The 2nd half of May brought on a lot of goodbyes. (Like me saying goodbye to my 40s). They were all pretty bitter-sweet, but one was especially hard to face.
When Romney was in 2nd grade, she started taking cello lessons from my sister, Margaret. Margaret moved to Boulder when Romney was in 6th grade, and so we tried to do facetime lessons with my brother Peter. That was tough for her. She decided to stop taking lessons for a while. And then a few years later she realized how much she was missing the cello, and we decided to connect with the woman who took over Margaret's studio when Margaret moved.
How could we possibly have known what a great blessing Ariel was going to be in our lives? Romney started up again as an 8th grader, and though it took a while to break through Romney's stiffness and also to get used to Ariel's style, we soon realized that despite anything that was frustrating or not moving forward from week to week, Romney always came away from her lessons feeling positive and supported.
As Romney approached her high school graduation, we had to face the truth that soon her season of taking cello lessons was coming to an end! In some ways, this was a relief. She had been so very very busy that cello was definitely not her main focus and often fell to the back burner. But still, no matter what, her time in her lessons made her feel positive about playing and like she was ok the way she was. Romney was clearly never going to go on to major in cello performance or become a cello teacher (well, probably not anyway), and Ariel saw that. She just helped Romney develop a love of music. It couldn't have been better. I'm sure there are many other teachers who would have had more committed kids take her place. But Ariel gifted us with a chance to have music in our lives.
I also just loved every minute with Ariel - she feels like very much of a kindred spirit to me, and I often imagined that she was close to my age when in fact I'm about 20 years her senior. (The worst was the day that I asked her if she was 40 yet and she told me she wasn't yet 30!) Our age difference sure didn't stop her from playing the role of musical guru for us. I respect her, admire her, want to be more like her. The goodbye was very teary. And it wasn't even a real goodbye! We are planning on continuing lessons with her in an a-la-carte kind of way, just scheduling one every few months or something. But it won't be the same. We are so grateful.
A huge shout-out needs to be sent to my cellist-siblings as well. They both gave us so much as well. Music is an incredible part of this life and I consider us to be extremely lucky to have been surrounded by generous musicians.
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