Without love there would be no music.

That is what Russian clarinetist Roman Kuperschmidt said before he played the most moving melody I’ve heard in a long time yesterday.

His eyes glowed with true passion as he made his instrument sing. He grabbed us with the first tone ~ for two hours we were enslaved by his beauty.

It was amazing.

Over the weekend at Freiburg’s music festival I witnessed that talent mixed with a love for music makes all the difference. Some bands were technically good, but their passion was missing. Others were phenomenal, even on the smaller stages, because they were performing for the love of it alone.

We all have talent in something, but if we don’t love what we do, we aren’t living our potential.

What I learned this week is to encourage my kids to do what they truly care about doing. The world will be a better place for it.

Our personal bank account of time is meant to be spent wisely. Why waste those precious units in pain?

Love is the answer. It truly is.