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Happy New Year to you! I hope this post finds you well and that you had a blessed Christmas with family and friends. Most people at the start of the year ponder what the coming year may bring. There are usually lots of new people at the gym who think: "This is the year I'm going to get in shape and lose that extra weight." Many other people start off the year thinking: "Now that it's a new year, I can accomplish all those things I want to do." Others or even yourself may think that somehow, some way, my relationships with my family, friends, and coworkers are going to be better. No matter what! While I applaud these noble goals, they really don't get one anywhere. Why is that? Well, first of all, without having a vision of what you want to accomplish, how can you know how you did? For example, let's take the goal of losing weight since this seems to be a problem for many people. My wife last year lost forty pounds. The key? She had a plan! She decided what she wanted to lose and when she wanted to lose it by. She also had accountability every week with a professional counselor. Now the next ingredient: Work! You cannot accomplish a goal simply by hoping that it will happen. You have to work at it. It takes work to accomplish anything of merit. Last year, Gentle Haven Music Web Design sponsored the first ever, Dallas Christian Music Festival in Dallas, Oregon. It took a lot of work by many people to pull it off. No small feat! The next ingredient for goal recipes: Encouragement! Everyone needs encouragement especially when a goal seems a long distance away. I've accomplished many things in my life, but encouragement from good friends and family has been the difference between achieving a goal or having it fall apart. The final recipe ingredients: Test and Measure! If you have a goal and have achieved it, you also need to test and measure it. Let's go back to the weight loss subject. My wife wouldn't have known that she was achieving her goal unless she had gotten on the scale every morning to see how she was doing. Now let's do a brief recap: In order to achieve a goal, you need to follow a 'recipe' to achieve it. The recipe consists of: A vision of the goal A plan to achieve it A healthy amount of work (Not too much and not too little...:>) A large dose of encouragement A method of testing and measuring the outcome That's the recipe that I use and have for many years. Tried and true. One last thing I'd like to discuss: What does this have to do with being a musician? Well, I am so glad you asked! Being a musician has many challenges. Of note, just learning how to play music in front of people itself can be very overwhelming for many. Add into the mixture of leading a band and ensuring that everyone is on the same page, the music will work, the vocals are in sync, the sound is being managed and adjusted as needed, and the complication factor skyrockets! As a musician, there are many responsibilities to take care of and goals to achieve including the desire to improve. That's why I use this recipe that works and you can too! I would love to hear your impressions of this recipe and how you'll use it or have already. My email address is below... Let me know of your New Year possibilities! #love #inspiration #determination

This post is to wish you an early Merry Christmas! I would also like to mention that on my music page on this website, https://www.matthewgoolsby.com/music, I have some Christmas songs that I recorded. I've remastered them to give them a more 'robust' finishing touch. They are free as my gift to you! Since I'm writing about gifts, now is the time to talk about the most precious gift that was given to all of us more than 2,000 years ago. That was God's precious gift of His son, Jesus Christ! It's very hard for us to imagine these days how much Jesus' mother Mary must have had to go through, most of all how painful giving birth was especially in a cold stable. It's also hard if not impossible for all of us these days to think about raising God's son! As parents, we usually say things to ourselves such as: "What if I screw up God's son?" or "How should I discipline God's son?" Well, evidently Joseph and Mary were able to figure that out as the Bible never really mentions anything they did to 'mess him up'. I would like to point you to one of the best written accounts of Jesus and His birth as done by Luke who was both a Doctor and quite a writer for his day. The 2nd chapter of Luke tells us the story of Jesus' birth and what shepherds experienced from the Angels declaring it. There is also a good recitation of the 2nd chapter of Luke done by Linus of the Peanuts gang (Comics) from the story, 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'. I've been through stables before and have cleaned up after horses and cattle, but never in my wildest thoughts would I have pictured someone having a baby there. Stables are smelly, noisy, and drafty. Not something that a woman would want to give birth in. But Mary and Joseph had little choice as the inn they visited was full. Now the choice we have before us is how to celebrate Christmas. Is it about giving or receiving gifts? That's not a bad thing. It's something we can do to bless others. Or is there a deeper meaning to this time of year that we really need to concentrate on? My answer is that there's a deeper meaning to Christmas. I celebrate it because God sent His son to redeem us from death and to give us new life. That's why I celebrate Christmas. It's also why my wife and I love to celebrate it with friends and family. We also love blessing others this time of year in whatever way we can. Having said all that, may you have a blessed Christmas season. May you experience God's love for you all year long! #blessings #love #Holidays #Christmas

