Difficult but Doable

I had to play piano in Relief Society today for the first time ever. When they called me to do it, my exact words were (groaning) "Oh, nooo." Brother Jensen didn't seem to bothered by my reaction, stating that the girl who plays the piano in primary doesn't play, either, and she doesn't have a piano. So I accepted, wondering what in tarnation they were thinking when my name popped into their heads in conjunction with the piano. Don't misunderstand, I play...if you can call pounding out my own little melodies playing. I just don't read music. You see, once upon a time a certain mother forced her daughter to take piano lessons from the ages of 6 to 13 (me). The problem is, I was good at 6 as I was when I finished, at 13. The interim years were spent begrudgingly going to a once a week lesson and exasperating a very patient teacher with my dismal facsimiles of what she played for me. (I always made her play it first, and then would try to mimic by ear what it sounded like. Eventually she caught on to my little game and refused to play songs for me until I attempted to read the notes. That's about when my piano lesson days came to an end.)

So, last week I spoke with the music leader, gathered a list of songs I would need to know, and began to painstakingly decipher the hieroglyphics known as music. I went into relief society today telling myself that I was going to make mistakes, and that I should just get over it and keep playing through. And you know what? Though I made mistakes...saying 'several' is being kind...I didn't do half bad. Afterwards a couple of the sisters told me I did okay and that it will get easier. An especially well-meaning sister (the previous accompanist, to be exact) told me that I did fine, but I just needed to remember that a dotted half-note needs to be held longer than a regular half note. I nodded and said i would try to remember. I thought about asking her what a regular half note was, but I didn't want to scare the poor thing. :)

Stephenie Meyer (author of Twilight) told a BYU audience that she felt that the dream she had that eventually became a full-length novel was God's way of telling her to get going. "It sounds a little odd to say you were inspired to write a vampire novel," she said, "I really feel like it was a situation where I had a talent that I was not using. I had buried it. And that was my kickstart. I was supposed to be doing something with this talent." That's kind of what it feels like. I have been focusing on so many other things, that the musical side of me has been basically buried while I concentrated on endeavors I deemed more profitable, like my art and writing. I guess that's the way it works. There's always something more we can be doing. Just as something gets easy, its time to grow in something else. Last sunday in gospel doctrine class, our teacher said, "Nobody gets stronger by lifting 1000 pounds on the first try. The trick is to start with something difficult but doable." I may hit the wrong notes about 3/4s of the time now, but who knows? Eventually it will only be 1/2 the time, and maybe someday I can add playing the hymns to the list of challenges I endured and, eventually conquered.