My piano came back to me this month.

My grandmother was a concert pianist. This is the piano she received as a wedding gift and played for years. I didn’t know her, but my sister and I became the beneficiaries.

Playing piano is what first taught me about discipline and practice. I performed and competed through high school. When I decided “professional musician” was not the career path I was ready to devote myself to, it became my hobby, a love, occasionally a gift I could give, a stress release, and a holiday tradition.

Approaching 100, this beautiful piano had lost the ability to be fully tuned and the full depth of its tone. I have a lot of hobbies - paint, yarn, scrapbooking - and even another instrument in the house since I picked up guitar living in Russia. And the truth is I don’t play often with all that I’m juggling, but I missed it.

So, I searched for someone who could restore it. Finally, last weekend, it was completed and returned to me.

It seems appropriate since I’m working on this book on play, to have back in my house this piano which once taught me skills I still use as a leader.

There will undoubtedly be times when I just want to sit down and release stress by playing the loudest song I know. (Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C# Minor was always good for that.)

And there will be moments when I need to feel the strength which comes from the connection to family it represents:

• To my sister, who sat on that bench with me playing 1-piano duets (until 1 of us knocked the other off)
• To my mother, who brought us weekly to piano lessons through Los Angeles rush hour traffic
• To my father, who was turned away from piano lessons himself as “hopeless” but invited all of his friends to our annual recitals
• To my grandmother, whose sheet music I’ve played though I never met her myself

But mostly, I am just so joyful to have this beautiful way to play again.

If you’re willing to share - what was YOUR original play? And do you still play in that way?

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Wishing you joy and play this weekend,

Mary

My book campaign continues for just 10 more days.