For several weeks now I have been getting around without my bilateral BAHA (Bone Anchored Hearing Aids).

They broke. The sound quality is amazing, but like seemingly everything nowadays they are built with all of the care and quality of a cheap watch.

As an artist, what do you do when the tools not required for the job, but the very tools you depend on, fail you? What do you do when the music you have been drunk on for weeks is taken away abruptly leaving you in hateful near silence all over again? What do you do when it seems there is nothing you can do?

Every individual has different answers to that question. My answer was to keep on creating.

I am not saying this because I think it is a big deal. Other than mentioning the hearing aid problem in the descriptions, I did not want to make a big deal about it. I have always played this way. It sucks, but we all have our crosses to bear.

I am only mentioning the situation because folks are still complimenting my hearing aids, even when I am not wearing them.

I can sing and play the banjo because I work on it every day. I have no talent. I practice when I am hopeful and I practice when I feel hopeless. I do not practice to improve or reach a goal, but because I love the craft even with the limited tools I bring to the table.

You just make the most of whatever you have, and somehow it is always enough.