What an incredibly tiring week! As I look back over the week that was, I recall a week in which I was up to my eyeballs in music of one sort or another. I’ve have a few responsibilities added to my working with the church music program in the last few weeks, as I’ll be filling in for our director while her husband recuperates from open heart surgery. I’m grateful for the opportunity, but I realize just how focused I’ve become on doing everything just right. In addition to my responsibilities to my church choir, I also have added on the responsibility of being a member of the Magic City Choral Society.
And so, it is, this week, Music for which I am most grateful. Music is the one gift I have in my life for which I am truly grateful I’ve studied music for nearly 20 years, beginning with piano and then moving on to voice and a little bit of organ. I possess a Bachelor of Arts degree in music. I admit that I wasn’t the greatest student of music when I was in college, but as I’ve been working with the church choir and trying to find ways to motivate, educate and encourage the choir’s growth, lessons are coming back to me, little tid-bits of knowledge I thought long ago forgotten. As I gather on Tuesday evenings with my Choral Society, I’m reminded of the great memories I have of being a chorister. Yet, this time, it is different. This time, I’m doing it for fun, not for credit. It’s strange, when I stop and think about the place my musical talents have brought me, the places they are taking me. Music is the one stable in my life. I’m grateful for the place it has in my life, the amazing growth I’ve experienced as a musician over the last two years and the gifts, friendship and peace that music has brought into my life.
I’m grateful to be reconnecting with many of the friends from my past through facebook. What an amazing tool. Yet, not only am I connecting with new friends. I’m grateful for the place I am in my life. Certainly, things are less than perfect, but they are better than they’ve been in a long time. Life is good. Life is full of exciting surprises. We just have to stop and be open to experiencing them.
I’m grateful for the letter I received last week from my Aunt. Perhaps it is the beginning of the rebuilding of a relationship that was deeply damaged more than a decade ago. I have positive hopes, but realize that we will both have to acknowledge differences of opinion, but the past in the past and learn to live in, and focus on the Now.
Here’s my confession: This week I am grateful. There doesn’t have to be any one particular reason for my gratitude, for indeed there are many. I have a home, I have friends, I have pets, I have, in essence, EVERYTHING I could possibly need or want in this life. Learning to stop and appreciate those blessings is a major lesson I have to learn. I know, in my heart of hearts, that all I hold dear could be wiped out in the blink of an eye. I think that makes me more grateful because I know I have so much for which to be grateful.
So, tonight, as I write this, fatigued beyond belief, I do so with a sense of peace and gratitude in my heart and life. The alternative is to whine, bitch and complain, and what good will that do my heart? My soul, my spirit? Absolutely none. Gratitude is my balm of peace. And, if you are part of my life, please know that I’m incredibly grateful for you.
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2 comments:
Wow! It sounds like you have been one busy guy! I am so happy that you are pouring yourself into your music, I can tell how much you enjoy it! I pray that you are on the way to mending a relationship from years past. I know it will help you find more inner peace. Take care and have a great week to come!
Music has always been a balm for me, too-the arts, in general, but Music the most of all. It takes me to a different place, a different "plane" if you will, where life is focused on creating beauty, understanding mankind and the universe, melding with others who are there for the same reasons, but are different and can add life to what you already believe. Nothing like it-art. Couldn't, and don't ever want to, live without it.
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