Patience Lens

Self discipline. Patience. Things highly desirable but hard to achieve. I will admit my greatest weakness is my patience. I am severely impatient, though not often vocally. I love humbling experiences that remind me the benefits of patience, because they remind me why it is worth striving for.

My best (or favorite) example of this has been my experience with guitar. I taught myself when I was about 15 years old to play guitar. I am nowhere near pro and my technique isn't great, but I can manage to entertain myself. Starting from scratch and learning a new instrument isn't easy. I had to practice a lot, push through much trial and error, and force myself to deal with sore fingers. (ha pathetic complaints of an inexperienced musician right?) 

Though I've since had several performance opportunities, I am very humbled by each one. Each reminds me of my inferiority and how much patience and diligence I need to perform decently. Performing also teaches you the patience that is required when you mess up during a performance and must still continue.

Last night I had another excellent humbling experience. My FHE brother D. brought his guitar and was playing/singing for a while. His skill level and knowledge of guitar and music in general far exceeded mine and I was just in awe of his talent. Being the cool kid he is, he requested that I break out my guitar and play too. One thing you must realize about me is that I am bad at impromptu performances and I hate playing in front of small groups. These two things absolutely terrify me. Somehow he convinced me to play and we ended up having a lot of fun. He taught me a lot, which was, again, humbling and exciting. I love to learn :) Each time he wanted to try to teach me something new I tried to politely refuse because I am slow at picking up music, but he forced me to patiently learn things and I found I was able to learn faster when I kept a more open mind and trusted that he would be able to teach in a way that I could understand.

So basically moral of the story is be patient, be humble, surround yourself with good influences and never skip out on opportunities that you are given. Ok kids? Sweet :)

-M