PDA #2: Music to my Eyes

My little experiment is already working! Knowing I've committed to write my weekly "Public Display of Appreciation" post, I'm on the lookout. I've been richly rewarded.

This week Jeff gave me flowers on Valentine's Day, but in a nod to my practicality, they were pots of lavender I can transplant to the garden in the spring. (Early on in our courtship I declared bouquets that only died days later to be undesirably frivolous. Young girls, take note: Do NOT do this.)

What meant the most to me this week, though, was a casual comment Jeff may not even remember. I tend to bite more than I can chew. This time it's a commitment I made to a violin student to accompany her at an upcoming scholarship audition. I really try to balance my obligations to my family whenever I undertake these kinds of things, and to be fair, I agreed to help her because it was a piece we'd already done together; I knew the music. But then she decided she wanted to do a different piece. Aargh!

This has meant lots of practicing, the kind where I'm trying to cram years of advancing ability into mere weeks. Thursday night she was coming over to rehearse. The house was in shambles that afternoon. Shambles! (Psst. I did have dinner in the oven.) I should have been supervising my children to whip the house into shape, but I needed every spare minute at the piano.

There I sat when Jeff came home from work. When he peeked around the corner I ceased playing and apologized to him for how awful everything looked. Not to worry, he said. "I like to hear your music when I come home."

Really? I was touched. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a musician, but music is a big part of my life. Jeff gets that. He tells me he understands that chances to perform are important to me, especially while my deteriorating thumb still allows it.

So, thank you, Jeff for putting up with all the music you hear -- and see -- around you.

P.S. I visited a photography blog that gives prompts for picture challenges. The first photo is my quick interpretation of "MUSIC." Do you know what it is? I quite like how the motion looks like diagrams of radio waves. The second photo is Samuel.