Carpe Diem

Holy.  It's been a long, long time since I wrote!  And a long, long time since I updated my blog...I still have stuff from 2013 on here!  Egads.  It's interesting for me to look at the blog now because in the beginning, it was all about food and running...and while those things are still a huge part of me, my love of strength has become central.  While I still love to run, building muscle is where it's at for me, at least for now.  Methinks a blog refresh is in order!

Anyhoo...it isn't that often that I get the itch to write, but I was inspired today.  When I was six years old, we were offered the chance to take piano lessons after school.  All my friends were doing some kind of dance or music, so I asked my parents if I could take lessons.  Now I know this is odd as (OK, stereotype coming here) a lot of Asian parents push piano on their kids, but my parents didn't really want me to take piano lessons.  Thinking back, they are incredibly practical people and didn't see a "purpose" for the piano...and also being an immigrant family, money was pretty tight and there was no extra for lessons or buying a piano for me to practice on.  We weren't well off by any stretch, so now that I can see things with some maturity and understanding, I get it.  Anyways, I finished the first grade and remember practicing my fingering on a piece of paper with the keys drawn on it or...and this memory makes me laugh and feel sad at the same time...on a toy piano that I had been given as a birthday gift from a friend.  Some of the keys didn't really work, but that was all I had and ya gotta do what you gotta do.  I absolutely adored playing the piano during lessons...there was something about the ability to make music that I loved even when I was so little.  Sadly though, because we didn't have a piano and money was tight, I couldn't continue on with lessons so I was forced to give it up.  It was weird because for years after that, even though I only had taken some very rudimentary lessons, I would love to tinker with a piano if one was around.  I recall being at a friend's house and while the other kids were playing in the next room, I was in the living room at the piano, tickling the ivories...or trying to!

So that was when I was 6 years old.  Fast forward 40 years, and never having learned to play stuck with me...truly one of my life's biggest regrets.  For years I talked on and off again about taking lessons, but life was insanely busy and I never followed up.  About five years ago though, one of my friends was moving and asked if Hubs' church would want to buy her piano...I jumped at the chance to buy it, and into our house it came.  Now you're thinking, well she must have taken lessons right away, right?  One of her biggest regrets, right?  Nope...that piano has sat collecting dust since.  Until now...Hubs was taking a course for the past year, and while it was tough it made him realize how much time he wasted doing nothing productive when he wasn't studying!  He's always wanted to take guitar lessons so...you can guess what's coming...he signed up for guitar lessons and I got off my duff and signed up for piano lessons.  We signed on at our local Tom Lee and are able to go back to the back to the same teacher and had our first lesson this past Friday!  My first musical piece...Jingle Bells!   And tonight...for the first time ever...I played a song from start to finish.  It was a bit halting and I made some mistakes, but after I finished my heart literally burst with so.much.joy.  I actually got a bit teary because it's been something I've wanted to do for so long and I was finally doing it.

So, the purpose of this post isn't really to tell you all about my sad childhood.  Ha!  It's to say that it's never to late to learn or do anything, and if there's something that you've always wanted to do or achieve, what's stopping you?  Sure, it's likely going to take some time, work and effort, but think about what you're going to get from it on the flip side. 

Now...heading off to play Jingle Bells one more time before bed.