Words are inadequate

That moment of finding the music is fascinating to me. When I work with my voice/guitar students, I tell them time and again that the day will come when what we are painstakingly going over will become second nature and that at that point, they will have the opportunity to see the music from this side of it (the part that is felt and intuited rather than learned). It will no longer seem a stranger or an exercise because it will flow from them and through them. The day they "get" it and feel it is one they remember forever (I think).

I feel that way about singing (and sometimes even guitar). Nothing in the world fulfills me like singing a song I love to sing (and particularly if I can do it singing in harmony with someone). Unfortunately, even though I've played the violin since I was five, I have never loved it enough to get to that point with it. I can recognize someone else's brilliance, but while I play it with a passion, I simply, sadly, don't love the instrument itself enough to really get to that place with it. I teach it. I recorded a CD using it. I've been playing my 100+ year-old violin since I was nine, but I just don't love it.

As for photography, a friend taught me darkroom techniques (I've been taking photos since I was 12 and I love it) and the most amazing time warp happens when I'm in the darkroom. Twelve to fourteen hours can pass and for me, it's been maybe an hour or two. There are so many fun and incredible things to be done with black and white and I sigh, often, that I don't have room to have my enlarger up and running in my house. Someday....