Mentors...

"The Little Fiddler" - a Hummel figurine given to me years ago by someone I would have to consider a mentor, at the very least. She has since passed away, but was instrumental in my musical development from the time I was 6 years old until the time of her death.

The sermon I listened to today had to do with mentoring, and with make investments in people rather than things. With passing along what we have learned, and helping others through not only our successes, but also by acknowledging our failures and allowing our survival to be of some positive effect in our world.

As it turned out, the sermon followed an opportunity that had been given me to play a duet obligatto accompanying the church's adult choir. I sing in a choir because I learned to worship by being in children's choirs, and by being given the charge of helping to lead others in worship in that way. My mentor directed those children's choirs for years and years.

I was encouraged on my musical journey by little gifts from my mentor that visually reminded me of the value of what I was doing. I was encouraged every time she asked me to perform something that was a stretch for my comfort zone, every time she showed confidence in me by asking me to teach or solo or sing for a wedding at the last minute. She did this for countless numbers of children, students, and adults, and though she never had children of her own, there were hundreds of people she mentored over the years who would consider her to be like a mother to them. Thinking of her this evening...