Month: August 2015

At today’s ACDA-Michigan morning, our president Jared Anderson asked us to share our “ACDA Moments” – those touchstones where this organization affected us most profoundly. Here’s mine. I was not a music education or conducting student as an undergraduate or in grad school. At Western, I effectively majored in Gold […]

As you’re building your practice habit, have you found a solid trigger to precede your action? Just as important is what you do after you practice. Reward yourself. It doesn’t need to be a big reward. Food is tricky, if you want to stay healthy. Some small thing you love that can show up […]

Precious students you’ve seen daily for four (or more) years are heading out to college in the coming days and weeks. You’re excited to see them rise to new heights, anxious to hear about their successes, and sad not to see them in your choirs and community going forward. Here a few thoughts for them. […]

For over a year, all of our work books have been in boxes. Choral texts, fake books, theory tomes and a dozen other boxes have been packed up since a flooded basement forced us to get rid of two large bookcases. Last week we installed new shelves, and the books came back into the […]

If you could look into your own future, what would you consider a success? Or if you went to your twentieth reunion, say, would you be reflecting on a career so far that would make sense to the you of twenty years earlier? I don’t know quite what I envisioned […]

So, our half-marathon yesterday. As I wrote yesterday, circumstances brought us to the big day underprepared. Our response was to listen to our bodies, run as much as we could, and walk the rest. The result was we finished hand-in-hand, proudly running across the finish line, solidly in last place. It […]

I have good reasons for being underprepared for today’s half-marathon. But Steve Zegree, my mentor and inspiration for this race, made a mantra of “No Excuses” – so I’m not going to even mention them.   So what do you do when you’re underprepared for a challenge? Say, a concert, or a contest, or an […]

Individually, and as a whole, we vastly underestimate what kids can do. A few examples from my recent experience: My family has been playing a board game this summer, labeled 14 and up. We were cautious about the nine-year-old, but he picked it up immediately. It was our six-year-old who surprised us. He […]

Do you wish your life was a little more like a LEGO set? Or an Ikea bookcase? Get the perfectly-sized box for one of these Nordic products, and you’ll be greeted with exactly the pieces you need to create what you want. A carefully designed set of instructions will wordlessly guide your […]

For a long time, our approach to gardening was mostly one of weeding – rid the plot of the weeds, and then come back later to do it again. More recently, we have begun to intentionally cultivate plants we want to see there. Now we come back to encourage these plants to […]