Monday, April 14, 2014

Slow Motion Time

There’s a little wood block someone painted with the words: “The Older I Get The Better I Was.” I bought it at a gift shop somewhere near Lawrence Welk Village in Escondido. It sits on top of the china cabinet now beside a basket of greenery. As I think about it, I have to agree. My mother would have been proud to know that at fourteen I’d begin to carry on where she left off.

I was thinking of that this morning as I stumbled through some old pieces on the piano. I used to love hearing her play Edelweiss Glide. I practiced until I could play it nearly as well as she had. So when my piano teacher heard me play it she said, “My dear, I’m going to let you play this in the recital. What’s more you will be the last number.” I knew she meant last meant the best. I was sure I was not her most advanced pupil so that puzzled me but later I figured it out. There were two other pupils who had been vying for that place in the program. Their mothers may have been even more anxious to see their kid get the spot. Since my mother had died earlier that year Mrs. Nestande no doubt knew those other pupils and their mothers could hardly deny me the place, and that would let her off the hook for choosing between them. I really could play the number with great zest and flourish but I sat nervously through all the others pieces with my heart beating faster at every applause because I couldn’t remember the opening chord. However, once I got seated on the piano bench it came to me and from then on I gave it my all. The applause that time went right to my head!

Through the years that is the one piano piece I’ve been able to remember without the music in front of me and though it continued to delight, I never could play it as well as I did that day. Later on I really earned the last place in the recital with Greig’s To Spring (six sharps!) and could play difficult pieces, but I never kept on studying or practicing them. Today I can amuse myself at the piano and I make my sittings there short. No one has complained and no one has praised and no one has even mentioned the piano. Just the way I like it.

I think most everyone can take a bit of pride in old photos. Youth’s bloom touches us all, and in my move I’ve come across one or two photos of me that gave Wally some pride and pleasure on his overseas wartime duties. All this runs counter to my blog’s title, I know, but I keep holding onto it and trying to make it so. Getting better as we get older can be refreshing in many ways if we look for signs of that.

I used to get around with ease, hardly ever getting tired or having to endure complaints from my body. Not so now. So, what do I do about it? I keep as active as I can but have learned how to enjoy slow motion. I focus on one thing at a time and tell myself how much I enjoy it. Appreciation is a great handmaid. Also gratitude and love. I think getting older can at last make negative and worrisome thinking so distasteful we learn to drop it quickly, like a hot potato. 

A short nap once in a while is a lovely way to slow down. Also, silence, or near silence, lets us appreciate the present moment with our own thoughts. I used to watch the news regularly. I’ve given that up. I read it briefly on line or in the weekly issue of The Christian Science Monitor, a really good source. Thinking too much about the future is unproductive too. There’s a way I heard of making days better. “Keep your violin in tune.” It’s so much better than letting it get out of tune and when applied to our days and the quality of mind it really works.

I’d add to that, Have a wastebasket or trash can handy and carry all wasteful thoughts and actions out to a dumpster. Call it a short walk. The good things along the way need your appreciation and kind thoughts. Be glad for the little blessings of life and say hello to the birds and flowers. Give a salute to the sun and make use of park benches. Slow motion is an amazingly easy way to get through a day. If you’ve taken time to read this, you must believe that too.  



1 comment:

  1. YouTube posts lots of pianists young and old giving the Edelweiss Glide their all. Here's a couple:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJCb9sSqMQE

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHZ0ZQleasQ

    If you have a piano playing spouse around who lives a long as you do, you could learn to play THIS one!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RI-l0tK8Ok0

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