Bursting With Happy

Today was a landmark day in Tate’s recovery; he had his first cello lesson since his leukemia diagnosis in May 2018.

I shared this picture with our oldest son Scott, and he texted back saying he was crying and asked if he could share it on Twitter.

Tate has worked hard to be back in the studio with his teacher Melanie. They talked a lot about his strength level and the limitations he’s still working with in his hands and arms. His teacher is very conscientious about posture, body position, and technique. She is also aware that Tate’s body is not ready to play the pieces he once played and instructed him to play for 10 minutes to start. If he wants to keep playing after the initial 10 minutes, she told him to work in 5-minute increments up to 30 minutes per day but not longer. The potential for injury is a real thing.

She assigned Tate some scales to work on over the next week, but Tate wasn’t having it. He negotiated hard for new, but simple, piece to learn. She gave in. As we drove away at the end of the lesson, Tate did what he has always done: he sat in the passenger seat studying sheet music. It was only when we got to Starbucks that Tate realized, laughing, that she tricked him. She only gave him the first two pages to work on to make sure he wouldn’t overdo it his first week back.

I am overflowing with happy. I can’t hold it in.