But Don’t Be A Rocking Horse

Determine never to be idle.  No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time who never loses any.  It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing.
―     Thomas Jefferson
[A rocking horse provides a lot of activity and can be a lot of fun, but riding it never gets you anywhere different from where you were when you first got in the saddle.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	Be Interesting
	Wonder What Is Wrong With Me
2020	To Our #IdiotInChief: Wear A Mask!
2019	Silent Purpose
2018	Just Bake The Cake, Man
2017	Visible Proof
2016	Poor Enough Means
2015	Still Standing
	Follow Your Heart
2014	Just Reminded
2013	A Fine Balance
2012	One Measure
2011	Seeking The Common Ground
	In Brightest Day…

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Small Moments, Lived Well

When we see someone online play a piece note-perfect, we are seeing the fruit of more time than we would ever suspect.
Professional players have often spent hundreds of practice hours on a 3-minute piece of music.  And even more time working on basic skills and abilities.
When we see and hear them, it appears simple.  It looks easy.  So we again assume incorrectly.  We chalk it up to talent or luck.
But the reality is that high-level playing is possible for anyone (physical limitations aside).  It’s all matter of minutes and hours.
Luckily, time will pass whether we practice or not.  In three years, we will either have three more years of practice behind us, or we won’t.
We don’t need more time in the day.  There’s no race or competition.  No one cares how well we play.  Guitar is a personal challenge and pursuit.  Others may support and encourage, but they don’t care whether we practice each day or not.
The trick to putting in more time on something is to enjoy the practice.  And this is born of creating small, achievable challenges, and meeting them.  Over and over.  We find something slightly difficult then we work on it.
We get feelings of satisfaction from winning the challenge.  And our skills expand bit by bit, day after day.
We can (and should) still care about short-term results.  We need the motivation that comes from success.
But we can also keep the long-term in mind.  We can accept that pieces may take months or years to play well.  Our speed and agility may take months and years to improve to where we want them.
Like life itself, our music is made of small moments, lived well.  And the more we focus on process and quality, the smoother and more quickly we enjoy the fruits.
From a website I follow:  https://www.classicalguitarshed.com/
The specific post / page is:  https://www.classicalguitarshed.com/tq-raymond-joseph-teller-magic-time/
[Please visit the original site if you have a few moments…    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2020	Two Happy
	Every Time I Look Around
	Boxing (Day: 3) – Double-End Target Setup
2019	Stand Up, Hook Up, Shuffle To The Door…
2018	Ridiculous Idea
2017	Waddle On!
	A Severe Challenge — When The President Is A Liar
2016	The Best Of Circumstances
2015	Reverberating Silence
2014	Wrong Again?
2013	Improper Faith
2012	One More Rung
2011	Sunday Morning Earlies (Hugging trees and smiling…)
	Hurry
	Updates On Life
2010	It’s Gettin’ Deep In Here

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And Ever

Forever is composed of nows.
—     Emily Dickinson
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On This Day In:
2020	Why I Used To Jog At Dawn
	Seeing You In His Arms
2019	The Most Pressing Task
	Don’t Mess With The Lady
2018	Seek A Clear View
2017	Living With Myself
2016	Still Looking In Mirrors?
2015	Fear No Evil
2014	And Nothing Can Be As Tragic As…
2013	Your Tax Dollars At Work
2012	Historically Unacceptable
2011	Niners Are NFC West Division Champions!!
	The Essence Of Leadership

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An Afternoon Nap

Show me another pleasure like dinner which comes every day and lasts an hour.
—    Charles Maurice de Talleyrand
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On This Day In:
2020	Magical Voices In My Head
	I Still Need Educating
2019	And I’m Not Letting Go
2018	The Continuing Failure Of Speaker Paul Ryan
	Day 3: Approaching The Half Way Point
2017	Orange Comb-Overs Unite!
2016	Speaking Of Which
2015	Complexity Has A Strict Architecture
2014	Just Support
2013	Wandering Free
2012	Contribute = Paying Taxes
2011	How Will You Be Judged?

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No Plan And Less Sand

To achieve great things, two things are needed:  a plan and not quite enough time.
—    Leonard Bernstein
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On This Day In:
2020	Why #45 Is In The Dark
	180 Day Health / Weight Update (Mar 2020)
2019	Tonight I Am All Blacks
	In All Its Messy Complexity
2018	Danger = Opportunity
2017	True And Great
	Sand At The Beach
2016	There Is A Difference Between Dangerous And Frightening
2015	Always A Goal
2014	Standing Strong
2013	Shaken And Stirred
	The Bird With The Broken Wing
2012	Friends In High Places
2011	Objective Independence

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I’m Retired, I Always Have Time For It!

