Moral of the story

You know those opportunities you get once every blue moon that scare the daylights out of you and make you feel inadequate, but build you up even higher in the end? And that is EXACTLY what it was.

It was a Thursday afternoon that I got the phone call asking if I would play the organ for a special women's fireside with Janice Kapp Perry.
(If this name is unfamiliar, Janice Kapp Perry is one of the largest, most familiar names in LDS music. WOAH!)

Keep in mind, the organ is a foreign instrument to me. It has so many buttons, keys, and pedals that I don't even understand! I've been the ward organist (in different wards) for the last 5 years. However, all of it has been "learning on the job". A.K.A, I only know what I've figured out on the "job"!

Long story short, I played a TON of prelude. Before the fireside, Brother and Sister Perry came to set up their electronics they were using during their presentations. They forgot a specific recording and so Sister Perry asked me to accompany her on one of her songs she was going to sing! (Eeek!! :D )

But playing for a musical genius that's composed SO many beautiful, inspiring songs, on an instrument that you feel unqualified to be playing is nothing short of intimidating and discouraging. But it was wonderful! After the meeting, Sister Janice Kapp Perry came over and gave me a loving pat on the back and told me that it was wonderful. That she was thoroughly impressed and that I had played the organ so well.

Moral of the story: Sometimes an opportunity will come along, whether you feel ready or not. AND if you have done all you can do, and learned all you could learn, those opportunities will be building and spectacular. I learned that you don't have to be perfect. If you want to be better, be better on your own. Do it yourself. No one else HAS to walk you through it (though it's certainly helpful sometimes). Start with what you do know and add on to it. And you will be surprised just how far you will get.

And it took a marvelous, beautiful stranger to overlook the mistakes and imperfections to help me realize that it's OK to be proud of just how far I've made it so far!