01 / Hear
Hear the Song
02 / Know
Know the Story
The lessons were in my hands before I knew I had learned them.
Keep Carving grew from the work ethic my father demonstrated on every painting job, the lessons he taught me about planning and caring for tools, and my transformation of a three-meter cypress trunk into Tāne Mahuta.
Take your tools with you. Look after them. Be ready for tomorrow.
The close-up
Impossible and The Magic Inside tell the broad story. Keep Carving is the close-up: what I did with my hands when life around me was less than perfect. Creativity gave me somewhere useful to place my energy. The carving was real, but so was the rebuilding happening around it.
In the song, carving means continuing. ‘Build your life from the ground to the top’ is not about hiding a symptom. Sometimes the foundations need attention. You strip things back, reconcile what you can and begin again on something solid.
White stayed white
I learned that way of working from my father, a professional painter who left before I woke and returned in white clothes nearly as clean as when he started. The paint went on the wall, not on the man. On side jobs he taught me to think ahead. After watching me walk repeatedly between a brush and its bucket, he said, ‘Take the paint bucket with you.’
Take the bucket with you
Then he handed me a brush: ‘This is yours. Look after it.’ His tools were cleaned and prepared so tomorrow could begin properly. I do not follow every lesson perfectly, but when I catch myself rushing, I still hear him. Take the tools. Clean them. Put things right.
What the top means
Dedication is not blind devotion; it needs a reason. The work might be my job, carving a three-meter tiki, cleaning the house or folding laundry. If it supports the life Sharna and I share, our family or work I love, it has meaning and deserves care.
The ‘top’ is not fame or fortune. It is wellbeing, useful work, interests that challenge me and relationships strong enough to share them. Small sparks grow when desire has dedication behind it. Keep carving. Do the next part properly, then be ready for tomorrow.
03 / Feel
Feel the Soul
What it leaves behind
I want you to feel that the next meaningful step is still available. You do not have to solve the whole life at once or reach somebody else’s version of the top. Respect yourself, know why the work matters and do the next part with care. Small sparks grow when you keep showing up.
Keep listening
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