Music Brings Joy to my Soul!!

After silence that which nearest to expressing the

in expressible is music

Ludwig Van Beethoven

Today as I was driving home from my piano lesson I thought about how grateful I am that I have the ability to play the piano.  I have an awesome piano teacher, Petrina, who has taught me so much and who encourages me all the way.  I appreciate all types of music but I especially love playing classical music.  Composers like Bach, Beethoven, Chopin - what talent. They were given these talents and because of their music the world is a better place.  Even if you don't like classical music you cannot deny their talent.  I appreciate that they shared their talents by writing beautiful music.

Music really does bring Joy to my soul.  It is as Beethoven says it is a way of expressing the inexpressible.

Music has the power to make us feel things that we can sometimes feel in no other way.  It makes us laugh, it makes us cry, it makes us feel joy.

Ludwig Van Beethoven also said:

Music is a higher revelation than wisdom and philosophy

Music is the electrical soil

in which the spirit lives, thinks and invents

As a child I loved to sit and listen to my great grandmother play her piano.  One of the things that I so loved was that she would let us have 5 minutes on the timer to sit and play at her piano - (I figure it was because we played so badly that that was as much as she could stand listening to). It was such a treat and I am glad that she was prepared to put up with the bad playing.  I wish that she was here now so that I could share my love of playing the piano with her.  It is over forty years but in my mind I can still hear her playing.

Eva Cooper my Great Grandmother
is in the middle of the back row

I am so grateful for a wonderful piano teacher, Mrs Coyne.  My first piano teacher who taught me for nothing and who fostered my ability and encouraged me.  Yes I am eternally grateful for her selflessness and kindness to me when I was young.

This morning I had a fantastic lesson and as I drove home I felt happy and an overwhelming sense that music really is something brings joy to my soul.  And I think that Billy Joel said it really well when he wrote:

I think music in itself is healing.

It's an explosive expression of humanity.

It's something we are all touched by.

No matter what culture we're from,

everyone loves music.

"I am glad that you didn't die because I would have missed you"

With Ryan going on his mission I have been reflecting on a lot of things.  I couldn't help but think about the time that we almost lost him and many times I have wondered what life would have been like without him.  Things could have just as easily gone a different way that night but I'm so thankful that they didn't.

It was Monday, 24th September, 2002, the night before Ryan's 7th birthday.  Family home evening had finished and Erin, Ryan and Adam went to take a video back.

It went through my mind that they had been gone for a while but I thought nothing more of it.  Then the phone rang.  It was one of those phone calls that you never want to get.  It was the police telling Terry that the kids had had an accident...........but everyone was okay.

Terry went off to the accident to check on the kids.  While he was gone some people that we knew came around to the house to tell me that there had been an accident and Ryan was bleeding from his head.
I just said to them that "it will be okay, Terry has gone there".
For some reason I wasn't worried - I have no idea why.

Terry eventually called from the hospital and said that Ryan was upset and wanted me and he thought that it would be a good idea if I went out there.  He would come and get me and take me back there.  It wasn't until I arrived at the hospital that I realised..........everyone wasn't okay.

While driving around the bend that leads up onto the bridge as you are heading from East Devonport to Devonport, the car slid sideways into an electricity pole.  It was raining after a long period of dry weather which, of course, made the road more slippery than usual.  The back of the rear seat was a split seat and one of the sides of the back seat had come up and hit him in the head on impact.  Basically Ryan was not okay.

When I arrived at the hospital I was confronted with the reality.  Erin was scared that Ryan was going to die and it would be her fault.  The hospital staff and police weren't sure what was going to happen with him.  There were a lot of doctors and nurses around him and I have to say at that point I was pretty scared.

An x-ray showed that he had a fractured skull and he spent the night in intensive care.

That night Dion Triffitt just happened to be working at the Mersey Hospital and he and Terry were able to give Ryan a Priesthood blessing.

 Next morning, on his 7th birthday, Ryan was taken into surgery to have the glass removed from his head.

I am emotional at the best of times but somehow I remained calm and held it together for the whole week until I was showing someone the photos of the car and then I just started bawling because I think that it hit me what could have happened.

