Roadblocks

Today I hit three roadblocks. And the ironic thing is that also today, a friend messaged me to ask, “You’re truly an inspiration with all you have done!! I’d be interested in knowing some of your “dynamite” (short thoughts that are powerful). Do you find yourself going back to favorite thoughts when you hit a low spot?” Hmmm, what do I do?

The first roadblock was while contemplating what to install where the bathtub meets the new luxury vinyl plank floor I put in. There are too many opinions on this matter, in my opinion. And I have no experience to rely on. I did my usual study, google, watch YouTubes, to no avail. So, I went to Menards to get caulk, knowing it wasn’t what I really wanted. But I was determined to do something, anything. Standing in the caulk aisle, I spied caulk strips. Perfect! I stood there and googled it on my phone – looked good! I got home and put it on. Perfect! So, that solution was just sheer luck preceded by a bit of determination.

The second roadblock was more of a coming to the end of what I can currently achieve. But note, I said, “currently”. I got stuck today, but with organized and well-thought out practice, who knows what I can achieve? So, I’m talking about violin and the class I’m taking, “Creative Strings Workshop” taught by world-renowned jazz violinist and educator Christian Howes. Chris is showing us how to dive deep into harmony in ways I have never even fathomed, and I’m a grad of a top notch music school with a major in violin and a minor in music theory. Chris has created an atmosphere of acceptance and encouragement – we do what we can do! If that is playing open strings in a created rhythm, then that’s what we do! It’s all step by step and where we are today is perfect for today. Chris’ encouragement definitely echoed in my head when I faced triple-stops in closed and open position using two chords ripping them off up and down. Ok, not today. I get it in my head but I have to work it out some more in my playing! It’s ok.

The third roadblock was the worst. It was this website. I’m building it on my own and I’m new to WordPress. Enough said? If you’re not familiar with WordPress (the dot org variety which is entirely do-it-yourself), the learning curve is so steep that I was in tears tonight and ready to trash it and do I don’t know what. After a mini internal meltdown, I decided to take an approach blended from my two previous roadblocks in the day. First, I was determined to do something about this abysmal website and all its problems. Something…anything. Second, I thought about Chris saying, “Just do what you can do!” So, that’s what I did.

I systematically sifted through some website pages and just did what I could do. Cleaned up a little here, changed something else there. Every unsolvable problem I came across, I put on a list. This is my way of putting it aside – “not today”. I actually made quite a bit of progress. I will take another look at the list when I’m fresh and may end up taking a tutoring session. Right now, I feel more certain I will grasp triple-stop chords and inversions than fully working out this website. It’s 3 am and I’ve been up since 6 am (yesterday). I’m going to sleep on it and maybe the solutions will come to me at my next trip to Menards!

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