Conversational monopoly

I was skimming through a 6 week bible study on prayer the other day and came across this question which I thought would be a good question for everyone to ask of themselves.

When you pray do you spend as much time listening as you do 'talking'?

Retreat Group Photo

Not sure why this picture came out so off center. I tested it and made sure the camera was placed just right before setting the timer. I took another after this which is more centered.

For some reason I like this one better.

See more photos here.

CE Retreat Series, Post 3

CE Retreat Series, Post 2

CE Retreat Series, Post 1

Back to the basics

I mentioned picking up jazz piano lessons once upon a blog-ago. I was eager to get started playing piano and learning some jazz classics but where would I begin? Monk? Coltrane? Ellington? Who knows but I was giddy like a junior high school girl going to high school prom... please don't ask me any questions about that analogy.

While I know how to play the piano and read music I do not much about the basics of playing jazz. What does that mean? Well, that means that I'm the jazz equivalent of a 2 year old. How do I know that I'm a jazz 2 year old? My first two song assignments were Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and On Top of Old Smokey. Is that convincing enough? I think so too.

If Bradley (my instructor) tried to advance me from my classical piano knowledge I'm sure I would have become a musical mess... well, more of a musical mess. Often moving forward means you have to take a couple steps back.