Welcome to my blog! As you may know, this week is Thanksgiving for the United States. Having first been celebrated in 1621 after a bountiful harvest by the pilgrims to the 'New World', it was deemed a national holiday by George Washington and officially enshrined as one by Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Having traveled quite a bit over the years, I've come to see how much blessing our country has. Not only does it have beautiful geography, it is a land that welcomes people from all nations, lives as a republic with inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and allows freedom of worship. It seems though at times that we easily take for granted all that we have. When I was twenty I went to Mexico for a short missions trip as part of a church I was attending. It was an eye-opener! Until you've seen how some people live in other countries, it's easy to forget how much we have. The 'rich' people there were on one side of the street that we traveled while the destitute and extremely poor were on the other. The poor lived in cardboard and aluminum shacks that leaked when it rained. I came back with a renewed sense of blessing. I also came back with a stronger desire to help those in need. It's also part of the good news that God shared with us in Proverbs 28:27, New Living Translation: "Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes to poverty will be cursed." This year I was fortunate enough to be able to share my musical gifts with the homeless. I played at an event called 'Homeless Connect' in January for about an hour. This event is held once a year for the most destitute of individuals in our area who receive needed medical care and physical needs such as coats, gloves, and blankets. My time to play was for about an hour and I performed while people were eating a hot meal, perhaps the first hot one they've had in months or years. It was a blessing and I'm grateful I got a chance to share with others. This blog isn't about what I've done, but is an encouragement to be grateful this Thanksgiving. And if you find someone who doesn't have a place to go for dinner, consider inviting them to your home. You never know what impact you may have on their life and your own! #blessings #Holidays #Thanksgiving

Today's blog post is one that I could easily expand upon for days if not weeks at a time. The languages of love. I will relate this to music as the blog unfolds. Did you know that each of us displays our love languages differently? Or maybe you didn't even know that you had love languages. Renowned psychologist Dr. Gary Chapman wrote a book titled: 'The Five Languages of Love' back in 1995. His book is a discussion of marriage, emotional love, and how spouses can recognize each other's love languages and then fulfill them. Each individual typically has one trait that is strongest and another that comes second while the other three may be more latent. I believe though and so do others that these five languages can be demonstrated to others who are not our spouses or even friends or relatives. The five languages of love for spouses are: 1. Words of Affirmation 2. Quality Time 3. Receiving Gifts 4. Acts of Service 5. Physical Touch I highly encourage you, the reader, to look at Dr. Chapman's book to get a better idea of how to love your spouse more fully. It will also help to understand how emotional love is shared and nurtured. For those who aren't married, I would like to expound on these points a little more and encourage you to recognize love languages from those you know best. You don't have to be married, engaged or even in a relationship with someone to see these traits in someone's life. You can even see them in your own life. A little caveat before I begin: Physical touch can be a problematic issue for many people so one needs to be very aware of other's personal space and never invade it. Respect and dignity for others is essential! We all need words of affirmation. Everyday we're bombarded with negative messages, thoughts, and words that are sometimes just overwhelming. Have you ever seen someone on the side of the road dejectedly walking? It's heartbreaking. We can though, with our words affirm and encourage others. Another way to show people love is to spend quality time with them. One thing that can get very annoying is when we spend time with people and they decide to spend it on their phone. Can we all just put down our phones for a while and spend time together? Face-to-face conversation is becoming a lost art with all of the distractions around. Let's be purposeful about sharing the precious time we have with others. The next aspect is receiving gifts. You may wonder, "How am I supposed to receive gifts?" Maybe what you need to do is to start giving in order to be able to receive. Sometimes just giving a small gift like a cup of coffee can open the door to one's heart to receive back something. Let me relate this to music for a moment. When I started this website, my intent was to demonstrate what can be done with music for the promotion and distribution of one's artistry. I also found that I wanted to give to the internet community some of the work that I've done in some tangible way. That's why this website is here. It feels good to give and it also feels good to receive positive feedback about the music I create. The next aspect of the five languages of love is: Acts of Service. If you volunteer your time or talents for something, then you understand this one. If you don't, try to find something that you can do for someone else. You could always take a meal to them, drive them to an appointment, invite them over for coffee, or any number of things. The sky's the limit. The next aspect is physical touch. A hug can be huge to someone. It can reaffirm their humanity and warm their heart. A word of caution is as I said before, always ask permission if you're unsure. A couple of other things to mention are that we each give and receive love in a way that is unique to us, but as we are all human, we have similarities. I love being able to show love to others through my music. I also love spending quality time with people. These become special memories in my heart. Why don't you think about a way you can make your heart feel good this week. It will also bless you! #love #community #God

