Third Person Thursday

She is amazed at how quickly life goes by when she feels joy.

Joy, a feeling utterly absent from her soul for so long.  And she feels so robbed because she knows it was there, it was just dampened by chemicals, not just dampened, put out completely: The fire of joy, extinguished.

She was catching up on some computer stuff one night, listening to her NEW playlist.  Music was absent for a few years too, but it’s creeping back in.  She was surprised by FROM THIS ONE PLACE playing in her ears, a song sent to her by email from a blog-reader.  She teared up as she listened to the story:

“I was about to give up and that’s no lie
cardinal landed outside my window
threw his head back and sang a song
so beautiful it made me cry

took me back to a childhood tree
full of birds and dreams

from this one place I can’t see very far
in this one moment I’m square in the dark
these are the things I will trust in my heart
you can see something else
something else

I don’t know what’s making me so afraid
tiny cloud over my head
heavy and grey with a hint of dread
I don’t like to feel this way

take me back to a window seat
with clouds beneath my feet

from this one place I can’t see very far
in this one moment I’m square in the dark
these are the things I will trust in my heart
you can see something else
something else”

~Sara Groves, From This One Place

She suddenly saw that place she occupied for so long, and she breathed a sigh that she has left it…that she has stepped back into the light.  And it is so inspiring, motivating, mind-blowing, laugh and dance-inducing, vibrant and on fire, fueled by joy. She feels joy.

She wonders, have you downloaded any new tunes lately? Like:

Glee soundtrack: Poker Face
Adele: Make you Feel My Love
Madeleine Peyroux: Waters of March
Ella Fitzgerald: Manhattan
Kite Runner Soundtrack: Supplication
Jason Mraz: Kickin’ With You
Black Eyed Peas: I gotta Feelin’
Sound of Music: Lonely Goatherd
Mary J Blige: Hard Times Come Again No More
Ann Margret: 13 Men
Dinah Washington: Relax Max

She thinks you will find something downloadable on this list, your welcome.

Recorder Recital

Lolly had her first recital.  Didn’t she look cute?  I don’t care that this dress is a hand-me-down it’s just the perfect recital dress. Bell 3/4 sleeves? Stop it.  There were four recorder girls at the mostly-flute exhibition.  The players played in order of ability so we were surprised to see Lolly as the fourth and last recorder player.  The first three girls had been playing since the fall, and Lolly started on March 23rd to be exact.

Before she played the teacher explained that she was the newest member of their group and had only been playing for 2 and a half months.  Lolly then proceeded to rock Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (and variations).  She was very “nervous” about her bow…she practiced it a lot!  Man I was rooting for that kid.  I wore my new flute necklace (she will play flute very soon!) in support of her!

Jason and I were so proud of Lolly.  I was just WILLING her to remember everything and she did!  Phoebe got pretty hyper pre-concert and then just fell asleep after Lolly played.  The room was extremely hot and I guess she wore herself down.  We now have proof that Phoebz is capable of mid-day sleeping, so we think we are going to institute mandatory family naps on Sunday afternoons!

Lolly has accomplished so much since March 23rd and we are so excited to watch her progress. She asks (practically begs) to practice nearly everyday, picks up on her assignments superfly fast and she can read music.  She and J shared a fist pump when she was done.  She reached out her fist and said: First Concert! (Fist Pump).  One down…

Today

Among many other things, today I observed how high my daughters head had grown since kindergarten, compared to the piano.

Stay tuned for an upcoming Third Person Thursday on the first 3 hours of my day. Oi.

Judds

I don’t know about you, but I think there is a market hole right now, since the Judds are no longer performing together very much. I think we are really close to being able to slide right in and take over that market……I mean, come on:

I am going to have to change my number for all the calls I am about to get, upon posting our debut concert.

Third Person Thursday

She sat reading the teacher’s manuel for the piano lesson series The Music Tree, that she is going to start teaching her kids soon.  This, after attending her daughter’s first recorder lesson and learning how to finger the notes B, A and G. BAG.

She has embraced the part of her life that is practicing, but now with her younger daughter starting her instrument, and the older wanting to have her violin practice reward be her first piano lesson, she’s feeling that familiar overwhelmed feeling.

She found herself transported back in time to college, when she took intro to guitar (and sucked at it) and violin (her husband could play twinkle better than her) and some early music education classes.  She remembered when she went to do her first observation of music educators, to fulfill the required hours of observation before declaring the music education major.  She remembered arriving home, knocking on the door and her husband (husband!) opening it and she fell into his arms and wailed that she didn’t want to be a teacher.  She remembered feeling so panicked that she had to make what seemed at the time, like a life-altering decision with a husband attached.

The husband was just who she needed, because he encouraged her to follow her dream and make a living performing.  So, she did not become a teacher. Instead, she found the fastest way out of that school, which was 3 years and a music/business major and graduated in 2000. By 2002 she was a mother and 5 years later, she was a music educator to her daughter, despite her best efforts to avoid that path.

Now here she sits with instruments up to her ears and her grandpa’s mandolin which she has wanted to learn to play since inheriting it 2 years ago, and piles and piles of music that she uses every single day, that can never be put away because it’s an “active” pile.  Part of her wishes she had stayed the music education course.  Having little children read music and play instruments was never part of her vision for the future, but the present is a different reality.  Though managing all the music is difficult some days (especially when she gets a last-minute audition at 6:15 PM), she is grateful to witness the fruits of her labors and to keep her own musicianship from getting rusty.

What’s the sub-dominant of G Major? Anyone? Anyone?

See? ; )