Thursday, March 12, 2026
In music, the best practice daily. Too many of my organist colleagues perform recitals out of practice. We are living out of practice, which is to say out of tune or out of shape. Injury can be debilitating for the sedentary, unhealthy, and obese—the stiff. Your body can’t handle a larger wobble of life. Your mind gives out, too. Your spirit has no verve or stretch. Acute pain is a sign of neglect, abuse, overuse, undernourishment, and just being out of practice or out of shape.
The practice of patience, the practice of generosity, the practice of gratitude, the practice of health, the practice of peace, and the practice of a skill are holistic and pliable states of being. Living fully is the maintenance of that softness. If you’re in shape, acute illness is short-lived. If you’re in shape, the downs don’t keep you down. Sharp, lasting pain—psychological, physical, emotional—is a sign of being out of shape.
Practice awareness of body, mind, and heart. Your body, at a deep level, will tell you what it needs. Your spirit, at a deep level, will tell you what it wants. Listen to the urge. The pain tells you what’s tight—the guardrails you have hit. It’s refined living, maintained. Remembering the suppleness of heart and mind is practiced. Life is not supposed to hurt all the time. If it does, something is being suppressed, forced, or squeezed into something that cannot bend.
Life is training, not for the Olympics or an end result. Being in shape is for the sake of being in shape! It’s dialed in, being aware of how quickly “dialed out” creeps up. Practice forever, knowing you can’t “get there.” If you’re in shape, the bends don’t crush you. Life is really not supposed to hurt. If it does, start paying attention to the guardrails you keep hitting. Get some padding or a buffer. That’s what it means to be buff. You’re in shape.