Last Tuesday Emme went for her grade 4 ABRSM cello exam. Just about a month before Christmas we decided that she would go for it. Ever since, she has worked hard to master Pieta Signore, Tom Bowling and Shephards Hey (her favorite) as well as scales, dominant 7ths, sight reading, singing and listening skills. In the weekend before the exam, Emme smashed another 5 hours on her cello. What a drive, for this 7-year-old!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No matter how stressful the exam may have been, and how uncertain the result (the result may take over 4 weeks to come out), the exam itself no longer matters to me. Of course I hope she succeeds. For me, the most important moment took place when Emme suggested that she would go through her arpeggios for the last time. And then practiced, sitting on a rock in the garden of her school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sitting in the sun, her cello anchored in the soft grass, playing music that gently filled the environment\u2026 as one can feel connected to a view, I felt connected to her. Knowing that for Emme, our connection is only a part of something bigger; but to be a part at all made me proud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When she was done with the arpeggios, she put her cello aside and started her singing\/listening practice. Because I tend to make her nervous, she asked me to walk around the sports field. From afar I saw her staring, thinking, into those same rays of sunlight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her face was pristine, focused, out of reach, brilliant. I thought I saw my mother.. I was shocked, anxious, had to collect myself and convince myself that we live in the present. The confusion that provided a glimpse into the past, present and future \u2013 all at once! \u2013 left me profoundly impressed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I feel like a proud and grateful travel companion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Written on March 22, 2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Last Tuesday Emme went for her grade 4 ABRSM cello exam. Just about a month before Christmas we decided that she would go for it. Ever since, she has worked hard to master Pieta Signore, Tom Bowling and Shephards Hey (her favorite) as well as scales, dominant 7ths, sight reading, singing and listening skills. In…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-orangebooklet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.squaredant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.squaredant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.squaredant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.squaredant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.squaredant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stories.squaredant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":140,"href":"https:\/\/stories.squaredant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions\/140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stories.squaredant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.squaredant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stories.squaredant.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}