Simplicity

"Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication." - Leonardo da Vinci In my class’ study of American Transcendentalism last week, I got to remind them of Henry Thoreau’s famous quote: “Simplify, simplify, simplify.”  You see, simplicity really is the ultimate form of sophistication, as the quote above states.  That’s why the impromptu “vacation” we took on Wednesday night, though as simple as could be, was better than ever.

“I think you need a vacation,” Steve said to me as we walked in the door.  I dropped my book bag and stack of papers to grade and kicked off my shoes.  “That sounds GREAT,” I said.  “What do you have in mind?”  A little while later, I was in my pajamas and we were sharing take-out pizza and watching a movie we picked up from the library.  It was perfect.

Sometimes, simplicity is all that you need.

Finding Joy

Count it all joy.  All of it. That's quite the challenge, don't you think?  I find myself asking for compromise: "Can't I just pick a few really good things to be joyful about?"  Of course, I know the answer.  There is joy to be found all along the journey, not just at the scenic overlooks.  Your job is to seek it.  Seek joy.

I used to think joy meant turning into Pollyanna, determined to turn everything in life into a positive.  No, joy is deeper than that.  Joy is the bigger picture.  You can't soak it up as you run by onto the next thing in your day.  Stop.  Stand still.  Take a deep breath.

• Joy is not dwelling on the things that went wrong but celebrating what went right.
• Joy is accepting the imperfect with grace.
• Joy is greater than anger and frustration.
• Joy is spontaneous.  And contagious.
• Joy is all around you.

Standing still in the midst of a world traveling a mile a minute, I think to myself, "There, you found it."  This is joy - larger than life and much larger than the little things that keep me spinning in circles day in and day out.  A wise friend reminds me often, "The joy is in the journey" and friends, the journey is so much more than just the distance between here and there!  In the midst of those crazy, circle-spinning days, there's joy in teaching, there's joy in helping others, there's joy in making music, there's joy in homemade blueberry muffins (even if they are from a box), and there's joy in sharing this journey with a sweet, funny, selfless man.

Find a moment today to just stop, quiet your heart and mind, and count it all joy.

At the Symphony

We're off for a day in the city to shop and hear the BSO play!  It's always great to be in Symphony Hall and the orchestra has a great program lined up for this weekend: Ravel, Stravinsky, and Shostakovich.  Of course, I love any day I get to spend with SD.  Concerts are way more fun with company! :-)  I'm also looking forward to traveling by train today - something about it always makes me feel so sophisticated!  Happy weekend, friends!

Take Time

It’s no secret that I keep a pretty busy day-to-day schedule.  I love the energy, the drive, the challenge of balancing more than one thing at a time. 

This semester, I am segmenting my work a little more, in part to make it more manageable and in part to do my best to devote my whole self to one thing at a time. 

Sunday mornings, Tuesday mornings, and Thursdays are for church; Mondays and Wednesdays are for school; Tuesday afternoons are for my studio; and Fridays and Saturdays are for lesson planning, running errands, and catching up. And recharging.

I love the opportunities I have to teach but it requires so much energy and so much of myself.  It’s important to find the time to be refilled and inspired.  Taking time to escape even just for a little while makes such a difference in the quality of my work.  I feel like I need to keep reminding myself that excellence is a journey.

Like I mentioned earlier this week, Steve and I have a sense of adventure every now and again and I love taking time to travel with him.  Often, we are only able to get away for a day or two but that’s enough of a pause for me to feel refreshed and renewed when I get back.  This is so important for my do-it-all, go-getter self. 

This weekend, Steve and I are taking a tiny road trip to upstate New York, paying a visit to our alma mater!  It’s always great to go back for a visit and you can bet that I’ll be making a beeline to the cafe with the best lemon cookies ever. 

Feeling the need to refocus?  Lacking inspiration in your work?  Take time to be refilled and refreshed this weekend.

Silly Faces

Sometimes, we need to take time to make silly faces.  It’s important.  In the midst of those days that overwhelm you, those not-so-fun grown-up to-do lists (how many more hyphens can I add to one sentence?!), and those times when life feels way too serious, remember what it feels like to be silly and laugh at yourself.

It started out innocently enough – just trying to take a nice picture together for the background on Steve’s phone.  Obviously, one of us was feeling a little silly that day.  This is now one of my favorite pictures because it makes me laugh every time I look at it.  It reminds me to not take life too seriously, to let go of the things that don’t matter, to laugh often, and to be thankful.  We took another silly picture for my phone background so I can remind myself of these things throughout each day.  The result:

Yes, take time to be silly.

Immortal Love, Forever Full

*Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Well, it’s been quite a week. 

From productive meetings and back-to-back private students, two great choir rehearsals, and my first full day at Fitchburg State, “stomping out fires” and a massive amount of email, it’s been exciting and a little overwhelming at times. 

I am amazed at all of the music and teaching opportunities that are in front of me this semester but there are times when I feel incapable. “How can I keep up with all of this?” I ask myself. Perhaps I need to read this post again?

