Living-Deliberately.com

It’s been a two year goal, recently restated in my 2008 Goal list.

I thought my only January progress was going to be that I asked two guitar-playing friends for buying advice. My budget for an instrument was pretty much non-existant. In December I’d bought a book on how to play that has sat on my nightstand; every day I whispered a little hope that I’d get to actually use it soon.

On Saturday a friend and I ventured into a “big box” guitar store. It was smoky and filled with rockin’ teens looking for amps and electronics. No one spoke to us. We walked through the acoustic section and I stood under all those wooden dreams over my head. I figured the fruition was still a very long way off.

But yesterday, that happy-happiest of days, where the joy around was almost tangible, I stumbled onto a little new/used/trade guitar store. Joel of Guitars United spoke to me right away and gave me about a half hour lesson on the different kinds of guitars, what to look for, what would fit into my budget, and what kind of sound I could expect. I was pleased as punch with that and almost over the moon when he said he had a used case that I could get for about fifteen bucks. Hey… a book and a case is a start, right?

But then he had a buddy, and remembered a set-up that would be “perfect” for me and he gave him a call. I held my breath, not getting my hopes up too soon. There’s been enough hope-dashing around these parts lately! But lo-and-behold his friend Pete at Music Depot called him back, with indeed the perfect deal. Like I said, everyone was super helpful, happy, exhuberant. I drove across town after my counseling appointment and picked up my little beauty. And yes, I actually jumped up and down for joy, right there in the store. Pete played Blackbird and I almost cried.

The “deal” took my breath away yet again. You know those times when you are happy with a rock and God gives you a diamond? That’s what my guitar is to me. It fits my body just right, it has a great sound, and the wood is gorgeous. It is exactly the instrument of my dreams and when I play it, though it isn’t more than little buzzy plunks and strums right now, it is the music of my soul, of my dreams for more days and nights than I could count.

My goal is to learn to play the guitar, which I haven’t done yet. Last night I held one for the first time. And now I’m more on my way to realizing the fulfillment of the aspiration than ever before. It never ceases to amaze me how the deliberate and intentional striving towards a goal, no matter how realistic it may or may not seem in the beginning, can actually bring that goal to pass.

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