Taking Notes, Making Notes

Lately I’ve been rereading some of my old piano posts, and what strikes me isn’t how much I’ve changed, but how consistent the questions are. The repertoire changes. The teachers change. The piano itself has changed. But the things I circle around—attention, authority, trust, the urge to control vs the urge to listen—are still there. I’m not trying to do anything with that yet. I’m just noticing it. And for the next year or so, I think noticing might be the work.

Because I'm a writer as well as a musician, my mind keeps gravitating to the idea of essays—a series of essays about art, life, creativity, fear, perfectionism, uncertainty, learning, and growth. Between blog, my other (now-defunct) blog, my YouTube channel, and more than 40 years of longhand journaling, I certainly have a treasure trove (or maybe just a trove) of material.

I'm going to keep noticing. I'm going to make notes. I'm going to read, write, and intentionally take it all in. And I might, just might, find myself writing, refining, and collecting essays for a larger writing project in 2027. For now, I have the seed of a thought. And a kind of direction.

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