Have you ever read a book that seemed to have been placed before your eyes at just the right time? Several times this has happened to me. Sometimes I have picked up a book I have read before and wanted to re- read for a particular reason only to find that there were new messages for me in its story or from its characters. I had never read any book by Willa Cather but came across a single line from The Song of the Lark when looking for something else. That one line was enough for me to decide to read the whole:

There are some things you learn best in calm, and some in storm.

I am learning this fresh everyday it seems. While Thea is referring specifically to music – what we learn in our practice time versus what we learn in the midst of performance – there is truth in this thought that is universal. We are so quick to wish the hard times away – the really tough days – the hurts – the challenges, but I continuously remind myself [and sometimes that is wicked hard] to not do so for several reasons. For one thing, we only get each day once and only get so many days in life. Each one should be lived as fully and vibrantly as possible, even the “storm” days – and even those days when we wonder what else could possibly go wrong. I have experienced through the years that some of what I have learned about myself during the hardest times enriches me even more than what I learn during the calm times. For another, when we get caught thinking how shitty our life may seem to be at the moment, we forget to celebrate the beauty in the lives of others around us and we forget to see the beauty that exists in our own lives.

Some of us find it just as difficult – if not more so – to allow our minds to learn in times of calm. To set aside the emotions of the chaos that is life, to leave behind our speakers and ear buds, to postpone the longing for company – can allow our brains and hearts to make essential connections, to shift perspective and see new possibilities, to find order. I am thinking now about all the time I have spent practicing scales on my horn – sometimes moving back and forth between only two notes. When those two notes live beside each other in a phrase, that quiet time makes all the difference to the music. Life is so like that. I make time to head out on hiking trails where I can look at and listen to the world and somehow find answers to or strength to face life’s challenges.

Most days are somewhere in between or a mix of calm and storm. There is plenty to learn in those days as well.

Each day matters, whatever it holds.