I taught in homes, and in 2012, my best friend who is a brilliant piano teacher herself got me a teaching job at the music school where she used to teach. (She is now a missionary in a jungle-village kind of place.) It was a fun season for me while it lasted. My pre-schooling students were adorable; our boss was like-minded in so many ways; my best friend (who was now my colleague) and I went out on Wednesday night dinner dates after we were done teaching in the evenings; and I had many opportunities to explore a facet of music I had never known. Season came and like every other season, it ended.
With a baby and by virtue of our nomadic lifestyle (we kept moving bases between our own place and my in-laws' place due to a tough first year and more), it was difficult to resume teaching. Or to even think of teaching. I just didn't have the energy for either. Physical, mental, emotional, social, and often, spiritual tiredness often kept me from wanting to have anything to do with the piano. And so, Sophie never saw me playing much. Eventually, I stopped playing - even for church.
But.... like I blogged some posts ago, I am going back to teaching. I am not sure what the future holds or what my road-map looks like - but I thought I'd trust God with the circumstances that brought me to this point and just do it. I begin next week.
And God is a good God indeed. I was richly blessed when Mrs. D, my first music teacher (who taught me between the ages of 4 and 10), suddenly wrote and asked if we could meet up for coffee this week since she was going to be an examiner in Penang for a few days. I was very surprised because coincidentally, I was going to write to her about my employment. It was also kinda freaky because I have not met her since I was 10 and it was unusual for her to ask me out for coffee. (It is pretty unusual for me to have coffee with any of my teachers anyway.) Nobody had told her that I was going to teach as an alumni and she was equally surprised when I told her. And overjoyed.
So we met yesterday afternoon and had a good, long chat... because God knew that I needed her encouragement. I felt so deeply ministered to, because here was a well-seasoned music teacher who could relate to my struggles of being a musician/teacher and a mother, a musician before a mother, and a mother who yearned to return to her first love, so to speak, (music) without neglecting her family or herself. It's actually much harder than I'd like to think. Mrs. D is a wife and mother herself - a God-fearing one - and so hearing her speak so honestly yet encouragingly about her own struggles from many years back helped me much. She also gave me the advice I needed pertaining teaching methods and overcoming the weaknesses of the education system under which I would teach and operate for the next few years at least.
Well, I did pray for peace some days back - even though it was about a different matter.
Today, I thank God for peace.
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