He still has the scars to proved it, although they are pretty feint now.

Probably the worst thing for Ryan was that he got a scooter for his birthday and he wasn't allowed to ride it for 7 weeks after the accident when he got the all clear from the Doctor.

One interesting thing is that when they were leaving to go to the video store that night Ryan wanted to sit behind Erin.  Her school books were on the back seat and she thought about moving them but decided not to.  Had he actually sat behind her he would have died.

Somewhere packed away in amongst my treasures I have a note that Ryan wrote me.  It said, "I am glad that I didn't die because I would have missed you". I think that Ryan is very aware of the fact that he was protected that night.

Ryan I am so thankful that you didn't die that night and that you can be here now and can serve a mission and I know that I would have missed you too.

Exceeding my own Expectations

It is a good feeling when you achieve a goal.  When you know that you have put in the hard work and it paid off.  On Saturday, 9th March, I finally ran 8.2km and I really really felt like I had achieved something.  Thanks Anna Cullis for running with me.  We don't train together but it is really nice to have someone running with you who really wants to just achieve something - a personal goal.  Our time was 54:10 which we were both happy with.  I know that we both want to improve our time.

Both Anna and I have set a goal which is to run 10km.  Haven't set the date yet but we are both training and it will happen soon.

It is a good feeling when you achieve a goal but an even better feeling when you exceed your own expectations and that is what I did tonight when I went for my run.

I love my running shoes because they are the most comfortable pair of running shoes I have ever owned.  From Day 1 they have just been so comfortable and never given me even one blister.  It's been a great relationship.

So tonight I set out with a goal of running 9kms.  If I want to run 10kms then I needed to increase the distance that I do.  Once a week I go for my "big run".  I can tell you that part way through I really just felt like giving up and going home so I had to have a stern talk to myself and remind "me" that I could do it.  It was a good feeling when my Garmin beeped letting me know that I had made the distance.

It really is a great feeling when you Exceed Expectation.

New Beginnings - 2013

The start of the year is a time for "New Beginnings".  So often at the beginning of the year or in the days leading up to New Year's Day we make "Resolutions".  A resolution is "the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc". In the past I've resolved to do things but after a short period of time my determination goes out the window.  This year I've decided to make goals rather than resolutions because without a plan of how to get where I want to go then I might not make it.

This year my goals include:

Sitting for my 8th Grade Piano Exam in November 2013

and

Sitting for my 3rd Grade Theory Exam in May 2013.

In 2012 I participated in the 6.4km "Run for a Wish" in Launceston

(I surprised myself and ran the whole way)

- In 2012 my time was 44:28 and I Placed 200th -

 

In 2013 my goal is to participate in the "Run for a Wish" again

and improve on my time.

Also I have a goal to run 8km on Saturday, 9th March and
10km on Wednesday, 25th September to celebrate
Ryan's birthday.

21st - 24th August, 2013 

will see me at the

Toastmasters International Convention

in Cincinnati Ohio

then I'm so excited to be going to Chicago to visit Nyoka (our sister / exchange student)
who lived with us for 12 months

 (that's Nyoka on the right - man didn't we all look so young)

I'm also planning and organising a Family Reunion

for the Descendants of

Norman Wallace & Doris Amelia (Shingles) Goodwin

(This is my Dad's side of the family)
to be held in October.
  

 

(This is a photo taken at the last Goodwin Family Reunion that I attended.
This is also the last photo taken of our whole family - Dad died a
few weeks later)

So it's already half way through February.  I can't believe how quickly the year is flying by.  It seems like every time I turn around another day has passed.  I'm excited to move forward with my new goals in hand.  I'm excited when I think about what I can do if I just believe.  It will be fun to look back and see what I have achieved.

Mark Twain said:  "The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret to getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks and then starting on the first one." 

And I also thought this was a great quote by Napoleon Hill  "First comes thought; then organization of that thought into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination".

As I'm getting older I am discovering more and more how short life really is.  It goes by way to quickly.  So that's why I see this year as a new beginning.  A chance to start over again to work at achieving the things that I want to.  Because it's never too late to start again.