Yesterday, I took a few minutes to review a few pieces before choir rehearsal.  I turned to one of our new pieces (my favorite anthem in the folders right now)—“Immortal Love, Forever Full” (arr. Kreider—listen here). 

I was the only one in the Sanctuary and the church was quiet. . .it was so peaceful. I relished the moment of solitude. It became a moment of worship for me, playing there in the middle of the afternoon. I read the words and let the meaning sink in. A sense of calmness washed over me—just what my soul needed. “Forever shared, forever whole, a never ebbing sea!”

–

Immortal love, forever full, 
forever flowing free,
forever shared, forever whole, 
a never ebbing sea!

Our outward lips confess the name
all other names above;
love only knoweth whence it came, 
and comprehendeth love.

We may not climb the heavenly steeps
to bring the Lord Christ down;
in vain we search the lowest deeps,
for Him no depths can drown.

But warm, sweet, tender, even yet,
a present help is He; 
and faith still has its Olivet,
and love its Calvary.

The healing of His seamless dress
is by our beds of pain;
we touch Him in life’s throng and press,
and we are whole again.

The letter fails, the systems fall,
and every symbol wanes;
the Spirit over brooding all, 
eternal Love remains.

- John Greenleaf Whittier, 1856

Go for it

Here I sit, surrounded by textbooks, paper rubrics, reading lists, and a 52-page teaching guide that I’ve compiled over the past several weeks. Can you tell I’m in the final week of writing a new course to teach this semester? It’s been a bit overwhelming at times. But, last week was very productive and I feel good about that. My class was assigned to a classroom in another building on campus – across the quad from the Fine Arts Building where I have been teaching (and will still be teaching this semester) and where my office is located. I’ve let myself get bogged down with worry: How do I get there? What does the classroom look like? What kind of technology will I be able to access? Will I be able to get in there with enough time to get everything set up before class? In addition, I’d love to have a piano in the classroom to use as a teaching aid and I knew that would only happen in the Fine Arts Building. Can you imagine? Talking about Copland’s “American” style and actually being able to play open fifths and octaves to demonstrate that signature sound. Then, I got an idea.

Why don’t I just ask to move to another classroom?

It couldn’t hurt to try. Go for it, I told myself. One email, one simple question. Within two days, my class had been successfully re-booked in a classroom with a piano in the building where I’ve been teaching (just one floor down from my office, in fact!). What a relief. . .and what a valuable lesson.

Why let yourself be consumed with worry or depressed by the dreams of “if only”? Go for it. Make the change. Ask the question. Run the risk. Take that leap. Make it happen.

The First Friday

It's 10 a.m. Friday morning.

It's the end of the first week of 2012 and the first Friday since setting these personal boundaries.  It's a great feeling.  I have several projects to tackle today but I feel refreshed and empowered to make decisions and get things done.

In fact, I felt so much better after setting boundaries for myself this week that I took things one step further - no email after dinner. 

It's just so easy to reach for my phone. . .just to see if there's anything there.  I very rarely respond to emails in the evening — I find I have much more clarity for formulating responses in the morning — so really I'm just taking on an extra burden before climbing into bed.  Who needs that?! 

I've had two successful nights of not checking my inboxes and I have to tell y'all, I haven't missed it!  It frees up my evenings for conversations, writing, and organizing my thoughts.  And, when I check my accounts in the morning, I feel ready to make those decisions (after all, each email is a decision waiting to be made, is it not?)

Here's to a quiet, productive Friday (2012, I love you already).

P.S.  I wish it looked like this outside today!  Still waiting for snow...

Setting Boundaries

This time last year, I started using TeuxDeux to keep track of my everyday and long-term to-dos. Though I really only use it when I'm at my computer, it helps me keep track of bill payments, emails, and those more involved to-dos that I don't want to include in my daily lists. For day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month planning, however, I hold on to the traditional pen and paper method. I need an agenda that lets me see the whole week at a time, that includes space in the margins for notes and reminders, and that's small enough for me to carry around on a daily basis. For all of these reasons and more I am loving my new Moleskine!

The vertical layout shows a week at a time with monthly views up front for reference. I like that it includes the hours for each day so I can easily keep track of lessons, classes, and meeting schedules. I spent part of yesterday filling in a few recurring things in preparation for the scheduling that will take place over the course of the next few weeks. Choir starts back this week, my Westminster studio starts back next week, classes at the college start the following week, and my Fitchburg studio begins the first week in February.

This semester, I have decided to set more personal boundaries on my time. I will be adhering to my work-from-home Friday rule and I am setting more boundaries for my teaching schedule in both studios. I have classes at the college on Mondays and Wednesdays this semester so my availability for my Fitchburg students will be limited to those days. Thursdays are choir days and I've found it's simply too hectic to shift gears to private lessons in the middle of the afternoon. This limits my Westminster studio availability to Tuesdays (a matter of rescheduling for three students). This schedule feels balanced and manageable when I have boundaries in place. However, it puts me in a difficult position. When I limit my availability, I run the risk of losing students.

