The process

Since stepping in as the choir accompanist at my church, I've been offered another accompanist job: at a local charter school with a strong music program. The first concert is presented by 7th and 8th graders and their selections are musically advanced and require some practice on my part.

In the process of learning yet more new music, I've been reminded just how messy the process can be. All the unpredictable mistakes, the funny things that happen when my eye-hand co-ordination gets wacky, and the passages that suddenly don't work when I play them at different speeds. Over the years, I've accepted these as part and parcel of playing the piano. I get frustrated occasionally, but never to the point where I start losing faith. I need to transfer the same attitude to my writing, and not become discouraged when my writing refuses to gel or fit the vision I have for it. I need to remember that it's a process, a journey, in which mistakes and unexpected happenings should be embraced and learned from.

Writing is kinda like life that way. (Okay, obvious and cliche, but I need to hear it every once in a while.)