In the first weeks of learning to play the violin, my pupils are introduced to what I call the “squiggle”.  It’s proper name is a crotchet rest.  It is friends with the crotchet note.  They have just learnt that blobs and dots with sticks on are notes and that when they see that they must make a sound on their violin.  Now, when they see the “squiggle”, they learn that it is a rest and that they must NOT play.  No matter how young, I quickly explain that the rests are just as important as the notes, and so when they see them, in order to make sure they don’t forget them, they must say “rest” or “shhh”.  We speak about what life would be like if we didn’t have holidays in between the doing and I explain that if music was only notes with no rests, we would simply hear a big noise. The playing of the notes only finds its power when written alongside the rests in the music.

This past weekend, I reflected to a friend that I really struggle to rest or stop until my to do list is done.  It plagues me.  If I have unticked circles, I cannot see the point of stopping to smell the coffee.  I have been struggling, like many, to stop the constant urge to complete everything I need to before I grant myself permission to stop.  It feels like I cannot do the resting until the notes are all played.  My wise friend looked at me and said “add the resting to the to do list”. On the to do list, bullet “read your book for 20 minutes” or “drink coffee and do nothing”. That way the rests fall in between the notes. 

Without them, the notes shouldn’t happen or the music will be too chaotic and your life will become a big noise.

It has been such a simple shift for me and I still haven’t got it right, but over the past few days I have been trying to see what happens if I add the rests in between the notes.  My metaphor was further challenged when I fetched my youngest from school today.  He started chattering away about how fun school was and what they did and why it was more fun than other days.  As we reached the front door he said to me “usually I feel all irritated after first break as I know it is another two hours until second break”.  Imagine if we pegged our life on the rests rather than the notes? I’m not sure it would work or what that Symphony would sound like, but it has given me some more to muse about…