Take The First Step

Have you ever had an opportunity looking you right in the face, and you weren't sure if you ought to go with it or not? You look at it, and think- "What if it doesn't work right?"  What if I fail?"  Well, I don't know about you, but things like that seem to happen to me all the time.  Maybe it's because I am a shy, quiet person.  Maybe decisions are harder for me to make because I'm more timid than some people are.  I don't know.  But I DO know this.  I have learned that usually all I need to do, is take the first step.  All my life I've loved to sing and I always wanted to play the piano.  I started lessons in the 6th grade, but wasn't really getting it.  My teacher was very old and often got me confused with her other students.  Finally after a lot of whining and begging, Mom let me quit.  (You don't know how many times I wished I had just stuck it out!) I never found another teacher until after I was married.  One year at Christmas, Dave gave me a certificate for piano lessons.  Well my oldest son Patrick was a baby then, and for one reason or another I didn't find enough time to practice & wasn't learning as quick as I wanted.  Well I ended up quitting again.  3 years later we moved to Minnesota and a girl we knew gave lessons.  So once again I started piano lessons.  I just had SUCH a hard time learning those notes!  I learned about 3 chords, but after a while I was slipping again.  I would have my teacher play the tune I was to learn, then memorize the sounds I was supposed to make, but still couldn't read a note.  Then I got pregnant with my second son, Nicholas, and it was just another excuse to quit.  So a few years down the road, Dave and I stared the church we have here in Fairmont.  We had no musicians, so we sang Accapella.  Somewhere along the way I had bought a book on playing songs by ear, but I never really looked at it.  One night I got it out and looked at it.  The first song in the book was "Amazing Grace".  It was played in 3 chords: C, F, and G7.  The VERY 3 chords I knew.  I turned on my keyboard and began to play and sing Amazing Grace.  I was thrilled!  I had just played and sang a song!  Without having to read notes!  Dave heard me and said "You're playing in church Sunday."  *GASP*  Me?!  Play in church?!  I can't, I don't know how... but wait, I DID just play a song.  SO- I looked further in the book and saw a couple more songs I could play.  So that Sunday I  was the musician.  Everyone was so happy to have music, and it felt good to be able to play.  But NOW WHAT?  What else can I do with 3 chords?  Well I started trying songs I knew, and came to find out, you can play quite a lot of songs with only C, F, and G7!  I still play in church, I'm learning, and hopefully I will get better, but all those years I HAD what I needed to play the piano, I just didn't take the first step.  When I finally DID, I found it wasn't as hard as I thought it was after all.  Maybe I can't read notes, but I CAN play by ear if I try hard enough.  I had just resigned myself to the fact that I would never be able to read notes so I couldn't play the piano.  I was wrong!  What if I had never taken a step?  Sometimes in life we are standing on the edge of a decision, afraid to take that step... and while you're standing there, trying to make up your mind, life comes along and gives you a push.  Sometimes it's a big shove.  Me and the piano is just one thing, I could tell you more stories but I think you might get bored after a while. The point is:  sometimes in life we have voices over here, and voices over there, all telling us what to do.  We get confused, we want to quit, give up, or not even try at all.  But THINK of how many wonderful experiences we MISS OUT ON by not taking a step.  One of my favorite things to say is "You never know if you don't try."  I've learned from experience, if you step out and TRY IT... whether it's something you're just not sure of, or something you're terrified of.  You'll find it's not as bad as you thought.  AS people we tend to sell ourselves short on what we can do.  I know I was really apprehensive about helping my husband pastor a church.  Now I have been a pastors wife for over 16 years.  (we have been married for 22)  I was scared to death when I finally realized my dream of becoming a Radio Personality, but I've been in radio now since 2001. I always wanted to be an author, and my first book was published in 2004.  I had to START writing the story before it would ever be finished.  If you want to succeed, you have to TAKE THAT FIRST STEP!