Portrait: Michael

A little bit about Michael Lashomb 

The first head injury I received was an earth-shattering experience. During a lacrosse competition in high school, I was met head on with an opposing player. The collision sent me into what felt like a different dimension. I was shot into a vortex of white light and high-pitched frequencies. After I was brought back to consciousness by my teammate, my life did not feel the same. I felt as if my everyday consciousness changed upon my return. Like railroad tracks splitting. 

I was too young to comprehend what happened, but I knew things would be different moving forward and I would heal with time…

I struggled with depression and dizziness. It felt like a deep fog that I was trying to navigate daily, mixed with nausea and disorientation. I knew I should have stopped participating in competitive sports, but I felt the need to keep performing so I could hold on to a sense of “meaning and purpose”. At least that’s what is important during youth…

Finding purpose through music 

As the years went on, I continued to incur more head injuries, eventually retiring in college during my senior year. During the year of 2007, I found that music was the one modality that could help me remain mellow and creatively engaged. I could also bring my drive and tenacity from sports to a guitar, never having to worry about symptoms and physical trauma. Over the years, I shifted from sports to musical performance which brought me here to the SameYou community.

A song of hope and healing 

I had always been seeking a community of head injury survivors and people looking to help develop programs to assist in the healing process. I had minimal resources during my recovery so seeing the evolution of technology involved in therapeutics is truly inspiring, and knowing that SameYou is dedicated to support professional developers, care givers and families affected by head injuries, it fills me with an immense amount of hope and gratitude. To express these feelings, I decided to channel it all into a song I wrote called “Chiron” which represents the Wounded Healer archetype in astrology. Alchemizing my trauma into a gift I can bestow with good intention.

The song is my vessel, a container of all I have learned and gone thru. My struggles were difficult, but they made me better able to tap into my true purpose and path.

We all have our own individual struggles, and sometimes they can affect us mentally. But there is an opportunity in these challenges. The song is a vibe, a story, a gift, and a source of healing. I hope the listeners feel the same. Because as different as we may feel, we have a spirit in us that is looking to grow and experience this human condition in a multitude of dimensions and context. That’s our sameness, our constant connectedness. No one different in worth to the next.

I hope you all can come back to that uniqueness that is you, that is powerful and beautiful. I hope you all live each day to your best. And I hope you always see yourself in a light of kindness, because your beautiful heart, vibe and expression are rooted in the same wonderful truth who is you.

Expressing gratitude

That all being said, I am grateful for this community. Best wishes to Emilia for creating this charity and to all the volunteers who work within the SameYou organization, helping give survivors like myself a platform. Much gratitude to my doctor at Upstate Medical University and all my caregivers for being understanding and helping me in my unique situation. And last but not least, my mother, Mary Farrand Lashomb, for helping to pull me from the shadows and for taking care of me through the depths of my struggles. 

Much Love and Happy Days.

Listen to Annie in the Water's song for SameYou, "Chiron (Same You)" on Spotify here. Check out their just-released studio performance at Artfarm Studios here. Follow the band on Instagram: @annieinthewater and follow Michael: @the_musical_astrologer