I still need to practice another 25 minutes today to uphold my commitment to myself.
But I just watched a 20-min. news video/documentary about the Charlottesville riots.
I don’t usually watch the news – or any TV, actually. So I am super-sensitive… and now I am devastated. I am appalled. I am in disbelief. I am absolutely repulsed.
Like everyone in this country, I’ve read and learned about Nazis and WWII and the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. since I was a child, and I’ve seen more movies about these topics than I can count. But what’s happening in this video is not a movie – and it’s not over. It is happening NOW. In our country. HERE. I feel sick.
I will go practice and make music now, because that’s what artists do. But all I can do on my way there is wonder how I will do it.
And then I answer myself:
I will continue on, and practice what I preach, and practice what I’m being taught. I will begin right now, right here. I wonder: what do I notice about myself right now? And I notice just a bit of Ease that I wasn’t aware of a moment ago. And then… I ask myself the question again, and I wonder and I breathe. And again. And then I remember other helpful thoughts, and think those, too.
This is how I practice: just the same as every other time. I wonder about Ease and Peace, and I find it in myself, and I appreciate that in this moment I also find it here in my home. There’s no guarantee that the peace will remain in my home or my country or my surroundings, but I know I can always find it within myself. And that is very comforting.
A member of my Musical Practice Community on facebook, Ray Nichol, responded with this comment: “You will play, you will practice, you will teach because not to do these things of beauty and love and self expression means that they have won. And I for one believe in the yin and yang of the universe. Do not walk timidly to the practice room RUN!!! And play with more passion than ever before.” Thank you, Ray. How right you are!
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