I’ve been scheduled to play for church today for about a month. When I say yes it’s never a big deal. It only becomes a big deal the week before. Suddenly I feel as if I have no stamina, and my nerves are bad.
Is this silly or what? It’s church. You won’t find professional musicians at the church. Everyone is kind and many wouldn’t hear a wrong note if I played one. Maybe it’s that I’m more aware of God’s presence. Or of being in a church building. I don’t know. But I sure don’t enjoy the stress.
But I played today, and it went just fine. And now I think, “That was fun. I’d like to do it again.”
I’ll probably get another call asking me to play in a month or so. Then I’ll go through this whole thing again of saying yes, feeling good about it, stressing out, getting nervous, playing, and then deciding it was a good experience.
That’s me in a nutshell.
Now it’s off to opera. 3:00 Sunday operas are the most difficult for me; Sunday afternoon is, after all, nap time.
This coming week I’m back to UCSC and Symphony Silicon Valley is having a little get-together prior to our start of the season. The Santa Clara University music department has a get-together as well, but I can’t attend; I have private students at the event time. I feel as if I’m entirely back to work as of this week. This is all good news. Work is good.
