Songwriter in training...
It has been a fascinating year for me thus far; challenging, to be sure, but achingly beautiful in many ways as well. I've had endless opportunity to push my own edges and I've taken on each one to the best of my ability. I've also set about the bittersweet task of searching through some murky depths to find and reclaim shards of myself. Shadow powers, forgotten skills, abandoned potentials...I've gathered them all up in my arms and hauled them (sometimes screaming) into the light.
When I was in college I played the guitar for a few years but stopped when I did not meet a standard I set for myself based on the skills of others. I also wrote songs then, which are now long forgotten. They were not good songs mind you, but they were mine, and I wonder what I would think of them if I could somehow find them now. Despite that, I have not ever considered myself a songwriter (or a guitar player for that matter), nor did I believe that I ever could be.
Over the past ten months, I have fallen in love with guitar playing again. I found that the skill level I had in college (while admittedly rather low) came back to me in a few short weeks and I have enjoyed building on that - gaining skill and polish bit by bit (though surely not as quickly as I'd like. Have I mentioned that self-patience is not my strong suit?).
I've also unearthed my poetry. I've shared it with others (publicly even!) and have stopped writing in dark corners of the closet. So I've held music and I've held poetry - but still could not imagine having the skill to write a song.
This past Sunday my roommate (the fabulous tarirocks) and I were playing and singing together in our sunny, scarlet kitchen. T has had unfaltering faith that there is a songwriter hiding somewhere in this freckled body, and so on Sunday - she began to coax her out.
I had a tune that I had been doodling with, and a vague sense of melody. We took that as a base and T helped me to find a missing chord it needed. We then spent the entire day composing lyrics (with much humor...ask me about swimming deers, drinking beers for years and years some time).
I now have a neatly printed sheet before me, the head of which reads: "Hope ~
By Jennifer Byers and Tari Follett".
Life never ceases to amaze me. Tari never ceases to support and encourage me - and I find that falling in love with myself is even more exciting than I had ever imagined.
When I was in college I played the guitar for a few years but stopped when I did not meet a standard I set for myself based on the skills of others. I also wrote songs then, which are now long forgotten. They were not good songs mind you, but they were mine, and I wonder what I would think of them if I could somehow find them now. Despite that, I have not ever considered myself a songwriter (or a guitar player for that matter), nor did I believe that I ever could be.
Over the past ten months, I have fallen in love with guitar playing again. I found that the skill level I had in college (while admittedly rather low) came back to me in a few short weeks and I have enjoyed building on that - gaining skill and polish bit by bit (though surely not as quickly as I'd like. Have I mentioned that self-patience is not my strong suit?).
I've also unearthed my poetry. I've shared it with others (publicly even!) and have stopped writing in dark corners of the closet. So I've held music and I've held poetry - but still could not imagine having the skill to write a song.
This past Sunday my roommate (the fabulous tarirocks) and I were playing and singing together in our sunny, scarlet kitchen. T has had unfaltering faith that there is a songwriter hiding somewhere in this freckled body, and so on Sunday - she began to coax her out.
I had a tune that I had been doodling with, and a vague sense of melody. We took that as a base and T helped me to find a missing chord it needed. We then spent the entire day composing lyrics (with much humor...ask me about swimming deers, drinking beers for years and years some time).
I now have a neatly printed sheet before me, the head of which reads: "Hope ~
By Jennifer Byers and Tari Follett".
Life never ceases to amaze me. Tari never ceases to support and encourage me - and I find that falling in love with myself is even more exciting than I had ever imagined.