The power of creativity in action made me fall deeply in love with a person I didn’t expect to like
This First Person piece is written by Sandra Low, who lives in Calgary. Please click here for more information about CBC’s First Person stories.see the FAQ.
My heart was beating fast, and I was both nervous and excited. All of my senses were heightened, and my body was vibrating.
The last time I felt this way was when I was in high school and had a crush on a school girl. So, did I love her? Was I falling for my male piano teacher, who was almost 30 years younger than me?
But no. That wasn’t it.
Let me back up. I had a stroke in March 2013, but I mostly got better and realized how lucky I had been. I promised myself that I wouldn’t waste my good luck and would always follow my dreams.
I started taking piano lessons six months after my stroke, before I even went back to work.
- After Sandra Low had a stroke, she knew she couldn’t put off following her dreams any longer.
Some people think that the best time to learn music is when you’re young. Because of money problems, I never had that chance as a kid. But I had a dream, a passion, and a strong belief, and at 52, these things did not stop me.
My first teacher taught me slowly, even though I still had trouble remembering things and was tired from the stroke. Then, after two years, I began dating a man in his twenties. He seemed strict and serious. On our first lesson together, he asked me about my last teacher and how she taught. I told how she would first play me each new song and then help me figure it out.
He said, “I’m not going to do that.” “I expect you to learn the notes on your own, and when I give you practice work, you should do it. If I see that you aren’t practicing, I’ll ask the office staff to move you to a different teacher.”
So I really practiced.
We didn’t get anywhere for three months. At our last lesson before Christmas, he was very harsh, which was not like him. He told me I had bad form and that my rhythm and tone were off.
I was in shock when I got home.
But this was what I wanted. I was not going to give up easily.
When I saw him in January, I played the same song again and quickly said, “I have practiced this piece about 500 times. I thought about giving up after our last lesson, but I am going to keep going.”not going to.”
There was a short break. Then, he said in a soft voice that he could see I had tried.
His attitude and the way he taught changed after that. He was friendly and even kind. He used metaphors to explain things that were hard to understand. He helped me develop my creativity by teaching me to trust my gut and figure out what the music meant. So long as I could tell him what I was trying to do with the piece and do it with conviction, he was happy.
I was blown away, and the world of music came to life for me. And that tingly feeling I used to get when I liked someone? That was when I fell deeply in love with music because of him.
I’ve been taking classical piano lessons for nine years, and this is my fifth teacher. I want to take my Level 6 piano exam in February 2024 and then soon after take my Level 8 music theory exam.
When my life was hard, I started playing piano.– Sandra Low
When my life was hard, I started playing piano. Vertigo and fatigue from the stroke restricted my movement. I was unsteady when I walked and the memory deficits and the concentration lapses were even worse.
My sense of myself was low. I had doubts, imagined the worst, and felt sad.
The piano changed me. I went from just listening to the music to actively taking part in it as I learned to make it my own. I was given the freedom to be myself, and the power of creativity in action made me fall deeply in love with someone I didn’t expect to like.
That passion spread to every part of my life, and it also helped me get better after the stroke.
Learning music helped me get through that tense time when I was getting better. It kept my mind busy and stopped me from thinking about bad things. And when I started making progress toward my goal of learning to play piano, I started to believe in myself again.
Even better, I came up with something new: a national peer-to-peer support group.Group for adults who want to learn music— to help other older people who want to learn but are afraid of being judged, and to find a group of peers who could understand the change I went through.
There is a quote from Confucius that gives me hope. “We have two lives, and the second one starts when we realize we only have one,” he said.
I learned from my stroke that life is short. But music was there for me when I opened the door to start living again, and through piano, I’m really living my best second life.
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