“Nerves and imperfections are the conditions of the work, not evidence of inadequacy.”
This lands for me. Remembering that practice is not about getting rid of our anxiety of performing but of developing the skills necessary to be prepared to meet the challenges we face in those situations. Great read🤩
Yesterday I had a bit of both. I was walking the sidewalks toward home when I encountered a young couple with a little girl about 3 years old. They were looking for a trail to a cave. I told them they were close to the right marked trail, but the trail was steep and I knew a way that would be more fun for their little girl. So I led them down a wooded dirt road leading to a park with a playground and a baseball field. I showed them that behind the outfield fence, there is a shortcut to the trail that leads to the cave that is easier than the marked trail. The cave wasn't far. Along the way, I realized they were celebrating father's day. My dad's been gone for eight years and I felt I could celebrate him with them. A nice chat with strangers!
This sentence sticks out for me. The answer isn’t in doing less. It’s in doing more of the right things.
That's at the heart of my last post about the cost of busyness. It's less about how much you do and more about the impact of each thing you do, big or small. But the image of that boatman in the white water. Wow! Kind of scary!
Great imagery. The footnote really helped. My wife is Chinese, but wasn’t familiar with Wu Wei. Of course translations into our alphabet don’t indicate tone, so the Chinese characters helped.
I’m very glad to hear that the footnote and the Chinese characters were helpful! Translations are always tricky (at best) especially from our alphabet to a character based script.
“Nerves and imperfections are the conditions of the work, not evidence of inadequacy.”
This lands for me. Remembering that practice is not about getting rid of our anxiety of performing but of developing the skills necessary to be prepared to meet the challenges we face in those situations. Great read🤩
Excellent point, Brian! The skills we develop in practice are also psychological, not just the musical skills of learning to play our instrument.
"You already have everything you need". This is where Reimagining Music Practice and The Ocean Says Hi meet ;-)
I used to live near the ocean. I'm happy to meet it once again. ;-)
Oh, exciting! Where did you live?
Southern California, in or near Huntington Beach ("Surf City, USA").
Yesterday I had a bit of both. I was walking the sidewalks toward home when I encountered a young couple with a little girl about 3 years old. They were looking for a trail to a cave. I told them they were close to the right marked trail, but the trail was steep and I knew a way that would be more fun for their little girl. So I led them down a wooded dirt road leading to a park with a playground and a baseball field. I showed them that behind the outfield fence, there is a shortcut to the trail that leads to the cave that is easier than the marked trail. The cave wasn't far. Along the way, I realized they were celebrating father's day. My dad's been gone for eight years and I felt I could celebrate him with them. A nice chat with strangers!
This is a beautiful story, Judith! And an elegant example of doing the right things. Thank you for embodying what you teach.
This sentence sticks out for me. The answer isn’t in doing less. It’s in doing more of the right things.
That's at the heart of my last post about the cost of busyness. It's less about how much you do and more about the impact of each thing you do, big or small. But the image of that boatman in the white water. Wow! Kind of scary!
Great imagery. The footnote really helped. My wife is Chinese, but wasn’t familiar with Wu Wei. Of course translations into our alphabet don’t indicate tone, so the Chinese characters helped.
I’m very glad to hear that the footnote and the Chinese characters were helpful! Translations are always tricky (at best) especially from our alphabet to a character based script.