‘Michael’s stories have the same combination of clarity and intuitive richness as his music. A fine, contemplative guide to the artist’s dedicated life.’
David Whyte
poet, lecturer
author of The Heart Aroused and Crossing the Unknown Sea
Michael Jones’ inspiring and award winning book about his life at the piano offers many rich insights to help the reader find this story for themselves. ‘Who will play your music if you don’t?’ He asks. ‘What is emerging at the periphery of your awareness now? When do you feel that you are fully living your own ‘signature in creation’ – a place to which you often long to return?’
Too often we focus on building our careers, based upon an identity crafted from our trained skills and abilities – an identity that does not accurately reflect our primary strengths, wants or needs. Michael suggests an alternative – through personal narratives that burst with wonder and magic – he offers vivid portrayals of how, through seemingly ordinary people and events, we can discover clues for living a fulfilling and imaginative life.
Each story builds upon another as Michael reveals his journey toward creating a life that feels whole and complete. Throughout he offers others an invitation to reconnect with the essence of who they truly are. To begin he suggests that we learn to trust that there is a dimension of life behind life, one that lives through us and brings with it a renewed sense of dignity and grace each time we do what we love, feel what we feel and simply be ourselves.
Virtually every page of this truly beautiful book provides wise and wonderful clues for allowing the creative impulse within us to emerge.
Throw out your books of creativity exercises and read this book instead!
Tentang Penulis
Over the years, Canadian Michael Jones has quietly established himself as an inspired speaker and facilitator, accomplished composer and pianist, an evocative storyteller, and a fresh and gifted voice in weaving together metaphors from the arts to introduce new perspectives in leadership, learning and change. Michael is best known as the founding artist with Narada Records where his many CD’s of original piano compositions, including Pianoscapes, Touch and After the Rain have served as benchmarks for contemporary solo piano recordings for over 25 years, Since then he brought his depth of experience in artistic and leadership practices to introduce new concepts for leading artfully to extraordinarily diverse sectors, including healthcare, corporate, religious, consulting, military, voluntary, education, municipal, and more.
He was a core faculty member with the MIT Dialogue Project and Dialogos facilitating programs in leadership and the art of thinking together. He is a charter-consulting member with the Society for Organizational Learning, a Senior Fellow with the Mc Gregor Burns Academy of Leadership, University of Maryland where he is also chairperson of a knowledge circle on arts leadership and community and a Leadership Fellow with the Center for Professional Excellence at the University of Texas, San Antonio.
The primary focus of his work is to envision a new leadership story that involves a transformation from performance to presence, problems to possibilities, abstraction to beauty, efficiency to improvisation and instrumentality to the expressive power of metaphor and story. Together these awaken a commons of the imagination – a space of wholeness in the personal and collective imagination that may contribute to a more sustainable and transcendent vision that is creative organic and whole.
He has written two books on leadership and creative practice; Creating an Imaginative Life (Conari Press, 1995) (Trafford, 2007) and Artful Leadership: Awakening the Commons of the Imagination (Trafford, 2007).
Through his music, writing and speaking, Michael holds a candle for those seeking to find a deeper sense of purpose and as they learn to navigate a more complex and changeable world.
He has a BA in music and psychology from Mount Allison University and an MA in Adult Learning from the University of Toronto.He lives in a lakeside community north of Toronto Canada with his partner Judy, a practitioner in the healing and fine arts.
Michael’s web site is www.pianoscapes.com
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