If you want to go somewhere, you need to start walking

Rocky Leon. Born in San Francisco, California. Raised in Salzburg, Austria.

i am proud to be a child.
i am you. i am everything, but not my thoughts.
i am love. but don't you dare call me a hippy. :)
I like to sing and dance, play guitar and jump around. i like to be a little kid.

After i got my degree in music production, i decided that i really don't want to work for anyone other than myself. I don't want to produce other people's music. I just want to play. I left my sheltered little town in austria to go traveling in north america for the better part of a year to perform a little experiment. I was convinced that, as long as i don't let fear get ahold of me, there is no real danger. The worst case scenario is that i die, and i was sure i wouldn't. I wanted to prove to myself that i could move through the world doing only that which i love to do, and not only survive, but thrive. I saved up all the money i needed for the airplane flight by playing music on the streets of salzburg and earned all the money i needed for food and everything else along the way playing on the streets and selling CDs.

I wasn't always happy. In my case i actually made a conscious decision after thinking about it long and hard. Over the last few years, the great destructive force of negativity became just as clear to me as the constructive power of positivity. When i worry i not only don't contribute to solving a problem, but i create new problems by draining myself of the energy i need to deal with the challenges that life presents us every day. i found that once i was able to put my fears aside and simply trust that life was good even if i couldn't understand why, more and more positive things began coming into my life.

Rocky Leon - Quit Your Whining (on the boat from vancouver island to washington)

In 2009 i did an internship in California for my university program. During that time I felt I needed to see more of California than the small suburb where the studio was located.  During the past decade I had experienced very little of the place I once called home.  I took a week off to hitchhike down the coast to Los Angeles to see my aunt. I was able to borrow a tent, sleeping bag and pad from my uncle in San Francisco, and got a ride from a friend who lives in Santa Cruz for the first part of the way. Fortune smiled on me from the beginning, in spite of the fact that it rained, and my shoes had holes in them. I was invited to hang out until the skies cleared, and I was given a pair of brand new DC skate shoes in my favorite color, that were too small for my friend’s roommate.

My adventure began when my friend who came camping with me for a night in Big Sur, returned to San Francisco: I needed a place to pitch my tent, and I found a wonderful place up a ridge between some trees, where my bright orange tent would not be visible to the rangers. I got up at sunrise, climbed down the mountain and stood in the turnout of Jade Cove to hitch a ride. When the sun got strong, I decided not to wait any longer, put on my huge backpack to which I had strapped my sign saying SOUTH, hopped on my skateboard and started cruising down Highway One toward a shady grove further down the road.  I hadn’t been riding for more than ten minutes when a car pulled over. It was a friendly, blond 23 year old dude with dreads named Randy. He told me about some of his own traveling experiences in 30 countries, and how important your attitude is when you are hitchhiking. People are more likely to stop, he said, if you smile as if you just can’t wait to brighten someone’s day.

Randy brought me as far as the small town of Cambria and set me off at the last traffic light of the village. I figured it was a good spot to wait since people were forced to stop, and it was pretty obvious that everyone who passed was going a reasonable distance from here. I set my pack down in the shade and stood there for about an hour and a half, at which point I felt I’d done enough smiling. Again I put on my backpack and jumped on my skateboard. And again, before I’d ridden for ten minutes, a car stopped, and it became very clear to me, that it simply won’t do to just wait around for a free ride: If you want to go somewhere, you need to start walking (or skating, if you are that cool :D) The world needs to see that you are making an effort. If you can’t walk, hold your bag. Show that you are ready to go!

For me the important thing is not to be happy all the time. i don't think it's possible to be happy without be being unhappy sometimes. balance is the key. the important thing is to stay positive. i realized that for every thing that i perceive as negative in my life i can find a thousand things that i can perceive as positive. if my finder hurts i can be glad that my arm feels fine. if the weather is cold i can step into the shower, close my eyes and truly feel how amazing warm water is. if i can't take a shower right now because i have to be outside i can enjoy how amazing it is to have a healthy lung and breathe fresh air. if i'm sick and i can't breathe well then can enjoy the fact that i can close my eyes. most things that make people happy are passing and sooner or later will go away. it's important not to get to attached to the things of this world, but to appreciate the wonder of existence itself which will always exist. in this human form this can be done by appreciating the so called little things. things that are actually not little at all, like each of our senses, but that people often only learn to appreciate once they are gone.

Photo by Leo Neves

Several people have asked me why i am so happy. here are some thoughts: http://www.rockyleon.com/how-to-be-happy/

Web-site: http://www.rockyleon.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/rockyleonmusic
Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/blellow123