Monday, January 17, 2011

Distractedness reaches a new level

Have you ever been asked to say the closing prayer in a church meeting, and by the time the meeting ends, you've forgotten all about it, and everyone's waiting, and you're waiting too, and all of a sudden you realize everyone's waiting for you?

I hope it's not just me that this happens to.

Now to the next level. Has this ever happened to you with the opening prayer in a church meeting? You're asked to pray, you agree, and two minutes later your mind has moved on to something else and you've forgotten all about it?

I've done that too.

But yesterday I realized I definitely need to learn to focus better. We had a musical number in the middle of our church services. Some children were going to sing, and I went up to the piano to accompany them. My music was ready and I sat there watching as the children came up to the front and their music leader helped them get arranged. Then I watched her as she smiled at them and raised her hands, preparing to start them into the song. Then she paused, and I wondered why they weren't starting. Then the music leader looked at me questioningly. And then I realized, Oh, that's right, I'm the pianist.

Either I'm so used to accompanying that I don't even think about it anymore, or I'm getting old and senile. Whichever it is, I should probably write a big note to myself before stake conference next week: "I AM ACCOMPANYING THE STAKE CHOIR. BEGIN PLAYING. KEEP PLAYING TILL FINISHED. PLEASE ATTEMPT TO PLAY THE CORRECT NOTES IN THE CORRECT ORDER. AND DON'T FALL ASLEEP DURING THE TALK RIGHT BEFORE THE CHOIR SINGS."

2 comments:

Deborah Raymond said...

This reminds me of my teenage and early parenting years. I wasn't just distracted when it was time to play the organ, but I was constantly exhausted! More than once I have begun playing the wrong song for the congregation to sing. I also have fallen asleep twice in the middle of playing a song. Luckily no one noticed as I kept playing! lol

Cori said...

It reminds me of the time I was playing for the Primary Program and starting playing the intro for a song that was supposed to be a capella. I like to think of it as brain-multi-tasking instead of distractedness. :)