PART TWO: THE LEAST SUSPECTED BLOW

     In the final, yet least suspected blow, I watched two documentaries (which I would highly recommend, see below) one about the life of Beethoven and the other a detailed, enthralling view into the making of a Steinway.  I watched in awe.  How amazing and divine, almost super human the music of Beethoven was.  How could he write that music?  Piano Concerto No. 14 and so many others.  The other film, such beauty in the making of a gorgeous instrument; a Steinway piano.  Ahh, during this documentary all the brilliant pianists running their fingers along the keys like air.  
     In retrospect I can see I had two minds whilst watching.  One in total awe, reveling in the joy, the music, the wood, the craftsmanship and the everyday people whose lives had happened upon this path of becoming craftsmen in their one piece of the Steinway puzzle.  The other mind, slowly building the dreamy yet dreaded ‘what if’...what if I could play like that?  What if I hadn’t quit?  Look at how amazing they are, how they understand the instrument.  I’m so far away from that, I’ll never get there...yep, you know me a bit by now...that old, dark voice.  When given just the smallest crack in my guard, slips into my mind and consumes me.  Sabotage complete.

         I didn’t intend to fall off track and into the abyss.  It started slowly, yes, I had these little annoyances, these little moments but I was still committed.  However, by now my Saboteur knows me well enough to be more cunning than just stopping the flow all at once.  No, that would be too obvious to my acute awareness of it’s ways and thus never work.  It must close the valve slowly so that I don’t notice until it’s too late. 

         Thus, all those elements I told you about happened and little by little I lost my inspiration.  Lost my desire.  Torture bled into Destruction. 

Destruction Phase 1-no writing at all as weeks pass.

Destruction Phase 2-behaving like the crazy girl from my youth rather than the woman I am becoming.

Destruction Phase 3-taking a ‘day’ off of piano practice and letting it bleed into way too many days to speak of (after all, my Maestro might read this!)

         I felt terribly frightened that I again was failing at something I set out to do.  And I felt alone and misunderstood in both matters of the heart and of human being.  It got dark, I will not lie.  The shadow of regret was on me like a blanket now.  Layer upon layer, not only the elements I’ve shared but the infinite sub-particles each of those elements creates.  A spiderweb of fears.  I didn’t want to quit but I wondered if I’d have the strength to get up and play!  Get up and live! 

         It seems strength lies waiting for me to call on it.  Hoping I will call on it.  For here I am; I am still writing, I am still pining some, I am still playing and I will still love.  There lies strength underneath this rock of woe.  The rock I used to pin me down with heaviness of thoughts.  Thinking is no stranger to me but I am done thinking for now and will just roll on. 

Documentaries: (both viewable on Netflix Instant Play)
In Search of Beethoven

Note by Note

Song While Writing: (click on song to link)

Daniel Barenboim plays:

Piano Sonata No. 14 in C Sharp Minor, Op. 27, No. 2 "Moonlight": I. Adagio sostenuto