents pending.

And, this quarter we are delighted to reach several new benchmarks:

• Release our first Baritone Pro-Line model, the DURGA Baritone.
• Double our capacity while increasing quality.
• Finish the design of several Alto models (due next month).

Growing a manufacturing business has its share of challenges. Balancing production with order fulfillment and new product development keeps everyone on their toes. Innovations, the heart of our business, are wonderful and exciting. Yet, new developments and patents, such as our patent pending manufacturing process, add layers of complexity to the puzzle.

It is all good. I love games – bring on the puzzles. We have certainly learned a lot these last few years. And, I know many more lessons will be learned in the years ahead. That is what keeps this business so fun and interesting.

We greatly appreciate the patience of our customers and dealers who have occasionally had longer than anticipated waits for back ordered pieces. Thank you. We are working hard to significantly reduce such delays.

We have put a lot of resources into increasing our capacity, vertically integrating our production, and further improving our very high standards for quality. The true benefits of all these efforts are showing up as we catch up on our last back orders and as we release new Baritone, Alto and even Soprano models throughout 2009.

This is now my 5^th year in the music industry. I grow fonder of it every day. I have met too many wonderful people to count. And. I am continuously amazed by the kindness, support and involvement from musicians and industry folk across the board.

This is a fun industry with great people!

I know Theo, like myself, gets tremendous satisfaction that we are bringing value to musicians lives and helping them be the best possible at their craft. I feel blessed to part of this industry and I am very excited at what the next 18 months will bring.

Have a wonderful spring!
The Warmest of Wishes,

Tom Wanne, CEO
Theo Wanne Classic Mouthpieces
www.theowanne.com

Parenting My Child, and Being Parented by Life

I am the parent of a five year old, and both the oddest, and coolest, thing I have recognized is that the best way for me to raise my child is by making the rules for him, the same as the rules life (the Divine) has set for me.

There are six key points I have learned…so far:

1. Everything follows energy, not words. If my child is acting up, and I get angry, I cannot expect him to calm down while I am upset. I must hold the space for him to be calm! When I calm down, he follows my energy, and calms down too. Words are not enough. In fact when someone is upset it gets VERY hard to hear what they are trying to say…yet with love, it gets MUCH easier.
   
2. My child and I always have choices. I always give my child a choice with no judgment or right and wrong, just non-judgmental consequences. Hence, there is rarely a need for me to get upset with him…I am still working on applying this rule to others in my life though…ha ha.
   
3. Every choice has a consequence…not a punishment or reward. Another way of saying this is: Every action has an equal Re-action. There is no such thing as a wrong choice, just one that has undesirable consequences.
   

   For example, on the days that my child is in charge of cleaning his room, any toys left on the ground are thrown away or given away. If he does not want to clean his room, that is fine, however the consequence is Mom and Dad will clean his room and the toys on the floor are taken away. This is not a threat, it is just the house rule, and there is no negative energy associated with it. This also teaches him to value what he has. He chose not to clean his room once…and once only. Since then he makes the choice himself to clean his room and he values his toys more. When he cleans his room well, it shows he values his toys to us, so he knows he will get more toys too!
   

There is a consequence for every choice we make in life. It is how this universe works. For example:

• If we eat unhealthy food, the consequence is we feel sick.
  
• If we exercise, the consequence is we feel fit.
  
• If we lie, the consequence is people will not trust us.
  

  For example: In the airport my son has the agreement to stay close and in eyeshot of me. Once he disappeared and lied to me about where he was. Needless to say this was a scary situation. I told him I was sad about that fact that he lied because my job was to keep him safe and if I couldn’t trust him to tell me where he was, he could no longer have the freedom to roam a little and had to stay by my side constantly. He understood because he wanted to be safe and he wanted the freedom to move around more freely. He stopped lying after that and saw the value in telling the truth.
  

  I have noticed most children rebel against their parents because they are trying to prove they have free will, because they do. My son always has a choice; there are just desirable and undesirable consequences for those choices. So I simply pick consequences that work for me.
  

For example: A consequence that would NOT work for me is, if my child is acting up in the mall and I say, “unless you start acting nicer you will have to go sit in the car.” Well obviously I am going to have to go sit in the car with him to make sure he is safe, and sitting in the car does not work for me. A consequence that does work for me is to say, “If you want to go to your favorite restaurant for dinner tonight you will have to start acting nicer.” This works for me, because if he keeps acting up we get to go to where I want for dinner. In general my son knows when he is kind he gets what he wants, when he is not kind, he does not get what he wants. I have found the same principle applied to me in my life too.

Another example is eating healthy at dinner. He knows it is my job to make sure he is safe and healthy. Therefore it is my job to be sure he eats healthy things. So if he doesn’t eat his salad he has to drink the green vegetable juice I drink to stay healthy. He hates my green juice, but respects the fact that I drink it to be healthy because I hate the way it tastes too, so he eats his salad. He has grown to even like his salad now, and feels proud of himself for doing something loving for himself that will keep him healthy.

Because my parenting is based off of consequences that work for me I never need to get upset or angry at him for not obeying. This brings parenting to a whole new level of joy for me.

1. Ask for what you want, not what you don’t want; focus on what you want to create, not the problem. We all follow the image placed in our brains….so place a positive one. Have you ever seen the movie The Secret? They talk about this a lot in there.
   
2. Do what your heart says to do, not what your mind says to do. Often my son says he has to follow the energy maze from his head that goes down to his heart. When he is in the process of getting into his heart he literally says he is ‘in the maze’. As we get older this maze usually gets more complicated. In fact, just the other day my son said to me, “Dad, when I was a baby the maze from my head to my heart was easy. It was a straight line. As I’m getting older, though, the maze is getting more curvy, and harder.”
   

We connect to our Angel’s, Inner Self, and the Divine daily and get guidance from them on what is to be done during the day. He knows it is OK to ask his Angel’s for help in getting what he wants in his life. I am very happy about this, as it has not been long I have been consciously using this help in my life, and it really does help!