When I was young, I played the violin seriously and competitions required learning new music.

My teacher had an interesting strategy to help me memorize a complex piece.

For several weeks, he would have me carry the paper copy of the music with me but he would not allow me to play it. Instead, the Master Teacher wanted me to read it over often; taking time to look at each note as if it were a word in a story. Eventually he would ask me to play the piece. It was so much easier to play a piece that I had read and studied. And memorization was simple; I could close my eyes and see the music. I didn’t memorize it, I simply read it in my mind.

I am reminded that those pieces of paper that I carried with me were only that: pieces of paper with ink markings. It was not music. Music happened when the instrument and bow I held were used together to create sounds and those sounds melted together to create music.

We can study something our whole life, but until we live it, it will mean nothing to us or to those around us.

Don’t look at the Christmas card to find family, look at the scrawled signature, almost too hard to read – that’s where the love is. Don’t expect the bulbs on the tree to shine as brightly as the night sky; the best star-twinkle is found in the eyes of others. Don’t examine your own heart to find the spirit of Christmas; Christmas joy can only be found in one place – Christ.

Little lesson 2: Search for the true thing.

Love,

Jill (just one of God’s kids)