Straight line

“No one heals in a straight line”. This is a quote from “The Choice” by Dr. Edith Eva Eger. No one heals in a straight line. This makes so much sense to me right now. I wish I could heal in a straight line, and feel better and better each day without the bumps, and twists and turns.

Repetition is key to steady progress with piano, or any other physical and mental skill. Natural talent has something to do with progress, and a good environment helps. But the real key is dedication and strong desire to learn. My experience with healing is a different story. For many days, months or even years in a row things appear to be fine and even improving, and then comes the trigger. Sometimes it is out of nowhere, and sometimes it is the final straw in a long line of tiny triggers that add up to that breaking point.

So, I hit my breaking point a few months ago and having been working since then to figure out a path to healing. Now I am realizing that the healing is often for hurts that affected me not just 20 years ago but even since childhood. Seeing those results in my own life, and knowing how some simple words affected me for my whole life has made me hyper-aware of how I talk to my students. Some of those children will have only 4 to 5 more lessons with me, but those must be positive lessons where each student will move on to their new teacher knowing that they are special, musical, unique, creative people and worthy of kind and gentle teaching.