The problem with practicing the piano is that I know how far my skills have fallen. It’s been years since I played, so the fall isn’t unexpected. I simply have an awareness of how far I have to go if I hope to rise to that level again.
Archives for September 2014
No is a Valid Answer
Run like hell my dear,
From anyone likely
To put a sharp knife
Into the sacred, tender vision
Of your beautiful heart.
Hafiz, “We Have Not Come to Take Prisoners”
How to be a Better Writer: Don’t Make Excuses
Life happens. When it does, you often can’t control the circumstances or their outcomes. You can, however, control how you respond to them.
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Practice Produces Trust
I hesitate to say I’ve started practicing piano again for fear of jinxing my self-discipline, but I’m making the statement. I’ve started practicing piano again, in large part because I’ve quit spending time with Amazon Prime Instant Video. I now have evening hours free that need to be filled with worthwhile things. One of those things is the piano.
Messages in Bottles
A freelance life, a life in the arts, is sometimes like putting messages in bottles on a desert island, and hoping that someone will find one of your bottle and open it and read it, and put something in a bottle that will wash its way back to you: appreciation, or a commission, or money, or love. And you have to accept that you may put out a hundred things for every bottle that winds up coming back. – Neil Gaiman, “Make Good Art”
How to be a Better Writer: Have a Sense of Humor
To be a better writer, you have to have a sense of humor about what you do. You have to be able to poke fun at yourself. You have to be able to laugh even when your work is critiqued and you feel yourself to be a failure.
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