Progress is wibbly-wobbly, and sometimes a surprise

Progress isn’t linear and it doesn’t always show up where or when you expect.

Take this plant for example - I purchased this lovely Hoya from a small business online last month, and it’s been settling in fine. I figured the adventures through the post and the fact that it’s off season for plants, that it’s done doing stuff for the year. I thought if it decides to do anything it’ll keep growing on the vine it has or when it’s ready pop out some new growth at the little growth points on the node where the current stem came from.

Then Saturday I noticed a new stem growing up the side of the cup coming out from sideways through the dirt. It was half the size it is now when I saw it. Totally unexpected rogue vine coming in sideways from underneath.

I’ve been thinking about progress not being linear lately and how it can suddenly show up in the unexpected places - kind of like the new growth on this plant.

We all know progress is more wibbly wobbly (much like the timey wimey stuff) - spurts of progress and inspiration, a few steps back, periods of simmering for a while, etc.

But sometimes when you’re working on progressing to something specific, that progress can show up in unexpected places instead.

A musical example of this could be how I was able to play the big flute excerpt from Felix Mendelssohn’s A Midsummernight’s Dream with breathing in all the nice places and light articulation with a round sound. I struggled with that excerpt my entire studying-it life. I’d learn it, it’d feel awful (I could do it but it was a struggle.) I’d come back - same.

One summer I spent a good chunk of time coming back to tone exercises and vocalises working for more smoothness and connectedness, always striving for depth of tone, and overall breath control to create my best possible sounds at that time.

Then I pulled out the excerpts again. It was like all that work on tone that summer had worked out my struggles with that particular excerpt. It felt free - as it should.

So sometimes progress shows up where you don’t anticipate - and I think those moments should be celebrated too.