Sigh of Relief

One of my personal goals this year was to learn to play the piano.  I had taken lessons as a child and had even passed my grade 3 Royal Conservatory exam.  My mom told me I could quit if I passed my exam and that is exactly what I did.  At the time I did not miss it.  I filled my time with other pursuits.  It was only as an adult that I started to look back with some regrets.  Were my parents wrong to let me quit?  Absolutely not!  At the time my passion was skating and to properly pursue the goals I set in that part of my life, there was not enough room to be fighting over playing an instrument.


Last spring my little lady approached me about wanting to learn piano.  Really, it was not the first time that she asked.  I kept putting her off.  I remembered the fights over practicing.  I did not want to inflict the same situation on our home.  Then to top it all off - we did not have a piano.  After much begging and pleading, we finally agreed to let her try summer lessons thinking that this would be short lived.  She is absolutely amazing.  The teacher we found is absolutely amazing.  Before long, I was really wanting to get in on the action too.


In the fall, I started taking lessons every other week.  Then I was finding that I wanted more so we moved up to weekly lessons.  Then when it was time to set my goals for this year - piano was an obvious one.


So why am I breathing a sigh of relief...  Today was the year end recital.  Little one started working on a song in January to play.  She worked crazy hard.  The song was really a huge step up in ability for her and she attacked it.  Then a couple weeks ago she started getting cold feet.  She tried playing it on the grand piano in the church sanctuary where her recital would be and she struggled.  All of a sudden she wanted to back out of her goal in the final stretch.  Then she had this bright idea...  If I was going to encourage her to play at the recital, then she would do the same for me. 


Yikes!  This left me in a terrible position.  I really, really did not want to play in the recital.  The idea of doing things in public makes want to run for cover.  I had been working on lots of different songs and really did not have anything that I felt was even close to ready.  BUT...  How do I tell her she should do it and then in the next breathe say that I am unwilling... 


Today she walked up to the front of the room.  She sat down at that piano and she played her song beautifully.  I was such a super proud momma!  Then a few minutes later I walked up to the front of that same room.  I sat down at that piano and I played my song.  She was one proud little girl.