The pain of loss is important.

Pain is really an instructor about caring. It tells you, you are vulnerable. We care where we hurt – and we hurt where we care. The gift of pain is a message about what is important in life.

It not only tells you how to love; it also provides you with an opportunity to discover sources of strength and flexibility within yourself that help you prosper.

Looking inside the pain expands you, encouraging you to become larger than you are and to live a life of meaning.

To open your heart to pain is to open your heart to joy.

Prioritize what is important in your life. Pursue and protect your dreams. Nurture your relationships with people who matter to you.

Do not waste energy on what is not important.

Choose to help others even if they do not ask for it. Choose to take care of yourself.

Choose to be around people who add to your life and ignore those who do not.

Choose to experiment with new things and constantly evolve your Self, your life, and your work.

I wanted to make something that spoke to Leonard’s years as a zen monk. This film is a quiet, symbolic narrative that charts the letting go of Ego and the trappings of fame.

I was always working steady
But I never called it art
I got my shit together
Meeting Christ and reading Marx
It failed my little fire
But it’s bright the dying spark
Go tell the young messiah
What happens to the heart

There’s a mist of summer kisses
Where I tried to double-park
The rivalry was vicious
The women were in charge
It was nothing, it was business
But it left an ugly mark
I’ve come here to revisit
What happens to the heart

I was selling holy trinkets
I was dressing kind of sharp
Had a pussy in the kitchen
And a panther in the yard
In the prison of the gifted
I was friendly with the guards
So I never had to witness
What happens to the heart

I should have seen it coming
After all I knew the chart
Just to look at her was trouble
It was trouble from the start
Sure we played a stunning couple
But I never liked the part
It ain’t pretty, it ain’t subtle
What happens to the heart

Now the angel’s got a fiddle
The devil’s got a harp
Every soul is like a minnow
Every mind is like a shark
I’ve broken every window
But the house, the house is dark
I care but very little
What happens to the heart

Then I studied with this beggar
He was filthy, he was scarred
By the claws of many women
He had failed to disregard
No fable here no lesson
No singing meadowlark
Just a filthy beggar guessing
What happens to the heart

I was always working steady
But I never called it art
It was just some old convention
Like the horse before the cart
I had no trouble betting
On the flood, against the ark
You see, I knew about the ending
What happens to the heart

I was handy with a rifle
My father’s .303
I fought for something final
Not the right to disagree

From Love and loss to artistic expression itself, identity, self-reflection, transformation and transcendence.