Practice, Practice

Practice makes permanent.  Perfect practice makes perfect. – proverb

I had a piano teacher who liked to encourage me with that particular phrase.  He thought he was quoting Vince Lombardi and was very pleased with himself every time he said it.  For a while I thought perhaps he had things mixed up and believed Mr. Lombardi was the patron saint of disgruntled piano students.  This explains why I think about Green Bay when I work on scales.

Today was a difficult day.  We live close enough to Boston that everyone had someone close to them at the race yesterday.  Most of the people I work with grew up in the state.  Patriots’ Day is their holiday.  Boston is their city.  I watched people move through the day a little slower than usual.  The weight of the worry and sadness was everywhere.

And I watched how people treated each other.  The people who are regularly kind were still kind.  The people who are helpful continued to go out of their way to be so.  The people who are often mean were still mean, albeit a gentler mean than their everyday sort.  There were words and actions of habit – the result of all the practicing over all the years.

It was a good reminder.  What have I been practicing lately?  Practice makes permanent.