Gratitude Day #20
Today I am grateful for the God-given musical talent I have.
I was just four years old living in a log cabin with my parents when Santa brought me my first piano.
We had no record player, or anything else that would make music. Mom and dad had noticed something of a musical ability I seemed to have. So, they made sure there was a beautiful little teeny piano on Christmas morning. It would be the only music we had during the Christmas holiday.
I still have this 59 year-old little instrument. It sits in a safe place upstairs to always remind me of that beautiful gift. I put little 8-lb. Eddie in the picture to show just how small this piano is.
I continued to play whatever I heard -- by ear. A few years later our chapel was built with three new pianos in it. My dad was bishop, so mom and I spent a lot of time waiting on him. During that time I would play and play and play -- by ear. There was an older woman who would hear me, and come and slam the lid down on my hands, saying those pianos were only for people who knew what they were doing.
Then...on or around my 8th birthday, we had some relatives visiting with us. I heard a truck backing up into our driveway. Dad went out to meet it, and I figured it was just someone from church who needed him.
Nope. In rolled this beautiful piano!!!!!! I just knew I was the luckiest girl in America!!!
There was a family in the church who was receiving a grand piano from her family in the west, so they were selling theirs. Dad arranged to buy it from them for $50/month for six months.
And, because he had his own refrigeration/air conditioning business, he had repaired the refrigerator of a local piano teacher. He arranged with her for me to take weekly lessons for $1/lesson.
I knew my life could never get any better than this. This piano still sits in my living room, and is in the second photo below. All of my children took piano lessons on this same instrument.
I had years and years of lessons. When the teacher had to raise the cost of lessons to $1.25, we had to scramble to find that extra quarter. It was difficult. A few years later, we were digging through couch cushions and coat pockets and old purses to come up with it. All in all, I had about 12 years of lessons.
I can't think of a physical object that has blessed my life more than this piano. It has been the base of my learning to play many more instruments. I now sit at the organ each week. It's not my favorite instrument, for I tend to think of roller skating rinks or baseball games. But, I'm grateful than I am able to play it.
I have played for weddings.
I have played for dozens and dozens of funerals - even during a funeral fight.
I have played when I was so full of joy that I didn't know how to express it any other way.
I have played when I was so frustrated and angry that my hands were better off on the keys.
I have rejoiced when my children learned to play. We attended many recitals and competitions to cheer them on. They would also go on to play other instruments. And no, I didn't teach them. I wanted them to answer to someone else, especially if they hadn't practiced.
Our family sang. In the evenings, we gathered around and sang in harmony, breaking into parts as their voices matured. Kerry taught the boys to follow the bass line. And, one of my tender memories is sending them off to bed after family prayer. I would continue to play, and we could hear their voices singing from the upstairs. I'm tearing up just remembering those times.
And, on the day of their brother's memorial, the younger siblings took charge of the music. They took my place at the piano, the organ, and directing -- filling in because their mother just couldn't do it.
As they went on in their own lives, Harmony acquired a beautiful keyboard that I am SO jealous of. Jordan was in the US Army band. And, Erik's former partner gifted him a gorgeous piano, which he proudly displayed with all of his certificates above it.
As for me...I am still playing the organ, and also the piano - the same one that sits in the chapel is the same one that has always been there. Sometimes I will scoot over and play it during church services because I miss my old friend.
So today, I am grateful for parents that saw vision in me. They saw talent that emerged, and eventually blessed a family of six and beyond. If my parents had been able to afford it, I believe each of my sisters could have had musical abilities uncovered, too.
Music has blessed my life beyond measure; and I hope that what I have done has blessed others. May I never forget the sacrifice of my parents, nor of my God who helped a young girl's talent emerge.
PS...perhaps this is why I have absolutely no fear of speaking before a room full of several hundred people. I've been in front in one way or another my whole life.
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