The First Half of the Journey

I have finished teaching for the fall of 2013, and my students are now enjoying an extended Christmas break. I ended up teaching 5 students every two weeks, working around my chemo treatments.  Most of them are first or second year students, just beginning their journey in piano playing.  I often wonder how far will their journey take them.  Will they continue lessons for another year, five years, into adulthood?  What makes some children want to quit after a few months, while others still play into their grown up lives?  It's easy to play the blame game: the parents should have made them practice more, the teacher should have made the lessons more engaging.  But I suppose it really has to come from somewhere within.  We do what we love to do.  If a child loves to shoot hoops, he'll play basketball.  If he loves to run, he'll go out for track.  My daughter loves dogs, so she runs a pet care business.  A child will either love music, or they won't.  If I offer them what they perceive to be what they love, they'll want to keep doing it.  If I offer them what is perceived as drills and drudgery, they won't. Since my students only had about eight lessons over the fall, I had to get my bang for the buck, so to speak.  I found pieces they loved, that were fun to play, that the student didn't mind playing over and over again.  I saw one boy light up when he figured out the pattern to Kabalevsky's "Scherzo," and another enjoy the cross handed arpeggios in a piece about a Flamingo.  Another found enjoyment in writing pieces, so we worked on several composition assignments. The joy they have now is worth far more than years of lessons in which they were only half-hearted about.  I hope to take these children through the first half of their piano journey, and anticipate seeing how far they go beyond the "finish line."  My cancer journey is coming to the half way mark. I will be completing my chemotherapy treatments this month, then I will have six weeks of radiation in Feb.-March.  I don't love the journey, but I love being alive, having hope to see my children grow, marry, meet my grandchildren one day, if the Lord be so gracious.  A child's musical journey may not always be pleasant, there really are drills and drudgery along the way, but if it's what he loves, he will look beyond that to the end, to the real joy of playing music he loves to hear.