Inviting the muse to stay awhile

I like to keep things on schedule. I have a certain time that I like to have dinner, clean up the house, have the kids in bed. But last night, since we had to see the dentist in the afternoon, my entire bedtime schedule was thrown off. And I have this horrifying tendency to hurry my kids along, especially Bianca when she's dinking around on the piano instead of practicing her assigned pieces for the week. But last night, I was busy folding and putting away laundry and I decided to just let Bianca dink around. And fifteen minutes later, she had created a new song.

I told her, however, that we didn't have time for her to write down the notes on her lined-music paper so could she just record herself and then she could take it all down later. After she videotaped herself and after she was finished practicing her assigned music, she wanted to watch the video. This video shows the way her brain works to come up with her music. I like watching the way she experiments with chords and tries to come up with the melody she's looking for.

It's hard with all the homework and practicing and chores and everything else an eight-year-old has to do to come up with a couple minutes to just tinker on the keys of a piano. I should let Bianca do it more often. I'm going to try to make an effort to sit back and not hurry her anymore when I can. Because for a lot of creative types, when the muse comes, you have to entertain it. Otherwise, the muse may not hurry back. Maybe some nights the homework can slide. Maybe sometimes we can be behind the schedule. After all, when a guest is in the house, you should definitely not hurry them out but allow them to linger--even if the guest is something as intangible as the muse. [This was the beginning of Rain on a Dark Mroning.]