Work at it

They gracefully leap through the air and effortlessly turn as they move across the stage. Ballerinas, and other dancers, are simply dynamic. My daughter sits in wonder watching ballerinas and other dancers. She is in awe. When we are home, she dances along with any television production as much as she can. She’s four, so the leaps aren’t that high. I tell her that these ballerinas have practiced for years in order to do the amazing feats she sees.

And then I sit back and wonder myself. Isn’t it all like that. Doesn’t anything worth doing take time, practice, trial, error, and then more practice? While I enjoy being great at some things, good at others, none of those skills came to me in one day. And there is the lesson. Work hard.

So let us not become frustrated in this new year because we aren’t excellent at something right away or at a skill that may be rusty. Work at it. Try harder. Practice. You can do it! It takes all of this to become Snow Princess or the Sugar Plum Fairy in the Nutcracker. That is what I share with my daughter and what I share with you.

Happy New Year! May it be productive, fun, and full of joyful wonder.

This post is part of my “Just give me a word” series where you may offer a word, and I will share a story related to that word. My daughter provided the word “Ballerinas” to me last week. Feel free to provide me with a word of your own.

Music moves my soul

There are songs, old favorites and new, that simply move my soul. The words and instruments take me to another place and shift my soul to a less stagnant and more open space. Where there is room for new ideas, something for my heart to feel, and the colors are more saturated. It’s hard to put into words, but if you love music, you know what I mean.

My playlists on my iPhone are named as such…

• Cool: soft songs with lovely melodies and beautiful voices.
• Happy: upbeat music you can skip to.
• Sing: songs to belt out loudly in the car
• Spirit: uplifting music, when my soul needs understanding and a lift
• Beat: songs I can tap my toe and bob my head to
• Good morning: songs that wake up my soul

Depending on my soul’s needs at the moment, I pick the list. Some of the best songs make more than one play list, of course. I have thought about adding “Sorrow” for those heart-breaking days embedded with sad news. I stop short, however. I don’t want to have such a list in front of me when I scroll through my play lists list. Might be too tempting on a semi-gray day. I have also thought about having a “Spa” list with bird-chirping spa songs or “People!” with songs about crazy human behavior.

And by the way… if you haven’t yet used the Genius tool in iTunes, I highly recommend it for finding more music similar to the music in your music library. Great way to find new artists or older songs that fit your mood. Pandora is great for this too.

Here are a few of my favorites from the lists above:

Cool: Uncle Earl “Easy in the Morning”  and a new favorite, Erika Chambers “Eventide”

Happy: Jonathan Sexton “Love in My Heart” and Kimberly Cole “Nitty Gritty”

Sing: Jon and Roy “Little Bit of Love” and Kristin Andreassen “Crayola Doesn’t Make  a Color For Your Eyes”

Spirit: Bonnie Raitt “Hear Me Lord” and Yo-Yo Ma and Alison Krauss’s version of “Simple Gifts”

Beat: Mirah “The Garden” and KC & The Sunshine Band “Boogie Shoes” recently brought back to my play list courtesy of “So You Think You Can Dance”

Good morning: Sara Bareilles “Many the Miles” and Donavon Frankenreiter “Life, Love and Laughter”

What other ideas would you have for a play list theme? What songs wake up your soul, ideas, creative thoughts?