A Story Of Persistence, Love And Violins

June 13, 2007 on 10:57 am | In Love, Persistence, Thoughts On Each Virtue | 2 Comments

Last night I had the honour of watching my 10 year old daughter Phoebe play the violin on stage at The Sydney Opera House. As you can imagine I was so proud of her and so happy for her that she was able to achieve such a huge goal that she had set herself.

The story of Phoebe and her friends’ success is a beautiful example of learning and practicing the virtue of persistence. You see, this is the third year Phoebe has had the opportunity to perform with hundreds of other young violinists at The Opera House. The first time she played she was only 8 and had only been playing for a few months before she was given the opportunity to start preparing for the first concert.

As she got closer to that first performance 3 years ago, the doubt started to set in. She imagined herself on stage, forgetting the music and everyone noticing. What a wonderful opportunity to learn to set goals, visualise success and practice persistence. Phoebe and I set small goals that she would need to achieve before she would be ready to perform. She set goals such as “getting her bowing movement correct”, memorising one piece of music etc and put them on her calendar for specific dates. When she achieved each small goal she crossed it off the calendar and we celebrated with a “special dinner”, candlelight and kid’s food!

Phoebe also imagined herself on stage playing perfectly and looking happy. These steps helped her to be persistent and when that first concert came around she was excited and confident without a shred of self doubt. What a wonderful achievement for her.

Last night was Phoebe’s third appearance and the skill of persistence she learnt in that first year is now second nature to her. Playing on stage again she was confident, proud and excited to be with her friends.

But this is more than a story of persistence, it is also a story of the virtue of love. In the 2 hour concert there were nearly 1000 different young musicians taking part (700 recorder players is an amazing sight and sound). Each of those children could only have been there by applying persistence. There were nearly 3000 people in the audience and the atmosphere was buzzing. There was more energy in that huge concert hall than you would normally have in a concert where people had come to listen to beautiful music. On the way home, children exhausted and asleep in the back seat, I realised why. Every single person in that audience was there because they were a parent, grand-parent, sibling or friend of a child performing that night. Everyone in that room LOVED someone who was on stage. You can’t get a more positive energy in a room that that!

Cheers

Janet