I'm working on my guitar skills for the show and tell. I am trying to learn a fun song everyone will enjoy... seems like my favorite songs are kind of old and moody. Also, I'm trying to up my strumming game. I have only been down strumming but today decided it was time to upgrade to alternate strumming with a pick. It sounds pretty rough. I'm not sure I'll have it polished by the first week of May.
Thinking about hope in relation to my occupation is an interesting one. I think I carry this bias that hope is most meaningful to those in the most dire of straits. The examples given in the paper are those recovering from severe depression, a CVA, and a very invasive orthopedic procedure as well as adjusting to life in a new country. Those are all life events that really make you question your drive to move on. My hope in life wasn't challenged by this occupation or lack of learning the occupation. I didn't pick up this occupation to overcome something and my hope is tied up more in other occupations in my life that correlate more with my identity or the roles I play in life (like graduating school, teaching my children well, finding vitality in my body which is easily overrun and stressed). When I face set backs in those larger goals, yes, my hope is challenged. In playing the guitar, it's not life or death, if I don't continue with this it wouldn't greatly affect my self-esteem or self-concept like not graduating school. Some occupations are just more meaningful than others and playing the guitar is an occupation of leisure, not an ADL, IADL, social participation, education or work. Maybe that is saying I don't value occupations of leisure as much as other occupations. That being said, if playing the guitar initiated flow or was tied tightly to my identity, then loss of the occupation would really challenge my hope and I would have to dig deep to restore the emotional, cognitive and spiritual aspects of hope.
If my occupation and I were a movie, I think it would be a cheesy love story about two people that were around each other lots and were platonic for a long time, maybe just a little flirty until they finalized realized how much fun they had and that life was better together. I chose this analogy because it took a while for me to appreciate the guitar. Also, I guess I see having a life partner and playing the guitar as not 100% necessary for survival but that they both make life more enjoyable in a deep soul-filling way. Furthermore, both relationships and playing the guitar take some work and a bit of investment.
dibs!
ReplyDeleteLiz!
ReplyDeleteYour movie analogy made me really happy! :) Super clever way to put your relationship with the guitar into a movie plot! So I kind of felt the same way with hope in my occupation because I too see hope tied to having to overcome some sort of difficult time. However, I did relate the concept back to how I hope this occupation of yoga would brings me closer and more mindful of my spirituality. Do you maybe relate to finding hope in that sort of aspect? That maybe guitar will bring you closer to your love for music and you'll find a more spiritual aspect of hope? Or do you think that you'll get to a point where guitar becomes a more meaningful occupation to you and therefore you would be able to tie the concept of hope more easily to it as you stated above?
Ha, as I look back at this, I think I was being pessimistic that day because today I'm writing about hope in my final synthesis paper and writing that I do believe I can relate hope to my new occupation. I decided yesterday, as I was listening to a podcast about finding one's voice, that playing the guitar and singing does connect to my spiritual aspect of hope. Whenever I sing and make noise, I feel like it's slowly healing this old wound I've carried for years and years that my ideas shouldn't be voiced or that I should stay quiet. That my emotions, whether good or bad, should be kept to myself. And that's heavy stuff. That's spiritual hope for my value has a human being on this planet. So yeah, this occupation is kind of hopeful. :)
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