So everything has been ticking along nicely, thank you, and the little boy I've got riding around inside me is getting quite big now, I've passed the seven month mark. I admit cello playing hasn't been top of mind lately, but I'm trying to just relax and do what I can do, when I can manage it.
There's no denying, though, that there's been a big lapse in practice. I'm a bit terrified I'll never get back to my previous abilities (or have time to) and the idea of getting to my favourite orchestra across town on transit hauling a cello seems impossible right now.
How have you come back from an absence from playing? My usual way is to ease in with playing more music and less technique to start, getting myself to fall in love with it again - then making my way back to the technique when I'm feeling a bit more confident. Over a few weeks, not ignoring technique for months until I magically feel up for it. I just find going straight back in studies and scales makes me feel more fatigued and frustrated than playing a few tunes and putting the instrument down. It's a bit like exercising a muscle after an injury I suppose.
Of course, I haven't quite picked up my cello again yet, and I have a feeling my bump is too big now for it to work. And then I only get bigger. And then there's a little boy to look after.... whew.
But I find if I start thinking about it now as a gradual thing I can ease into, it's much more likely to actually happen. I suppose that visualisation, isn't it?
It will happen when the time is right. You are only pregnant with your first child once. Believe me, there will be times when, after a long day (or week, or month, or year, or two) of being fully absorbed in the immediate needs of your son, that you will want to have something that is all yours. Perhaps that is the time when all the work you have put into the cello over these past few years will really come to fruition.
Posted by: Elaine Fine | June 06, 2009 at 05:20 PM