Piano & Joy

"Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it everyday. "


~Henri J.M. Nouwen

I started playing piano in February. I had owned my Yamaha electric piano for a year prior. Needless to say, it had been on my mind for a while. I had cleared the space and the time in my life for it, so one day I decided that it was time to jump in. I didn't realize when I started that it would come to mean so much to me so soon. 

I've struggled to find my instrument for years. My fiancé is a musician, specifically a guitar player and vocalist, but guitar and I just don't jive . I've tried. I very much enjoy singing, but am inconsistent with my dedication . When I started playing piano, I found myself sitting down for 15 minutes of practice and when the timer was up, I'd say aloud and entirely to myself, "just 5 more minutes." I enjoyed it.

For those of you following @justine_bacon on Instagram, let's talk about the strange elephant- where have all of my yoga posts from the past gone? They're still around. They're archived for now. So many things have changed in the 2 years- my perspective has changed, my priorities have changed, and much about me has as well. I wanted to see a clear space for what my life is shaping to be right now, much of which I am still deciding. And how I express myself publicly on social media also needed to be decided and cleared out. This account, though longstanding, felt very stale and in need of a reset . 

I use my @justine_eatstheworld account to focus soley on my love of food. It feels vibrant and fresh, fun and exciting to me, while this account sat lifelessly in the dust. Seriously, go have a look at it, you can tell that I'm having fun. 

Isn't that the point of all of this anyway, to have fun? To enjoy ourselves? If not, then I don't know what we're doing.  

So here's the jumpstart . And while I work towards figuring out my greater purpose I can focus on the daily joys that I have. Piano, is one of them. And writing is another.

I am currently listening to the audiobook, Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and it has struck me in very many ways.  I am almost finished, but in the last week of me listening to it, I have been inspired and reinvigorated in ways that I have long forgotten.

A huge takeaway from reading her book (yes listening to audio books counts as reading, just ask Stephen King), is go enjoy your life, try new things, start over if you need to.  No matter your age.  Turning 37 has struck me too- in a very wild and foreign sensation of weight and recognition of mortality, it has struck me.  I intend to respond to this new experience by being as creative as possible, as unapologetic for taking up space as possible and by being as expressive as possible, no fucks given.

Thanks for reading, I hope you got as much out of this as I did writing it.

​Song played in video:  "What Can I Give?"