Recently, we had a Garage Opening at La Casita Boy’s Home. During the last month, I saw how much enthusiasm and energy these kids put in this event. They were absolutely in charge of how the show should be: selecting songs, rehearsals, arrangement, logistics and brainstorming. During the process, I observed and understood how important is to live the present, accept our limitations as well as our strengths, weaknesses and what is the real meaning of “brotherhood”.

One of the kids -often sedated by medications- was very aware about his limited physical movements. But it was not an obstacle to keep coming to the class and learning guitar or drums. Another kid had problem putting the lyrics of his songs together given our timeframe. He took very important and brave decision; telling me “Javier, I am going to sing this song! (his original song). Let’s work on this for the show. After that, I can figure out if adding something else to the song can work or not”.

The other kid is a leader by nature. He was pushing the others students to play their best, but the method he was using was based in critiques and complaints instead of suggestions. The other kids got tired of this situation, faced him and had a conversation. They let him know about their feelings and consequences of his actions and comments. The kid offered apologies the whole group. In the same way the other kids accepted it and minutes later they were working together again.

Few minutes prior to their show one of the kids came and told me: “Javier I cannot make it” .He was expecting his mother to see him singing. His mother called to tell him she cannot be on time for the show. This situation broke my heart because it was going to be the first time she would see him “on stage” and he was very excited about that. But in the same way such sadness and frustration became a source of team support for him and an inspiration for me when one of the kids proposed to use my video camera to record the dedication to his mom. Now his mom could see it afterwards. Hello... this is what music is about: friendship, dedication, courage, loyalty, sense of belonging, passion and fun! It was a great experience to see how these kids share good and bad moments and even though they live together 24/7, they have developed and kept a sense of responsibility and care for each other, as real friends, as a real brotherhood. This made me feel proud and blessed for being part this.

I have been part of MNS MusicianCorp fellows (Chicago). We have experimented joy, sadness, frustration, anxiety, happiness, euphoria. We have shared information, experiences, great moments and bad moments as part of our roles, individually as well as group. It is true, that we have had differences about how to make things happen. But all with a single purpose: serving, helping and bringing happiness to the kids, students and community through music. If there is something that makes me feel glad, great and proud about this group, is their support and love during the year.

To my MNS fellows Jamie, Vernon, Cindy, Jeff, Jovia and Jason, thanks for being my source of inspiration during the last year. Doug Blossom and Jordan LaSalle at Urban Gateways; Hilesh Patel and Yanira Cirino at CAPE, thank you so much for being my mentors, teachers and friends, sharing all those great ideas and giving me the opportunity to be part of this family. Sometimes on my way to our Friday traditional MNS meeting I had the feeling that I was going to something special, to our secret place, our house on the tree, like a gang member to our secret society…my Music Brotherhood.