For the past year, I've kept Monday evening students despite spending the entire day teaching at the college. I drive home, drop my things, change my clothes, and run back out to teach. I confess that I'm not the best teacher I can be on Mondays at 6 p.m. I never feel 100% up to it. I complain on the way out the door and I check my iPhone every 7 minutes to see how much more time is left in the lesson. It's not that I don't enjoy my Monday student(s) it's that I'm exhausted. I've been out teaching all day, I have quizzes to grade, and my mind is a million other places. Who does that benefit? No one. Why did I do this to myself on a weekly basis last year? Because I thought setting personal boundaries would affect enrollment. It might. But walking into a lesson with anything less than 100% readiness and attentiveness is not the right approach. It's not fair to me and it's not fair to my students.

This year, I want to make more decisions. It begins with balancing my work schedule, setting goals, and sticking to my personal boundaries.

2011: A Year in Review

I'm starting a new tradition: a newsy recap post highlighting the biggest and best moments of the past year. I thought 2010 would be tough to beat: final semester of grad school with papers and projects galore, Eastman graduation, interviewing and getting a new job, relocating to a new state, experiencing my first semester as an adjunct professor at a college, and getting engaged to the handsome SD.

Well, what do you know - 2011 turned out to be quite the year, as well! Here's what I've been up to:

We set a wedding date and jumped head-on into all the planning! We wrote up a budget, booked venues, booked a caterer, sent out save-the-dates, made lots of lists, and began all of the DIY projects (yes, SD and I did all of the planning and projects together). Read through more of my wedding planning posts here.

We visited our reception venue for the first time during a short holiday weekend getaway in February. It was so perfect for us!

We jetted off to Florida to visit my "second parents" for spring break in March and enjoyed an evening of choir rehearsals, a surprise trip to Animal Kingdom, an art show, and sharing in worship on Sunday.

I may or may not have put off dress shopping until March, but I found "the one" by mid-April.

Steve and I put together a 45-minute collaborative lecture recital called "The Art of Song" in April. We had a very enthusiastic audience that loved the opportunity to participate in our creative process! See video clips here, here, and here.

I took a train trip to Philadelphia in early June to accompany the youth choir from my church in Athens, GA. They were on a week-long tour and I joined them for a few days of concerts and sightseeing in the city. I picked up a southern accent while I was with them - SD barely recognized me on the phone!

Steve and I co-founded and co-directed the first-ever Westminster Chamber Music Workshop at the end of June with great success. Grant-writing, press releases, video blogs, email marketing, program book materials, and organizing a chamber choir and six community events in six days = lots of work + lots of fun. Read more here.

The day after the Workshop ended, we took a summer road trip to Rochester, NY. I reconnected with professors, got my favorite cookie from the cafe down the street, and soaked up the Gibbs Street atmosphere while Steve had a day of meetings. We got our fill of Wegmans, made a quick trip to the farmer's market, and even had time for a picnic at the Canal.

We took several short weekend trips to visit Steve's parents in Connecticut, including a trip at the end of July for a beautiful bridal shower hosted by Steve's mom and neighbor. A southern-themed garden party, they had everything from white hydrangeas on the tables to homemade cheese straws to pecan pie for dessert. The following week, we took a trip to see my family down in Georgia where some friends threw us a fun, black-and-white couples shower.

Classes and lessons started back in September and I stayed busy on the weekends with a few quick trips to Connecticut for final dress fittings, a day trip to Vermont for final wedding preparations, a faculty recital at school, two more wedding showers, and a trip to Rochester for a premiere of one of Steve's new works.

Image Credit: Studio 56 Photography

On the warm and sunny October 8, 2011, we said our "I dos" in a beautiful, historic Meeting House in southern Vermont complete with a string trio, a brand new piece arranged for the occasion by SD, and a handsome wedding party decked out in black dresses and tuxes with bow ties.

After the wedding, we enjoyed a week-long honeymoon exploring the streets of Portland, ME.

We'd only been newlyweds for two weeks when we hopped a plane to Memphis for a whirlwind 24-hour trip for my brother's wedding. It was funny to hear everyone refer to me as "Mrs. Danyew" - still getting used to my new name!

We thought November would settle down a bit but with teaching, choir rehearsals, a day trip to NYC, and a few days in CT for Thanksgiving, the time flew by. We celebrated our birthdays together by joining the "cool people club" and upgrading our Blackberries to iPhone 4s. Best. Decision. Ever. Also, we decided to take up jogging (training for ski season!)

December is always a busy time for church musicians but this year, I juggled the children's Christmas play, a choir cantata, two Christmas Eve services, a special chamber ensemble, and a Christmas Day service all in the span of two weeks! Happy for a week to unwind before the New Year, Steve and I spent a few days in CT before heading up to VT for celebrations with Steve's extended family.

Which brings us to today, the last day of 2011. It was a year for new things: new teaching opportunities, new music, traveling to new places, a new name... it's a busy and exciting time for us and I am greatly looking forward to all that 2012 holds!

Happy New Year, y'all!