A Japanese Saying for Relishing Daily Practice

Tuesday Quotes are short explorations of music, life, and the daily endeavor of practicing classical guitar. Find more here. Enjoy!

“The day you cease to travel, you will have arrived.” 

Japanese Saying

Imagine the world will end tomorrow. Nothing morbid – we simply cease to be. And today we choose to play guitar. What experience would we prefer, given our current abilities?

Much of the angst that comes with learning guitar stems from comparison. We feel we should be progressing faster. We feel like others have an easier time of it.

We feel we should be able to play our pieces with no mistakes. And something is off track if we stumble. We think of playing as the goal and practice as the necessary cost of playing.

But in this “end-of-the-world” scenario, we can construct a perfect practice.

We can choose one that offers challenges and trials to overcome. We can wrestle fun problems and tease out solutions to thorny puzzles. We can delight in watching small transformations unfold before us.

In this scenario, we can practice scales for what they give us today. We can embrace the work for the work’s sake. Like walking a steep hill, we can enjoy the moderate strain.

We can enjoy feeling our muscles move. We can play with subtle differences. Quick tests of this against that, looking for a slight improvement. Smoothing rough patches. Lighting dim corners.

When we pretend that we only have today and choose to practice well, we practice better. We engage more. We relish our time. We appreciate the opportunity.

And when we wake tomorrow and, like a miracle, the world still exists, we can do it again.