Lessons from a guitar...

Last winter I decided that I should probably line a few things up proactively to manage the cold, newly single, inside season. One thing I did was join a local spa that had a great gym (until the best one ever opened at Soules Sports and Fitness;shameless plug here.) and THE best conditioner in the showers ever. A form of community, where no one made eye contact and I could be anonymous while being part of a whole and getting my sweat on. I admit it sounds a bit convoluted now but it worked, for that time.  The other decision I made was to learn how to play the guitar.

The spa was to give myself something away from the challenges of the newly single experience. So I didn't become, shall we say, cranky.  The guitar is something I had tried years, ahem, decades, ago, for about a week. I had taken clarinet and voice lessons for ten years in school so I thought, ok, so I learn a few chords and pluck out a tune or two and feel accomplished in my mature self.

Oh my goodness was I misleading myself. I'm glad I was because it gave me the courage to call Pat, the queen of all patient people, to see if she was brave enough to take me on as a student. She may be reassessing this now, but she said yes. So, the guitar is hard. It is way hard. It is so hard, anyone who plays it should be given moments of silence as we stand in wonder at their abilities. My guitar and I have had words, well, I used words, it just sat there all high and mighty and string like.

It probably doesn't come as a surprise that I have a pretty high drive for anything I attempt. It's how I'm wired. Why go half in? What I had forgotten about those ten years of music is I started out sounding pretty awful. Mom made me practice in the field behind our house if that is any indication of how awful the first few months of woodwind lessons are. (A note to my children; I never made you do that. That should count for something!) So imagine my surprise and utter frustration when I picked up the guitar and started to learn how to make my fingers cooperate in order to produce something that remotely sounded like music.

This is where Pat's patience comes in. She would say, you are rocking it. Good job! I believe her because she is as honest as they come but couldn't help thinking she had lost some of her hearing. So, we kept at it. We have only scratched the proverbial surface of how to play and there are literally more techniques and ways to play it than I can absorb.

The reason for this trip through my, never going to do a world tour as a lead musician, experience is I had an epiphany about the guitar and learning this weekend. I realized that I could go at it with my "I WILL GET THIS!" way or I could relax into it, have fun and be fascinated by the potential of the process. I realized that much like our soul, which is eternal and that means we are never going to get it all done, learning is the same.

How boring would it be to know everything? Or to be able to do something the minute we decided to try. How about if we all admitted we didn't know it all, relaxed into that, allow the process and learn from each other?

It was such a relief to be able to say, ok, I don't know what the heck that fingering chart means (I had it sideways. Which is ridiculously funny to me now.). I don't have some perceived finish line I have to get to and prove that I am a worthy student. I have all the time in the world because the effort I am putting in now may show up as a world tour in my next life. Hey, it could happen!

Do you ever feel completely overwhelmed because you think you should know it all by now? At whatever age your ID says you are? Do you put pressure on yourself to always be prepared to prove that you have value in your intelligence? Ok, stop it. Relax in what you do know and be curious about what you don't. Be patient and give yourself time to learn, grow, expand and develop the muscles needed to live a fantastically, wonderful life.

We are so dynamically different as much as we are similar. People have a lot to teach each other as we have all walked unique paths. Let's start to accept that collectively we are dang smart and learn from each other. I wish for us all to have teachers as patient as Pat, with humor, direction and a willingness to say "I don't know, either" so we can experience the new together.

Rock on, or in my case for this weeks lesson; I wish you a Steady Groove!
Vicki

P.S, Dave, if you are reading this from the other side, I could really use the help with chords. I thank you in advance.

www.vickibaird.com