How Life is a Little Like a Piano

There must be hundreds of very worthwhile things to write about right now, but it is a bit hard for me to concentrate while our piano is being tuned.

(I should really call it John’s piano since I never play.)

For those of you who don’t know what this entails, let me explain. Basically the piano tuner hits each and every key on the piano about 93 times each while adjusting the pitch…back and forth, back and forth…until it sounds right to him. But then, a few keys later he’ll go back to one he finished two minutes ago because while he’s been tuning the next key, the previous key might have changed pitch a little. Or maybe it wasn’t quite perfect when he finished with it now that he has the other notes to compare it to.

Thankfully, the process does not usually take too long to complete because we try to keep the piano tuned on a regular basis. I remember the first time we had it tuned after returning from Amsterdam. It had been a year and a half (or more) since it had been tuned, so the piano tuner worked with it for approximately four hours to get it back into shape. (And it cost us about twice as much as it usually does.)

I think maybe I feel a little like a piano that hasn’t been tuned regularly. If I had just been on an even keel, plodding away at something…anything…over the past year, able to have a specific focus or goal, then maybe getting back into emotional and spiritual shape wouldn’t be so hard and time-consuming right now.

As it turns out, circumstances over the past year kept changing and I can't count on anything to be “normal” or “routine”. In all the chaos I kind of lose sight of goals and my focus seems scattered. So much so, that now I feel in need of a major tuning that I know will take time and be painful.

It is always easier, and momentarily cheaper, to not schedule that regular piano tuning. “It doesn’t sound that bad yet” is a common excuse.

In my life, I get used to being without focus; I get used to just getting by. Until things seem really messy and out of sync. So, to pick myself up and carry on with a focus and a goal, to step up and work hard, to figure out how to live a “routine” life in a chaotic world, is painful and may be time consuming.

Our piano tuner just told us he’s looking for a change of career, so this may be his last year of tuning pianos.

Thankfully, I think of God as my piano tuner (since I am quite certain I cannot help myself out of the chaos around me). And He never quits or retires…even when I am woefully out of tune.