The Recital

My son had his first piano recital last night. He crushed it. Mistakes? Sure, but he just kept cruising and finished it out. All the kids did actually. Almost every single one of them made a mistake, stumbled, paused and not one just got up and walked off. They all pushed through and finished. Sometimes painfully, other times you could barely tell. It’s pretty inspiring when you think about it.

I never played an instrument growing up. I was more into nylon string music (a basketball joke that is only partially true). I know my son has been taught and encouraged to push through the mistakes in his class. Trained to just keep going and get the feel back. Even though I think he is pretty good and I hope he continues to play for the rest of his life, if that little fact of pushing through is all he remembers from these lessons, it would be worth it.

As I am writing this, I feel that little pang of conviction. How often do I begin to write something, stumble, and just give up, walk off the metaphorical stage of a google doc. OR began working on an outreach email, felt embarrassed and said, “they don’t want to hear from me” and didn’t press send.

“There is a song that wants to be sung” - Madeleine L’Engle

To take it a step further, I have a feeling it’s going to be sung either way. You can choose to be the one to fight through it and sing it or someone else will. I might need to take a lesson from my son.