This may seem like a strange title, but we recently returned from a very fun trip that I thought would be a good opportunity to encourage you to get out and travel! My wife and I are going on 30 years of marriage, but my parents just this year celebrated 60 years! We were fortunate enough to be able to go on a cruise together in Hawaii and greatly enjoyed our time there and together. Now I realize that not everyone can travel long distances because of various constraints, but you still can do short adventures. What these trips do is to help us see beyond our everyday lives. They expand our horizons and help us to see what a beautiful creation God has made throughout this earth. In fact, He does mention that in Psalms 19:1-2: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge." The picture above I took off the Napali Coast on the island of Kauai, Hawaii last Friday. We even were fortunate to have a rainbow showup while we were there. There isn't much more thrilling to me than being on the ocean and seeing God's creation. It's a wonder to behold! It also gives a sense of peace that God in His infinite power and wisdom can do anything! When we look at His creation as a child, we can be filled with awe and wonder again. A couple of other significant events happened while we were gone that I'd like to mention here. Three separate times I ran into people who either live very close to us, who know someone we do, or who know others that are friends of ours. Think about that for a minute - here we are almost 3000 miles away and we just by 'chance' run into people we know? I don't believe in coincidences, but I do believe in the hand of God orchestrating divine meetings. The strangest one was on the island of Maui. We were there for a day and happened to go to Lahaina. The famous 'Cheeseburger in Paradise' restaurant is there named after the Jimmy Buffett song. My Mom and Dad decided to wander down the street into a small shopping area. I saw a Ukulele shop and thought I would try out an expensive one. Not really having played the instrument much, I asked about the tuning and started playing the song 'Somewhere over the Rainbow' as done by Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole. I didn't think it sounded very good, but amazingly someone else did. As we talked, I found out that he was a retired UPS driver who used to deliver in the neighborhood we used to live in and knew the driver who took over. He even knew some of our current neighbors. Amazing! My encouragement to you today is to get out there and experience life. Travel, make friends, experience God's creation and the beauty of it. You never know, you might just meet someone you already knew and what a kick that would be! , #God #Travel #Hawaii

It's a beautiful Summer day in the Pacific Northwest and as I write this I'm wondering how many more of these we have before the rain and overcast gloom frequently associated with the Northwest begins. We're very blessed to have such luscious scenery and astonishingly gorgeous weather here for about four months of the year. The other eight are where we pay our dues for the one third of the time we get to enjoy it. Some people love the rain though so this is their haven. What does this have to do with writing you may be thinking? Well, two reasons actually. When we read something, we get to exercise our 'mind's eye' or reference point to the realities we've experienced. Take for example how marketers are always trying to get you to buy something. It could be food: Today at (name your favorite grocery store), we have layered pulled-pork sandwiches with BBQ sauce, mouth-watering corn on the cob and to top it off, ripe blueberries lavishly covered with delectable homemade whipped cream.' What I've just done is to describe in somewhat vivid detail what a typical grocer would like you to think of and obsess over. Then they're hoping that you will stop in to their store and pickup these delicious treats. In other words, I've put something into your mind's eye that will stay there until you decide what to do with it. Many people would love to be able to write well but may not have the practice or background to do it. That's where I would like to offer a couple of tips. Start simple - You may want to write but it overwhelms you. Start simply by finding one subject that you'd like to write about. Try to hone in on that one topic and do some research on it. Don't just try to tackle a topic without thinking it through. It takes time and effort to find what to focus on and then discuss it on paper. If you need some further tips, one of my previous blogs talked about 'brainstorming'. Use your experience - I recently started writing articles on a topic that I have some experience with: Nurses in war. I haven't been in a war but have visited numerous places where nurses are memorialized and many of my family have been in wars from the American Revolution to World War II. Many of their stories, especially my Uncle who was in the Bataan Death March, impacted me deeply about the suffering experienced and how nurses helped them through after the war. In fact, if you're interested in reading my inaugural article about this topic, it's located here: Nurses in war - Cornelia Hancock, Legendary Civil War Nurse. Never underestimate the power of your experiences to inspire and motivate others to great deeds. Make it human - With all of the negativity that we experience everyday, people get weary of hearing about how bad things are. Why not write something that could be uplifting especially when there's so much better that we can talk about? When you write about someone from the past, you can highlight their strengths as well as their weaknesses. We all have 'em! This makes it much more interesting to the reader because they can identify. Writing can be fun and so can history. It doesn't have to be dry and boring. Many of the experiences we have today are no different than our ancestors had. They struggled with financial hardships, medical conditions, marriage problems, and most of the same things we're plagued with today. We can learn so much from the journey that people took before us. My final point today is that if you get stuck being able to write something, feel free to get in touch with me. I can assist you with a writing task that may need some editing, touch-up, or polishing. Maybe even an idea! One example of some editing work I've been doing is for the drummer in the band I play in: Wrecknciled. He's written many stories that God has inspired him with. Here's the link: https://www.wrecknciled.com/bandblog. Have a great week! #inspiration #artistry

