Peace Outside Starts with Peace Inside

Groaning in the labors of spring, the buds on the maple are in heavy red clusters.

Last night, we started recording and M. got unexpectedly nervous. This child is usually good under pressure, so I asked what was new. Now that we are recording onto a CD, he believed it had to be perfect and didn't think he could do it! This is an unusual response I had not thought about when I decided last month to make the switch from cassettes. I'll need to continue to assess what the difference is to a child.

We practiced 2 exercises in my studio last night. Breathe in peace, breathe out crud. Breathe in peace, breathe out crud. Repeat as needed. I didn't need to point out that breathing is, sort of, well, a human requirement.

Then we imagined our instrument and us in an unbreakable bubble. The sounds outside the bubble are muffled, like the sounds you hear under water. It's just you and your music; nothing else matters. He played wonderfully from his bubble, and we had the recording to prove it.

After the lesson, the Dad wanted to talk to me a moment and sent M. to the car. "That was terrific, what you did for him back there", he said. "Thanks for letting me hear that too." Dad was actually misty. I don't know what that was all about; maybe there's more to the story?