Life's Keyboard

Last night I lay on the couch, both hands over my head in an attempt to keep it from exploding while I processed everything in my life that needs fixing. I need to update my 72 hour kits, build my year's supply, loose 20 lbs., do two weeks worth of laundry, clean the house, spend more quality time with my children, do more studying and pondering in the scriptures, write my talk for Young Women in Excellence tomorrow night, start writing the ward Christmas program, completely revamp the way we budget and do a deep sort of every room in my house. My husband sat with me, patting my knee and reminding me that I didn't have to do all of it at once. Way too often I think "be ye therefore perfect" means "be ye therefore perfect by Tuesday."

Durring a similar stressed out moment when I was banging my forehead on the kitchen counter my Dad pulled out a stool, sat down, and offered me some sage advice. He reminded me of the talk by Boyd K. Packer about the dangers of singling out one or two notes on the gospel keyboard. He pointed out that it can be equally dangerous to try and play all of the notes at once. "There is a reason," he said "that you don't often see young mothers in the genealogical library. There are times and seasons for that."

So, I sat down at my piano. I placed both forearms on my piano and went at it. Very theraputic, but not beautiful. I then fumbled my way through the snatches of Mozart and Bach that have stayed with me from my youth. I noticed that even with all the waltzing around the keyboard I was doing I had yet to play an E flat. E flat is a very good note. It is an important note. Without it Beethoven's 5th symphony "bum bum bum buuuuum" (the buuuuuum is an E flat) becomes Jingle Bells. This is one heck of a note. And yet, Mozart and Bach hadn't seen fit to use it in those phrases. I am quite sure they used it all over the place in other pieces, just not the phrases I was playing. My point? Apparently I need to learn that even very good notes may not be right for my life right now. This lesson may need to be taught two by four style before I grasp it but I am ready to give it a shot.