Practicing

I am happy to say I have been practicing. Of course I have been falling behind in other things. It's hard to keep up.

In the course of my work, I read Democracy in American by Alexis de Tocqueville recently. De Tocqueville spent six months studying the U.S. in 1831-32. He wrote that Americans were seized with a restlessness that compelled them to be busy at all times.

So being busy seems to be entrenched in the national character, not something that will ever resolve itself. I was talking about this at a recent rehearsal with a friend of mine who is retired, but busier than ever ("We can't say no," she said), but we both agreed that playing music was a remedy for, rather than a cause of, the general stresses of life. So, practicing is the answer, even in times of busy-ness, since it is, in itself, restorative.

and Happy Mother's Day, especially to all those busy moms trying to squeeze in some practicing on this day or any other. (The roses are from my daughter.)