The Power Of ‘Letting Go’

This afternoon my daughter Clara and I watched a tape of a figure skating competition. Well, I watched. She mostly ‘pretend skated’ on the white rug – aka ‘ice’ – that lies in front of our TV. Occasionally she glanced at the screen for fresh inspiration.

The commentators remarked on the terrible practices one of the Japanese skaters had had all week as she took the ice to perform. Dick Button and Peggy Fleming seemed resigned to a painful 4 minutes of viewing.

Well, it turned out otherwise. Much to their delight, and mine, the skater lit up the ice.

So you see, it doesn’t have to be.

Indeed it reminded me of a concert I gave with Jack Sanders, my guitarist partner, some time ago. I had a Horrible warm-up, just couldn’t get anything working properly. This is not a good thing when the Sarasate ‘Carmen Fantasy’ is on the bill with a lot of other difficult music as well.

As I walked to the stage door I said, very clearly to myself, ‘I have done everything I can. What happens now is out of my hands.’

When I put my violin up to play I just poured my heart into it. I had completely surrendered any expectation of success or failure as to the outcome. I just played one note, one phrase, one movement after the next.

You know what I’m going to say. It was as successful and technically polished as any concert I have given. The power of surrender in action.

Now, don’t get me wrong. Surrendering to the moment will get you nowhere in a hurry without sound preparation. It’s just that the expectations we place on ourselves often begin tying us up in knots.

Do the work. Do it every day. Find joy in the act of playing. Find it every day.

All the best,

Clayton Haslop

P.S. The only good news in this is that those of you who haven’t gotten your order in for volume 2 may still do so at a great price. I will need to raise the price significantly once it has been released.