I'm back!

Hey guys, I'm back. And please don't ask for clarification of the last post, there will be none.

Currently, God is really showing His power in my life. Firstly is the case of the Australian Concertos and Vocal Festival, up in Townsville.

I wasn't prepared for what would happen to me when I got up there. Firstly, when I sat down to play, my hives sprang up about a third of the way into the first movement. Then, to try and take my mind off that, I tried to play harder and more dramatically. Not surprisingly, the usual thing that happens to cellists when they overexert themselves happened, in the form of a severe cramp in my wrist.

So what could I do? After having played half of my first movement (I wasn't even up to the cadenza yet) I was struggling to hold my bow and to cross strings. I think the following half an hour was the most painful cello playing I have ever done. I'm proud of myself for slogging through it, but at the same time I was upset and rather embarrassed by the fact that six months of work was lost. I didn't even play half the semiquaver passages, and I fudged the last page of the concerto entirely.

This horrible embarrassment was put roughly into perspective for me very quickly, when I was notified by a friend that a cellist that I've worked with and respect had been checked into Townsville general hospital after suffering a paralysing stroke, meaning her bow hand was just about useless dead weight right now.

Even as I think back on it right now I find it hard to believe that as people our lives hang in a terrible balance. One slight nudge, one small health issue, one small mentality issue, and we can fail so terribly and irreparably. Contrast this: what happened to me was under my control. What happened to her is completely out of her control.

Friends, I know this is a bit odd, but you have to put your faith and time in something that will last. God is eternal, and omnipotent. He will not fail, as I have failed, and she has failed. God will never fail, and He will always be there.