Practice

My progress on the piano and my motivation to practice increased dramatically when I caught a vision of my potential. 

Sheri L. Dew 

As a piano teacher you might guess that this word is often spoken at my house. 

It is.

I was told at age 8 that I would be serving others with my music the rest of my life. At that time that pronouncement sounded silly. I could barely play with two hands and I didn't like to practice.

            

But 57 years later I am at the piano everyday. I still have to practice when I am playing for others. The above video required going into the studio with many retakes. I was part of a team trying to share this inspirational message. 

There is peace in practice. 

The peace I am talking about has to do with enough repetition to put the learning into our body. It is never enough to know something with our mind. Knowing with our heart is certainly another step forward. But, knowing something inside our muscles and sinews, that is a deep knowing. We get that from practice. 

Opportunity

Today is our 45th Anniversary

So, I'm taking the opportunity to write about marriage. 

I was an optimistic, idealistic, naive girl when I got married. Not earth shattering news, at 21 years old we are all of those things. I wanted someone I could talk to about everything. 

What I hadn't considered fully was that although we could talk about everything we didn't necessarily see through the same lenses.

Luckily I married someone who gave much attention to how he viewed the world. He thought through his decisions carefully and then committed to those views. 

On the other hand, I vacillated more about what I thought and felt. I changed my mind frequently. He was patient with that because his North Star was always in view.

In 45 years we have communicated everyday and of course disagreed often. There are some views that I just can't understand. Those topics come up for review often. 

He has never tried to manipulate me or squash my interest in something. He supports the things I love even when he has less interest. 

  As I went through pictures this morning I realized that I haven't taken enough of us alone together. There are individual shots and so many shots with us and a child or grandchild. 

  Today I honor the two of us and our covenant to love each other because God gifted us the opportunity to be one before him and with him.