Dec

For the New Year: Creative Inspiration from Emily Bear

by Meredith Mullins on December 27, 2012

piano keyboard, symbolizing creative inspiration from music

Looking for Inspiration, Not Resolutions

I stopped making New Year’s resolutions years ago. They were becoming less-than-meaningful clichés and always had relatively short lives. From a few days to a few weeks, they stayed in focus only until some project or practical necessity pushed them aside. (And, by the way, when you resolve to limit yourself to only one croissant a day in Paris, you are doomed to failure.)

However, even though I stopped the ceremonious list writing every New Year’s Eve, I didn’t stop searching for creative inspiration. Metaphoric lamplight in hand, like Diogenes looking for an honest man, I am always seeking ideas to fuel my own creative expression and make life better . . . for a new year or for a new day.

The Inspiring Emily Bear

This week, the inspiration came in the pure and smiling form of Emily Bear. She is a pianist and composer who says she can’t live without music. When she plays, the music comes from deep inside her, full of strength and light.

She started playing piano at age 2, began composing at age 3, and made her debut at Carnegie Hall at age 9. She’s now 11. Although her parents try not to use the “p” word in their house (“prodigy”), she is gifted, in an extraordinary way. To her, creative expression is part of her natural rhythm. She just loves music.

If video does not display, watch it here.

A love of music. Oh, I see. It is that simple.

Now, Emily is 11, with White House invitations, five CDs (with some of the proceeds going to children’s charities), and concert appearances around the world. All of that is inspiring.

A Reminder of True Values

Three particular things stood out to me for my own “unwritten” resolutions:

When Emily is asked (at age 6) where the music comes from, she says, “It just comes out of me.” “From where?” she is asked. “I don’t know. Probably my heart.”

When her mother is asked what she would like for Emily’s future, she says she just wants her to be happy. To have good values and to be a good adult.

When Emily thinks about her goals, she says simply that she wants to inspire people and to have people sing her songs and orchestras play her music.

There is much wisdom in these statements, and it led to my OIC moment: In a year when the voice of the child has been in the news—sadly, often muffled or extinguished—it is nice to be reminded of true values.

Leonard Bernstein also reminds us of the power of music, particularly apropos for 2012:

“This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.”

For Emily and all of us, let’s listen to the music and follow our hearts.

VIA WGN-TV

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