Hands to Create

  "Though everything else may appear shallow and repulsive, even the smallest task in music is so absorbing, and carries us so far away from town, country, earth, and all worldly things, that it is truly a blessed gift of God."

                                       -Felix Mendelssohn  

This post is inspired by Lacey who got me thinking about music.

  Not just any music, but instruments.

My Great Grandmother's Piano <3 

  Earlier this week, I was having a really rough day. I had just got done with piano lessons and I felt like a failure. As I was going through my lesson with my teacher, the notes on the grand staff were not registering with my brain and my fingers were not obeying my thoughts. I was making no progress and everything on the paper in front of me seemed foreign. It made me start blaming myself afterward. Was I not practicing enough? Was I not putting enough effort into it? I have a recital in two weeks and the stress is so high I dream about my recital piece and forgetting how to play it! Agh!

  That's what had me down. I felt like a music failure. It was later that day when I was at school in the library that I heard jazz music being played. At first I thought it was the cafe playing their stereo overly loud, but when I came out I saw what it was. Five or six men playing instruments with ease and creating sweet music to my ears.

  I stood there, listening and absorbing the sound like a sponge. For some reason, it was redeeming to hear that sound after a bad day. It restored my heart and erased the stress that had been building up over the weeks. A group of regular guys coming together making something more than harmony with their talent. It showed me that someday I will be there. I have to keep going.

  That's when I fully understood how blessed I was to be able to play piano. Even if I was having a bad week playing or not, I was blessed. I have able bodied hands and ears that can create and hear fresh streamed music. It makes me so glad God created music! What would we do without it!? It stirs the souls emotions and brings the body to it's feet and we hear sounds of the creator when there is a strum of the guitar or a press of a key. The fact that there are instruments that make the sweetest, smoothest sounds in the entire universe is astonishing. 

Thank you God for music!