Guitar practice

The guitar strings cut deep lines into my fingertips this morning, burning reminders of my five minutes of practice. And this is going to take practice; A LOT of practice. My hands are stiff, too long away from my music, and I found even the simple act of switching chords a challenge. But it will all come back, I can feel it. I can do this. And maybe there will be a meeting of music and words? Could I possibly write songs? I used to keep notes, bits and pieces of songs I began and never finished. But back then I was scattered, flying off in a million different directions…I wonder where that notebook is….

I loved the part of the Tom Petty docufilm where he says that the best songs just came to him; he would be sitting there playing and the first lyrics would come and then the whole song would just follow, coming through him into being. He didn’t want to analyze the process, fearing he would lose it; I found that so graceful, for him to accept this gift without analyzing it to death. What a smart man. And then seeing him yesterday; it was fun watching him and the Heartbreakers perform during the half time at the Superbowl, and somehow I wasn’t really surprised – I just sat there thinking, how’s this for a positive affirmation! There are no coincidences….