The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you
Don’t go back to sleep!
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep!
People are going back and forth
across the doorsill where the two worlds touch,
The door is round and open
Don’t go back to sleep!

– Rumi

We are just finishing up week 1 of our crowdfunding campaign and boy, has it been a ride! 

Ada and I both have found ourselves really stretched and tossed about by the process of putting ourselves out there to ask for help. While it has inspired immense gratitude to see your names and contributions pop into our inbox, it all too quickly swings to feelings of fear and shame. 

We really didn’t predict the amount of vulnerability and humility it would take to reach out to all of you and ask for your support launching our vision of creating a brighter world through music. 

Asking for help, as it turns out, is no easy task. In our culture, it is very often seen as weakness to need or accept help, let alone go right out and ask for it! But as we reflect on our experience, and begin to connect again to the deeper and more constant foundations of trust hiding right underneath the slippery layer of fear that has had us tottering and tripping about the last few days, the lessons that life had to teach us through this experience are beginning to emerge. 

We are learning that while asking for help certainly requires a degree of humility and vulnerability, especially in our culture, these are far from what is at the heart of this exchange. On the outside, money is what we are asking for and what you all are generously offering, and our music (and our vision for brighter, lighter lives) is what we promise in return. But at the heart of this, we are extending our trust to you that as we put ourselves and our vision out to the world, you will see us truly and support in kind (money or otherwise). In return you are offering us YOUR trust to use your generously offered resources, love and encouragement to share our vision. Trust is the real currency of our exchange. 

Trust is what we build our relationships on. It is how we come together to see a shared vision come to life. Trust is the core of friendship and community. For us Wakes is about MUCH more than making our music, having it heard or building a business, it is about growing a community. You are the people we want to grow with. We want to create space and opportunities, and content for us all to see our dreams and visions met. Our music is one way we believe we can do that for people, and hopefully for you.

It all starts with an ask. When you know what it is you really want and then trust the world enough to to ask for it, that is the first step, and a step you will take every day to see your desires manifest. This doesn’t mean they always look the way you expected, but they will grow and become so much more than you ever could have imagined. 

When you have a seed, you can’t carry it with you in your pocket for safe keeping and expect that it grows. You must release it, plant it in the ground and trust nature to do its work. You can of course select the seed and tend to it’s needs, and support it’s progress, but you can no more make the seed grow than you can cause the sun to rise. You must ask for the help of life, of the sun, and the soil, the intelligence programmed into the DNA of that seed to help. 

So, we are asking you to be our sunshine, rich earth, and rain. We plant this seed of our dreams into your care with the promise that we will be there to tend it and guide it and protect what grows up. Life willing, we will soon all enjoy the fruits of our offerings. 

What is it that you really want? What is it in your life that you can ask for today? Be it big or small, breathe deep into your ground and find enough trust to put your heart’s desire out into the world. Then watch it grow! This can be as simple as a prayer, making a request to a loved one, or maybe even starting your own crowdfunding campaign! Whatever it is, there is almost certainly a dream hiding in the pocket of your heart waiting to be planted. “The door is round and open, don’t go back to sleep!”