The time to relax is when you don’t have time for it.
—   Sydney J. Harris
[I didn’t finish yesterday.  I’ll try again today…  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2020	Decide, Support, Vote
2019	Aware Some
2018	Know Any Christians?
2017	The Only Thing I Can Give…
2016	Wiser But Less Cocksure
2015	Not Today
	Wicked
2014	…Am Too
2013	Credible?
2012	Both
2011	Risking Hidden Linkage

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Meet Unexpected Success

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with the success unexpected in common hours.
—    Henry David Thoreau
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On This Day In:
2019	Curing With Salt
2018	A Politician With Skills
	And / Or A Genuine Smile
2017	A Lone, Brave Voice…
2016	Job Security
2015	For I Have Always Lived Violently
2014	We Stand !! (I Stand With George)
	Additional Requirements
2013	In The Present Day
2012	Feeling It
2011	Stretching Science

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A Weary Rehearsal?

Is it possible that, after all, “history has no sense,” that it teaches us nothing, and that the immense past was only the weary rehearsal of the mistakes that the future is destined to make on a larger stage and scale?
—    Will and Ariel Durant
From their book:  “The Lessons Of History“
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On This Day In:
2019	At Least Mostly On Purpose
2018	Only One You In All Time
2017	Have You Hugged A Tree Lately?
2016	Unconquerable Imagination
2015	Just Plain Wrong
2014	Finding Beliefs
2013	Pretty Confident
2012	Effective Ranges
2011	Three Wisdoms
2010	I’m Just Askin’…
	Space & Time

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I Can’t Stay For Long

Tears In Heaven
Favorite Line(s):
Time can bring you down,
Time can bend your knees
Time can break your heart,
Have you begging please,
Begging please
Beyond the door,
There’s peace I’m sure
And I know there’ll be no more
Tears in heaven
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On This Day In:
2019	A Surprisingly Good Way
	It’s Official X-mas (Tree) At Home
2018	Weight / Health Update
	What’s Happening With You?
2017	The Great Leveler
	Conservative Depressions
2016	Election + 1 Month
2015	Dance And Sing
2014	A Measuring Stick For Progress
2013	Courtly Love Or Victory Over Habit
2012	Have We Met?
2011	Efficiently Useless

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Books And Blogs

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for.
―     Socrates
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On This Day In:
2019	#45 Is The Inverse
2018	A Message To The White House Press Corps
2017	Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
	Binge, Binge, Binge
2016	Feeling Warm Yet?
	Four Documentaries
2015	Just Like All The Others
2014	In My Own Vanity
2013	Filled With Words
2012	Lectio Auget Existentiae Meae
2011	Lied Lately?
2010	Born To Work At Faux News
	Lost Again (Uh, Make That Still)
	Qui Genus Humanum Ingenio Superavit
	They’re Back… (Part 1)

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Your Challenge

Death is a challenge.  It tells us not to waste time…  It tells us to tell each other right now that we love each other.
—    Dr. Leo F. Buscaglia
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On This Day In:
2019	The Tragedies Are About To Get Worse
2018	Plunge
	Time To Meet God
2017	Wealth Within
2016	Soaring
2015	Gone To The Library…
2014	Choose To Lead
2013	Not Sent Yet
2012	Wall-Crawler Reboot
	Learning To Count
	On Worshiping God
2011	Emancipated Differences
2010	A Little More Technology, Please…

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Better Sooner Than Later

You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.
―    Ralph Waldo Emerson
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On This Day In:
2019	Possibilities And Challenges
	And Miles To Go Before She Sleeps
2018	What I Tell You Three Times Is True
2017	And So On
2016	Kept
2015	Envy * 2
2014	Destiny For The Talented
2013	I Do Not Fear It
2012	Until Found
2011	Reducing Goods To Data
	The Fog Of Civilization Building

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Chaos Is Not Really A New Remedy

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator.
—    Francis Bacon
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On This Day In:
2018	History Will Judge Harshly
	Father Time, Perhaps?
2017	Odds Are
2016	Prayer, Too
2015	History, n.
2014	See It Sometime
2013	Precious Friend
2012	It Couldn’t Be Done
	Feeling Surrounded?
2011	Surprise!

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Uncertain Times

You know, people talk about this being an uncertain time.  You know, all time is uncertain.  I mean, it was uncertain back in – in 2007, we just didn’t know it was uncertain.  It was – uncertain on September 10th, 2001.  It was uncertain on October 18th, 1987, you just didn’t know it.
—    Warren Buffett
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On This Day In:
2018	Satisfied
2017	In The Mind
2016	Dreaming
2015	The Best Medicine Is Also Contagious
2014	Eyes Off
2013	The More Things Change…
2012	The Delicate Moment Of Giving
2011	Ready, Shoot, Aim!!

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Fill It Up

Life itself can’t give you joy,
Unless you really will it.
Life just gives you time and space
It’s up to you to fill it.
—    Chinese proverb (I’ve also seen it attributed as “Anonymous”)
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On This Day In:
2018	Can We Talk About Me?
2017	About Change
	Gordian
2016	Are Your Prayers Functioning?
2015	Expressing Love
2014	Cyclical Attitudes
2013	Footprints
2012	Broken Resolutions
	Bin It

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