Music meditation

I’m still not very good at the piano. In fact, I’m pretty terrible. It’s becoming rapidly apparent that the amazing musical talent my four kids all seem to possess didn’t come from me.

But I have a lesson today, so this morning I sat down at the piano to practice. I’m learning the song Sunrise, sunset. My piano teacher says that once I master it, I can play it whenever one of my kids gets married.

I can’t think and play at the same time. Whenever I start thinking about what my right hand is playing, my left hand gets confused.

So for an hour this morning, I stopped thinking about all the appalling news scrolling down my twitter feed. I let go of all the anxiety, the stress, and the helplessness that I feel every time I click through to another news story or see another headline. And instead, I spent the hour staring at a sheet of music, running my fingers over keys on the piano, trying to make music.