Hello to you. It's been a bit since my last blog as I've been working hard on a local festival. I'm publishing this after the festival has finished because there are a couple of areas I'd like to discuss with those of you that drop by. For those of you who may be looking for musician tips, this posting will still be applicable to your life. It will just seem like a bit of a deviation this week. When I was growing up, my family used to say: "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never harm me." Let me tell you that that phrase is full of hooey! Anybody over the age of 10 knows that words can be used as weapons or they can be used as bandages. When we use our words like weapons, negative consequences occur. The bible in Proverbs 15:1 says: "A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger." This is fairly self-explanatory and I'm sure you can think of a good example of this. Perhaps something that happened today! But, I would like to talk about the effects our bodies have when we use harsh words towards others or ourselves. Did you know that your body produces a natural hormone called cortisol? Cortisol is a very effective short-term response to a perceived or real threat. However, when your body is continuously producing this hormone, it can cause numerous health issues including anxiety and depression. Let me bring this back to music for a bit. When we listen to soothing, inspiring music, our hearts begin to feel like they're healing. I dealt with that topic in my last blog. When we listen to music that is violent, degrading, or just plain annoying, our minds and bodies react to it. There's no getting around that fact. Our blood pressure increases, our muscles tighten, and we experience a cortisol moment. Look at what happens when emotions become unmanageable and violence occurs. What is the solution then for this? The answer lies in our choices of what we listen to and what we tell ourselves. In the delightful movie the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's companions are each looking for something that they already have. The cowardly lion is looking for courage. The friendly yet not-so-bright scarecrow is looking for a brain. And the cerebral tin-man is looking for a heart. Each eventually finds out that they already had what they needed. They realize that they can be their own best friends or worst enemies. This is really what words do to us. The point I'm making through this posting is that our world is filled with people who want to degrade, demean, and disrespect whoever they come across. If you believe in Christ as your savior, then your calling is different than that. One that is meant to heal, to listen, and to love others. This is completely contrary to what our human nature is like, but is so important in having meaningful and fulfilling relationships. It will also help our lives be the kind that people want to model and can change the whole demeanor of someone who may just be having a bad day. So the next time you want to lash out at someone because they 'rocked' your world or caused you pain, remember that we need to be the 'Salt and Light of the world'. I know this is hard and takes work, but it is so worth it! Blessings to you and may God give you peace and grace! #love #inspiration #God

(Note: This is a duplicate of a previous post. The event is only two days away!) Today's blog post is about the first ever, Dallas Christian Music Festival. I'm excited to be working on this event for the summer. There are more details available at: https://www.facebook.com/DallasChristianMusicFestival If you live in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, please come out and see us. We will be at the Rotary Performing Arts Stage on, Thursday August 16th, 2018 from 4 to 8 pm. The Dallas Area Visitors Center, Dallas Chamber of Commerce, and the City of Dallas, are promoting this event and assisting in facility preparation. We're also working with the Dallas Ministerial Association to facilitate cooperation with the local churches. There will be local food vendors and kids' activities galore. We would love to see you there! #Music #God #festival #community

