One of the things I like about playing the piano is that moment just before I begin to play. Shifting my weight slightly, the bench creaking just ever so much, and the still quiet that overcomes me as I place my hands on the starting keys. Then the music starts and I am taken into another world.

I’ve played piano since the 7th grade or so. I love to sit at the keys and play music. Either playing a score that is before me or leaving the music stand empty and create a score myself. Reading music is a second language to me and I enjoy it so much. I enjoy having an empty music stand and be able to come up with my own music.

When I first started to learn how to play, being the young child I was, I wouldn’t practice as I should. So my parents moved my keyboard to my grandparents’ house and every day after school, I’d go over and sit with my grandmother in her home office and practice. The way I was supposed to practice was that if I played the wrong note I was to start the song over from the begging and replay. When I didn’t my grandmother would give me a smack and make me start the song over. Thanks to that I became quite the pianist.

Sadly, in the last semester of my high school senior year, my grandmother passed away. Shortly after I composed my first piece titled “Going Home.” It’s really nothing great like I had hoped for. I wanted it to be something to reflect her passing and really move people. To this day I still want it to be that but I’ve never revisited the piece.

Music is a wondrous thing. It expresses the whole gamut of human emotion. Music can inspire us. Make us cry, love, and even laugh.

I was watching “Mr. Holland’s Opus” the other night and one scene he was helping a student learn to play the clarinet. She wanted to give up because she wasn’t good at it. Yet he encouraged her and knew she liked playing. Sitting down Mr. Holland talks about what music is about, having fun. Most importantly that there is more to music than just notes on a page. The same goes for life.

There is so much more to life and just like music life is supposed to be fun.

Just like with music every day we have moments to do something truly great. Every song, every note, and every word is an opportunity to influence positivity and change someone’s day.

There are 1,440 minutes are in a single day.

1,440 minutes to be positive. Make a change in your life or someone else. 1,440 moments to live life. To stop and smell the flowers. Enjoy the sunrise with a cup of coffee or tea. It’s 1,440 chances to tell someone I love you.

Think about your average, typical, basic day. From the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep. What are we doing with that time?

I know for myself, a good portion of my day is spent at work. An eight-hour shift, five days a week with two days off. I work in a secured facility. So my human contact is mostly with the same people day in and day out. I could assume that for those of you reading this, don’t work in the same type of environment as myself. You most likely have a better chance of coming into contact with other people. This is where our moment to do something with our time really takes shape. Perhaps it’s the receptionist, the unnoticed security officer, your cubicle (are those even a thing still?) or office mate. A small kind gesture can go along way. Whether it brings them a cup of coffee from the break room, offering assistance with major projects. It could even be helping them with a difficult customer and backing them up.

Have you ever walked through a department store or mall and just smile and said “Hi” to complete strangers? Typically there are two ways they’ll react. Either look at you as if you’re crazy or they smile and say hi back. Just that one moment of saying hi to someone will have an impact on them. This because everyone is fighting a battle we don’t know about, so we should be kind.

“Playing music is supposed to be fun. It’s about heart, it’s about feelings, moving people, and something beautiful, and it’s not about notes on a page.” Mr. Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) – “Mr. Hollands Opus”

Life is the same way. Its supposed to be fun, about heart, feelings, moving people, and something beautiful.

God Bless and Positive Vibes.