Thank you for making me take violin lessons...even when it was clear I didn't have a musical bone in my body.
Thank you for putting up with listening to me screech my way through practicing for "last chair" in our school orchestra.
And thanks for making me take piano lessons too.
Sure, to this day I'm still not good at either. My violin sounds just as screechy as is was in jr. high and I can scarcely plunk out the duets Grace's piano teacher chides me to play with her (which I do love, by the way).
I may not be a talented musician, but because you "force fed" music to me growing up I appreciate it with all my heart.
A couple weeks ago Elle's piano teacher pulled out a copy of "Jessica's Theme" from Man from Snowy River for her to play. Yes, the all-loved favorite for every fourteen-year-old in the eighties. My daughter is playing it. I have to smile at how giddy it made me. Years ago I worked my tail off to learn all those notes (while daydreaming of Jim the handsome horseman). Some days after Elle plays it I find myself sneaking in to the piano, my fingers still remembering how to run up and down the keys for parts of the song still embedded in my memory.
This week I took Elle on a date to watch the local high school orchestra performance.
It drew me in.
The sound of all those beautiful instruments up there harmonizing perfectly on the stage was mesmerizing. Not only because it is an award-winning orchestra, but because I know from experience how tough it is to get all those bows moving in one direction. How much practice it takes to get the whole orchestra to crescendo just so. What talent it takes to do that beautiful vibrato. (Check out that amazing first chair cellist...wow he's awesome.)
As I sat there watching that orchestra "dancing" to the music I almost teared up a little bit because it was so beautiful, and because my dear mother taught me to recognize that beauty to a little fuller extent.
Thank you, thank you, for teaching me the beauty of music.
Now if I can just cajole Elle into sticking with it for a few more years.
And maybe, just maybe I should sign up for those cello lessons I always wanted to take...
