酸甜苦辣忆学琴

Today there will a large graduation ceremony for 3 high schools in our city. My Son will play as the concert master in Orchestra for many his senior friends . He is not excited and has refused us to watch the performance since he became the first chair as a freshman.

As his mom, I have so many remarkable memories of his learning years that I can’t count them all. Sweet!? Sour !? Sad!? Even bitter!? No words could say. He started playing violin at the age of 9. Once he had passion, for learning, he surprised his teacher by speeding through one book per month. Of course you can imagine how stable his foundation is. We often had to ask him to stop when he kept practicing for several hours. Very quickly, the half size violin sounded better and better.

One snowy morning in winter, I took him to a violin lesson. The High way was closed. It took me one hour to get to the University because I had to drive side roads.. Getting out of the car, I smelt a rat when I saw him whistling happily with both hands in his pockets.

“Where’s your violin?!”My voice was sharp to him.

“You didn’t bring it?! Every lesson you carry it, don’t you?” he understood I was serious and stopped whistling but still looked so innocent.

Almost falling down on the ground which was covered with 5 inches of snow, I was speechless. . My spoiled boy! I was busy cleaning the car in the morning and sweat a lot due to the dreadful road condition. How could I think of his violin?!

On the awful one hour driving home, I couldn’t hold back the tears, while he finally got quiet. Today when I looked back, I realized it was really a small case of life. Later he lost too many things such as going to swimming without his swimming suits, missed a math competition for a wrong date on the calendar, forgot to do assignments until the last minute…… I have no temper towards him. Just wondering if all the other boys are like that~~?!

I attended all his violin lessons during the past six years. When he practiced, I provided and devoted what I heard from the lesson and sounded like his teacher, “Higher! Higher!”, “Louder! Louder! “Slow down, slow down!”

One day he stopped practice and put the violin in my arms, "Ok! You play!”

“I am not the student!” I need to look for some words.

“You are not my teacher!” He was mad.

“I listened to your lessons; I remember what your teacher said!”

“Ok, let me hear you play!” He was even angrier and threw the violin at me.

My husband came down from upstairs on time. He grasped the violin and pretended to walk out. “Every day you fight because of the violin. Every day!!! Let’s get rid of it!!! You both should stop and we need a quiet family! I ‘m going to throw it away!” I guess he must be threatening our son, but still,--- both my son and I cried out. Son jumped up to get his violin back from his dad’s hands. I thought it was unfair! My husband should be on my side! If I had a daughter, she would be my sweet heart to comfort me, not like this boy, this husband……

Eventually the dad bought the most expensive Sony recorder which became our most valuable property at that time. Since then, I totally relaxed. We recorded all lessons and son only needed to watch the video for practice again and again.

After playing many years in the city youth orchestra and at all kinds of festivals or ceremonies, he was invited to solo for a Chinese New Year celebration at 12 years old. We listened with our friends and his classmates. Afterward, my little boy took his suit off and lay down on my arms after performance. All our friends laughed at him but he wasn’t embarrassed!

Our church pastor came to asked, “We have a worship team but the first violin is going to college this year. Would you join us to play for the church?”

Son sat up from my arms, “Will I go to church every Sunday for 3 hours? “

“We can count it as your volunteer hours, and you may bring your homework or books. We will feed you lunch!” The pastor was patient and nice.

“Have you done your Beta club hours?” I reminded him.
“Ok, I would like to play for the church! “

During the year he played in the church, I really appreciated the love given to him from God and christran brothers and sisters. The worship team spoiled him. They always gave him a special part to solo. They changed the melody so that his violin part was unique and stood out from the rest of the music. The second violin player was a gentle high school girl, who was also friendly to him. The guitar player was a young man from the seminary composition department. He arranged a musical selection entitled “The flower in the wild “> to be played with six different instruments; 1st violin, 2nd, violin, guitar, trombone, saxophone, and piano. During the group’s performance, the congregation was silent and many people were moved to tears. How can you describe the beauty from nature, the peace from heaven, and the love from our Father? No words could but the music came close! Later the whole team was invited to several places to perform this piece and on the newspaper.

Two years ago, we moved to our current city. Old church members are still calling to ask how my son is doing. Although he isn't ready to be baptized, I know HIS word is working on him. He never misses youth fellowship on Saturdays even if he has other activities scheduled that day.

We don’t expect him to become a professional violinist. If he plays to honor the Father, to comfort seniors in the nursing home, to make friends happy and benefit his school, isn’t it wonderful enough?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PX72_HALoxM