where on earth have my lips gone?

I have been playing flute for over half my life, since I was eight years old. I absolutely love it. Music has been a wonderfully enriching part of my life thus far. I have learned so much. Now I am teaching others, and I love having the opportunity to pass on what I've learned. Seeing my students grow is amazing and exciting.

This year I'm trying out for All-Region Orchestra for the first time. I wanted to do this before, but because I was homeschooled I wasn't eligible to participate. This year I am, and so I have been working on my three audition pieces for quite some time now.

I'm in the TMEA division, which is more advanced, so I'll be competing against flautists from larger schools in East Texas. Tomorrow is the big day, so I'll leave school before lunch and travel two hours to get to Paris, where the auditions are held. Then I play and wait, wait, wait for results. Ideally, we'll be able to leave by ten and get home maybe a little after midnight.

Over the past couple of weeks I haven't practiced as much as I should have. School has been really stressful and I just didn't get to it. However, I had worked hard beforehand and I won't suffer terribly for not practicing much.

So after barely practicing for a week and a half, I've worked and worked these past three days. And my lips are leaving me, hence the title. Between added stress and inconsistent practicing since school started, my lip muscles aren't as conditioned as they were before, and all this practicing is wearing them out.

So I'm still practicing tonight, but I'm doing it in 15-minute segment with 15-minute breaks in between to rest my embouchure (lip position) and vocal cords. It's rather comical, in fact--in between practice sessions I drink very weak apple-cider "tea" and buzz my lips out while I blog. Right now I'm lip-trilling the "William Tell Overture."

I feel pretty confident about tomorrow. The pieces are well-learned--not quite up to speed, but accurately and expressively played. And I would rather lose one or two points for speed than rush the music and lose a lot of points for sloppy playing.

Anyway...that's what I've been up to.

Last night I was at the library doing homework. Not unusual...it's a great atmosphere for studying. I ran into an acquaintance from church, and he asked me this question: "So what are you learning today?" He was asking about my homework, but I found the question fascinating.

So what are you learning today?

And this is where English class comes in handy. I love the matter-of-factness here, and the word "today" implies that the action, learning something, is a daily occurrence. Yes! It is! And I want to notice the things I'm learning, if you get my drift. And not just homework-wise.

What have I learned today about character? What have I learned today about connecting with people? What have I learned from a mistake I made? What have I learned about God? What have I learned about life through this day that God gave me?

It's something I've been thinking about lately. And that's a good thing. I pray that God would give me grace to learn from my experiences and eyes to see what He is teaching me...because He is. Every day. He's so good...