If you only do what you know you can do, you never do very much

Learning the bus schedule

Here I am, writing about life again, on my food blog. But isn't it all connected, after all?

The job that gave me security for 14 plus years is going down the drain, with my paycheck slashed by a 25% pay cut. I would think it would be time for me to feel sorry for myself and cry. Yes, after years and years of practicing, auditions, debt, going to school to obtain a bachelor and master's degrees... all the sacrifices I made to attain that one privileged post of tenured musician in an orchestra, finally taken care of for life...

But life is not like that. And the sooner I admit that, the better. Haven't I seen, here in the US, people who were doctors, lawyers, dentists etc in other countries, who had to abandon their own careers behind to start over in America as salesmen/women, paralegals, clerks, secretaries... just because of their own country's politics, wars, persecution and/or finances? People lose jobs everyday. People have accidents, and cannot work or even earn unemployment, for months and years at a time. It's life. Messy life. 

I remember reading, as a child, Monteiro Lobato's ''Sítio do Pica-Pau Amarelo,'' a children's book collection in which one of the characters, Emília, a rag doll, talks about the importance of being able to adapt in order to survive. ''You need to be able to adapt!!!'' she says over and over. I don't know why that stayed with me throughout the years, but I always remember it. Adapt! don't whine about your situation, do something about it. Adapt to your surroundings. Take charge. 

I believed that I had one, just one calling in life: music. But that is not so. I found that I can do, and love doing, so many different things. Cooking, climbing, writing, studying, math, science...

Yes, there is something to be said about stability and security. Having a home, a family, a stable, well paying job. But in the end, isn't stability and security a product of my own mind? Why is it that when I am in the wilderness, where nothing can be taken for granted, the place where I become the most solid and confident? Is it because I need to focus on the immediate tasks and challenges only, and not worry and spend time in the past or future? 

Why not, as stressful as my situation may be, take this pay cut as a blessing? An opportunity for reflection, for looking around to what else there is in life- which is infinite. Work or pleasure, it is so important to keep it fresh, new and exciting.

As a friend once quoted from Tom Krause, ''if you only do what you know you can do, you never do very much.''