Fantasy: I retire to my well-lighted, warm studio with high ceilings, where I also have a comfy chair or two, and a well-stocked fridge. And a tea kettle. I do my work (yoga, paint, write) to the sound of music or birds or silence. I have enough of whatever I need: time, space, energy, stuff.
Reality: Ha.
I have a very powerful self story: “I am not musically inclined”. I hear myself sing off key (but now, with a little one, I sing anyway). I have never learned to read music. Never learned to play an instrument. So I am learning, in sporadic 30 second intervals, to play guitar. I’ve been practicing a few scales, and today I wanted to really try to BEGIN to learn to strum.
The universe had other plans:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCk97etz0Fg?rel=0&w=420&h=315]
The video I was watching is from youtube, thankyouverymuch uketricks. You seriously rock. The last strumming pattern? CALYPSO!
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How about you? Are you finding it hard to carve out any time at all (even 30 seconds) to try something new?
I encourage you to try, just for 30 seconds, or 2 minutes, try something that you have been avoiding, or that you are afraid you will be bad at… allow yourself to be where you are. Try, then try again later or tomorrow. See what unfolds in the interim. Effort, then space, seems to be the magical combination for me.
I’d love to hear how things are going! Feel free to be anonymous if you wish, or if you are feeling bolder, links to websites, videos, whatever are perfectly welcome!
I’ll be back at 7 tonight. Hope to see you here!
I just spent 15 minutes trying to figure out how to move pictures from my “new” (2 months old) camera that I never use because I can’t figure out how to move the pictures from it. I hate that everything technology is so non-intuitive to me. I finally cobbled together a solution that got the photos from the camera into my computer and then couldn’t figure out, for the life of me, how to delete them on the camera except by (finally, in desperation) going into the camera menu and deleting them ONE AT A TIME. Sign. Today I will take pictures of maple tree tapping and tonight I will try again. Maybe after L goes to bed so I might have 20 minutes to try to figure it out. xoxo
Eliz.
PS — I have always wanted to learn to play the guitar, no really, I’m not just saying that. . .someday.
I swear, there are a million moments where I feel thwarted by technology. For me, technology is at its best when it is totally transparent to me! Congratulations on your success, however circuitous, and I totally LOVE your gigantic maple tree tapping photos on your blog.
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LOL – a guitarist wannabe myself, I was thinking recently about how I might be more successful at my umpteenth attempt to learn to play the guitar. The idea of a ukulele entered my mind … and here you are strumming away. You rock!
First time EVER. This was *so* not my plan. And yet, it was the thing I did today toward this goal of trying new things– it just happened that way!
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