Man, I hated the piano.

Hated it with a passion!

I was forced to play an hour a day from an early age, and though I made every excuse to keep from practicing, I still got to be pretty good. . . even entering state competitions during my teenage years.

Since I also grew up wanting to get everything exactly “right”, I ended up placing a great deal of pressure on myself in so many areas of life. With piano, this meant avoiding all the wrong notes, making sure the tempo and tone were accurate, and following all other musical cues to perfection.

I learned to get it just right.

No one knew I hated the piano, because to anyone listening, it sounded great. Judges at competitions gave out high scores. . . but I was just carefully coaxing all the correct keys in their ordained order, playing with perfect pressure and proper pace.

One day, I fell in love with the piano. THAT was the day I discovered I could make music on my own. My world changed in a moment! It became pure joy to sit at the keyboard, close my eyes . . . and play from my soul.

What was the difference between pressing the right keys, and making music? Love. It may have looked and sounded the same to an observer, but they were night and day different.

Life with God was much like that for me as well. Many long years of pressing the right notes and carefully avoiding the wrong ones. I wanted to get it right . . . so, I put on a convincing show. I even convinced myself that this was “life.”

Until the day I fell in love.

In this case, it was a response to discovering that They were (Ridiculously) in love with me. There’s a longer story of what happened to lead to this point. But bottom line, I finally saw something I hadn’t seen before.

Something. . . Beautiful.

That’s when we were able to make music. . .

Together.

My Life. . .

Their ORIGINAL Composition.