Day 41: The Piano

The Piano

Each note of a piano,
Evokes a different thought.
Of rain drops or a passing tear,
The ebb and flow of life
The insurmountable and surmounted,
The inevitable certainty,

And finality of life.
The beauty of human beings,
Their wealth of emotion and talent.
When intertwined and combined,
Produce serenity.
       ~Gerard Hogan

I have been playing the piano for as long as I can remember.  Growing up, I played to let off steam, and I played when I needed to be cheered up or to get my mind off whatever teenaged angst I was going through.  I played for fun and when I was happy, because it was a way to express my joy!  I spent a great deal of time at the piano until I left for University.  The first chance I was able after moving to the states I purchased my first piano.  It was a dream to have a piano of my own, and it was such fun to look around for one!  It's not a new piano.  As a matter of fact, it's a rebuilt one.  It's like a piano mutt--parts from everywhere--the name embellished on the wood means nothing.  But I've always loved mutts, and I really loved how this piano felt when I first played it.   Nowadays, I certainly don't play like I used to, as evidenced by the dust on the piano keys (and I DID run the duster over before I took the picture--honest!), and my playing has

become a bit of a competition between two little people who always choose just that moment to want to play as well, but I love those rare opportunities to play unimpeded and uninterrupted.  To play until my arms and back and neck hurt.  Being able to work on a piece or a passage until I get it right gives me great satisfaction.  I think it's important for everyone to have something that they love to do, that has taken work and sacrifice and a degree of pain to accomplish.  It can be anything, really, as long as it is something that is enjoyable, took some work to accomplish, and you can dust off every once in awhile to bring you back to the truth that, yes, life can be humdrum and full of mundane must-do's, and though it sometimes seems that it has been awhile since you've done anything other than the usual, once upon a time you learned how to do THIS, and it feels darn good! 

Now I want to know:  What have you accomplished that brings you satisfaction?