In 1985 I was going through some very dark and difficult times. I had gone through a very nasty divorce to a woman I had loved and who I thought loved me for who I was. I'd also had severe emotional struggles during and before then and just felt very disconnected from people. It was a very isolating time. We've all felt that way sometime during our lives, but this was amplified by being dissatisfied with my job, my living situation, and just feeling a general loneliness. It would have been easy to turn to drugs or alcohol to medicate the pain, but I knew that wouldn't help what I was going through. It would only make things worse. As I was browsing in a Christian book/music store at the time, I came across an album that looked interesting to me. It was called: 'Benny from here' and was recorded by an artist named: Benny Hester. Eager to hear it, I hurried home and played the tracks on my cassette player. That was when I heard the song: 'When God ran'. It was stunning, and boy did that song resonate with me! The song is about a young man who after turning his back on his Father remembers how much his Father loved him. It mirrors the story of the prodigal son as told by Jesus in Luke, Chapter 15. The young man remembers his Father and heads home with a humble and contrite heart to beg his Father to let him work merely for food since he'd been starving. The Father sees him from a distance and runs to embrace him. What a picture of love! It is amazing how a story, especially when put to music, can change one's whole perspective. After I heard that song, I felt hope and I felt loved. It may seem silly to others, but I did! There is something in our spirit that connects with music at the deepest level. David knew this when he would play music for King Saul as he was tormented by an evil spirit. I also learned how encouraging music can be at that time. I hadn't really known it until I went through such darkness. It's interesting how the music school I went to, Cal State Northridge, was only a few years before this time learning how much of an impact music therapy can have on people. Often music can reach a person's soul and work in their heart when nothing else will. Ask yourself if movies would be the same without music? They touch us at the heart level that most things cannot. All of this is to say what a blessing it is we have a way to reach and touch people with love! I'm not saying that music alone does it, but the message we can share with others is how important they are and how healing can begin through the songs and stories we share with music. I found a beautiful story shared by a site called: Music Therapy, that you can see touches on the power of what this means to people even at the end of their lives. Never let anyone tell you that music is not transformative. It is and can be a very powerful way for people to express what words themselves cannot! #love #Music #inspiration #ministry

Welcome to my blog postings! If you're a return visitor, you know that I've been writing a weekly blog up to this point. However, after some vacation time and associated inner reflection, I've decided to write more but on a less frequent basis. Perhaps every other week depending on how the ideas flow. This is the start of that new path. Part of my college coursework when I was an undergraduate was to write. It was either writing papers on historical and artistic figures, composing essays on what I was learning, or working on music manuscripts. (That's a whole blog posting in itself someday!) As an artist, you learn to express yourself in many different ways. You can write music or compose poetry, but your very nature demands that you outlet your feelings. Granted, some people don't always express themselves in healthy ways as is also the way for me at times. But, expressing our feelings through pen and paper is one great way to connect with others. It also allows us to become more objective about what we feel and can help make what we feel about something or someone more objective. It's also easy to do. Journals are inexpensive and simple to use. My wife's long-time friend makes journals for people and has even expanded into selling them online. If you're interested in the website where she does this, send an email to me at: Matt@GentleHavenMusic.com, and I will let her know you're interested in the products she creates. A question you may be asking yourself is: 'How do I start writing something that I want to express?' That's actually a very good question and I'm glad you asked it! The best way to start on a journey that one hasn't done before is: Sit down and make some notes. This is where you brainstorm on ideas you have. No idea is dumb, it's just an idea to consider. Next: Throw out the ideas that aren't relevant to what you want to accomplish. Remember, these are your ideas and nothing is dumb about them. You just need to filter through them and discard anything that is either too difficult to express, too painful to talk about, or too embarrassing to be revealed to anyone else. This is your personal journey and you can keep private content you'd rather not share. Finally: Start to write about your feelings. This is where the creative process is best expressed. You can open up about something that may really bother you or discuss something that's very exciting. The sky's the limit. Now that you have a process to work with, you can use it as a template for your creative side. Believe it or not, this is what musicians do all the time! We may lead with our feelings first or with an idea of something we'd like to play, but it's much the same way. I'm just giving you a recipe for how to do it yourself. Now you may be saying or thinking: 'Does he have an example of this that I can follow?' Of course! One of my favorite inspirations is listening to music. That's probably very obvious. When I do, my tastes are pretty eclectic, i.e., diverse. As I'm writing, I'm listening to some Classic Rock on Apple Music. It's fun hearing some of the music I cut my teeth on as a teenager. One of my favorite songs is: School's out by Alice Cooper. This song was very inspirational to me and I still remember sitting in class on the last day of school and thinking about that song. It was kind of the rebellious rock anthem that many of us felt about the school year. It's over and let's get out of here! From what I've read Alice Cooper was inspired to write about the most exciting three minutes of his life so it was either write about Christmas morning before opening presents or the end of school. I'm glad he wrote about the end of school. Think about that for a minute, the end of school... If he can write about that, you can write about something that's inspirational to you. It doesn't have to be set to music but can simply reflect what's important to you. Or it can be something you're struggling with. Again, writing it down can be very healing and inspirational at the same time. I've often joked with my lovely wife that there's a song for everything. I believe that's true. People write about their life experiences no matter how fun, silly or even disturbing they may sound to others. Let's get to it then! What would you like to express today? Join me next time as we journey down the road of music, artistry, and creativity. There's so much to explore! #inspiration #Musicartistry #Creativity