Whenever I find myself dealing with a challenging situation, I pause. I weigh my options, and try to decide how best to proceed. Every now and then, I simply surrender. By surrender, I don’t mean give up. What I mean, is I accept the fact that there are forces greater than myself at work, and that I might be making a simple situation more complicated than it needs to be. I learned this when I started teaching myself to play the guitar.

I’d sit with Johnny D, my Johnson acoustic, in my lap fumbling over the strings and doing my best to play chords, and failing miserably. I decided to put guitar playing aside for awhile, and didn’t try again for a year or so. I bought my first electric: a Fender Starcaster I named Jack, and was determined to try again. I even went to a professional guitarist for lessons. I took a few lessons (I could only afford a FEW), then tried to teach myself. I could play a few chords, but struggled to get through a song. Then, one day, it happened.

I surrendered. I took a deep breath, and told myself, what I was doing wasn’t that damn complicated. I’m an intelligent person, who learned to drive a car, had a command of the English language and had used my skills to write, illustrate a publish several books. So, there was no reason why I couldn’t play the guitar. I literally looked at Jack, and said out loud, “I’m turning over my control, to you. To you, and the universe.” Then I started playing, and got through My Chemical Romance’s “Desert Song”, without messing it up.

I’m not the world’s greatest guitarist, but I’m not the worst, either.  Over the past few years, my skills have greatly improved. I’ve taught myself 20 chords, and I want to learn more.  The simple act of surrendering, really helped me. There are things in life we cannot change or control, and once we accept that, things become so much easier.