Once again …

As a musician, I have learned to take the small troublesome passages and work them, until all the friction has smoothed out. To expand from there, start at the beginning of the phrase, until I come to those two bars again, and ideally sail through them as if there was never any effort involved at all. The sticking point might be a missed note, or a lack of breath, or a wobbling pitch. In any case, repetition is the key to success, and to enjoyment. As they say, practice makes perfect.

Oh if only this discipline applied more universally. I could wish to go back and re-work a mistaken moment, an accident, an unkind word, and eventually arrive without interruption where I intended to. “Once again,” I'd say, and the shattered glass would knit together. The hurt would be erased from another's face. The bad decision would be retracted. But time doesn't work like that. It goes forward, and while trying once again is an option, change has had her way.