Turns Out Old Dogs CAN Learn New Tricks

It may seem from the title that I've got dogs on the brain a lot these days, especially after having written This Post and This Other Post.   Trust me, it's just a metaphor.

Really, it's not the Old Dog that's important so much as the New Trick.

Are ya ready to read it?  Are ya sure?  Okay.  Here is the new trick:

This 41 year old stay-at-home mom, farmer's wife, writer/filmmaker/speaker/kayaker, is going to be a drummer.

No, no, no, there's nothing wrong with your eyesight. You read it correctly.  I said I'm going to be a drummer.  Yes, like real drums.

Yeah, yeah, okay, fine.  You can stop laughing now.

No, seriously.  You can stop laughing.

Well, okay, just because you can't stop laughing doesn't make it any less true.  [sticks her tongue out in your general direction]

 Christmas 2009 saw us buying Lego Rock Band for Matthew.  We got him the game itself, a guitar and a set of drums.  We knew he'd love it and he did.  What we didn't know was that I would love it even more.

After Clinton got it all set up, Matt picked up the guitar and I sat down at the drums.  Before we even began to play the first song I knew it felt like home.  I fell in love.  There really isn't any other way to describe it.

I've always had a really good sense of rhythm.  I think having danced helps, also.  In both dance and drumming your arms and legs are doing different things at the same time.  I think both activities use the same part of my brain, the one that does its own thing when I let my conscious mind take a back seat and just feel.  I'm not saying all dancers can play the drums, but it seems to be working for me.

Somehow, sitting there, I just knew that I could do this.  I knew it like I knew my own name.  I can still completely recall that feeling.  That conviction has never faded.  

I thought and prayed and waited and listened.  The biggest problem was convincing Clinton that I needed drums, specifically electronic drums.  You know, the kind that you plug in to an amplifier.  That you use with headphones so that you don't wake up the kids when they're sleeping because that's the only time you get a minute to sit down anyway.   


Those kind of drums are not cheap.  He made me swear on my mother's life that I would not ask for another Christmas, birthday or anniversary present for the next eight to ten years.  (Okay, not really.  I did offer, though.  Sorry Mom.)

Thirteen months after my Christmas Lego Rock Band Revelation my drums finally arrived.  I sat down with the DVD Clinton got me and learned a few grooves and fills.  I've been banging around ever since, playing along with songs on my iPod.  On March 31 I will start lessons.

I.  Am going.  To.  ROCK!  Whoo-hoo!  [commence happy dancing]  I'm so excited I can barely stand myself.  I am fulfilling a life-long dream I only discovered 15 months ago. 

So that's the basic story of how a middle-aged momma is not so quietly transforming into a cool rocker chick.

Okay, okay.  I admit it.  Now I'm laughing, too.  Sheesh, I couldn't even WRITE that last line with a straight face. 

It's completely unlikely, isn't it?  Unexpected?  Darned near inconceivable?  I've heard of a dealing with a mid-life crisis before, but discovering a mid-life passion?  Really?

And that's what's got me just a little bit bugged about the whole thing.

Why now? 

Why am I only just now discovering this enormous side of myself?  I mean, I'm 41 for crying out loud.  Wouldn't it have been much better to discover this 30 years ago (oh, that makes me feel old)?   I might have been REALLY good instead of just potentially kinda good.  [cue Marlon Brando] "I could've been a contender."

What could my life have been like had I grown up playing the drums?

I think I have an idea.  Knowing myself as I do, I think I would have focused on the drums to the exclusion of everything else. "I'm good at this, I love it, why try anything else?"  I wouldn't be writing or speaking or making films. I wouldn't be open to other aspects of myself, other ways to be used of God in my little corner of the world.  I'd be a more linear person, to my detriment.

Worse, I think I would have focused on myself to the exclusion of my family. I'd be resentful of farming season and the time commitment involved because it would cut into my practice time.  I'd resent living in a small town where there are very few opportunities or venues to play.

I think I'd be much more selfish than I am already.

So maybe God does know something about timing.  And about me.

It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.  Proverbs 25:2

And We're Off!

Hi Everyone!
You can thank Kay Hall for my being here. In early August I saw my darling friend at the annual ACMI retreat. We talked about what we were reading and writing and she piped up, "You know, you should blog." I must admit, my first thought was, "Yeah, right, whatever." And I blew it off. But alas, a small seed was planted, and despite my best efforts to smother it out of existence, it grew. Of course, I came up with many reasons why I couldn't, shouldn't and wouldn't blog. First of all, I'm a self-confessed techno-idiot. If it wasn't for my darling husband, Clinton, I wouldn't be able to forward email. I can barely turn the computer ON. I have a full schematic and 2 type-written pages on how to use our tv/stereo/satellite/dvd-vcr thing. Secondly, well, what IS a blog, anyway? Where do you buy them? Do they hurt when you try them on? Then I realized I was confusing them with clogs... But, I digress... Thirdly, what could I POSSIBLY have to SAY that anyone would find even remotely interesting? As some of you well know, I don't have a lot to say, but you have to listen a long time to find that out. (I didn't come up with that phrase, but it sure fits me.) And even more to the point, I don't have time to blog! But this little seed kept growing, and I realized that this was, in fact, a God thing. For a long time I've had all these little writing ideas but no place to put them. And without a place to put them, they go unwritten. And if they're not written, I forget about them. The worst part of that is that I lose the lesson. I love to learn and I love to share what I've learned. And, well, if you want to learn along with me, then join me here when you get a chance. And if you don't, that's fine, too. So here we go, on a little journey into my head (fairly empty) and my heart (fairly full). I hope it's not too scary! (For me, I mean, not for you. Although it could be scary for you. If it is I apologize...) But, I digress... I'll try to polish up the blog, add a picture or two (when Clinton has a chance to show me how to work the camera), and fill you in on what I am learning from what God is doing in my Everyday.