Piano Recital

Yesterday Bela had her first piano recital. My princess played so well, and even though she was a little shy I think I was way more nervous than she was. I am so proud of her!

Her song was "Old McDonald", she's only five so what do you expect? But one day she will be playing Beethoven.... I dream of her older, sitting on stage, with a full audience playing beautiful classical music. I know that things might turn out completely different, she might end up liking sports and becoming an accomplished athlete, or she might turn out to be a book nerd like her mom, but either way, no matter what happens I will be proud of her.

Parents should be like that with their kids all the time. We should dream grand dreams, but never be disappointed with the results. And we should encourage and cheer our kids on, because even the smallest failure to a child can become a huge mountain of impossibility. We should teach them that it's ok to fail, it's ok to mess up during the piano recital, if you miss a step, or a key, or a hoop, or that home run, then try again, start over, keep practicing and maybe one day they will pros at whatever they choose.

I heard on the news about the guy that quit his job and used his savings to play golf for 1000 hours, he was aiming at becoming a pro, can you imagine if we all decided that we would, selfishly dedicate 1000 hours of our lives towards something worthwhile? 1000 hours at becoming good parents, or 1000 hours of community service, or even better, 1000 hours towards getting in shape...then everyone could work to becoming pros at something that mattered to them, do you know what type of lesson that would be to our kids? It would teach them so much about not giving up, about trying even when the odds are stacked against them, and about accepting a loss but not defeat, because a pro doesn't give up when he loses a golf tournament, the next day he wakes up early practices and practices and practices again the day after that, and when the next tournament comes, he is more prepared and more confident then ever.

Here's to inspiring our kids to be astronauts, or firemen, or doctors or soccer players or ballerinas... Because in the end whats important is not the job they choose, but the attitude they take towards life.

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