Starting Her Young

Everyone has something.

The thing that speaks to their core.

Growing up, I was lucky to have two things.

I had my words.

And although I do not claim to be a brilliant author,

I have always been able to write down a thing so that the feeling of the time is preserved - 

If for nobody else, but for me.

And that has always provided me with a freedom of sorts.

But more than my words, I have always had music.

In my life I have played the piano, violin, viola, flute, guitar and I used to love to sing.

(Would love to feel competent in singing again.)

But the one that remains very strong is the one that opened my being to music first.

The piano.

It has been such a gift to me, the ability to make music.

At times when I have felt like I could explode with an emotion, many emotions,

The piano has been there.

The piano and I, we have a strong bond.

Sometimes I have just needed to quiet my mind when it is storming with thoughts.

While I watch my hands play some Bach or some Beethoven, the quiet always returns.

And with it, a clarity that helps me cope with my life.

Chopin is my crutch on an emotional day,

A little Debussy when I want to feel peace,

Joplin or the blues when I feel so full of energy that I need to expend.

And then I have found myself playing through scales and scales and scales when I crave discipline.

The piano is more than an instrument to me - 

It is my confidant.

Sometimes I have gone for long stretches without playing.

And when I sit down after days, or weeks, or even months away,

It is truly like coming home.

The piano grounds me.

But playing the piano did not come naturally to me.

I do not feel that I was talented in piano at all.

My parents started paying for lessons for me when I was seven.

I had to work very, very hard until I hit a breakthrough of sorts around middle school.

Then I still had to work hard to keep up with the amazingly talented students that worked with my teacher.

(I'm so very lucky to have studied with such an excellent teacher.)

(And I hope my parents know that was money very well spent.)

I want my children to have anchors of their own.

And they all do seem musical... so I am introducing each of them to the piano.

When they are old enough, they can chose whether music is their "thing".

But at least I can give them the chance to learn it early, if they choose.

How early?

Macie loves music and started dancing early in November.

She will sit next to me at the piano and listen to me play for 15-30 minutes at a time.

And even if she is fussy before I start, listening almost always calms her.

She often giggles and sings with the music.

Macie already sits with me at the piano and knows how to reach out and play.

And she has her own toy piano too.

She loves it.

I love her.