I started to play the harp at the age of 8, and except for a brief teenage rebel break, I have been playing since. Obviously, this started out as a hobby, and evolved to my field of study, to my occupation. Somewhere along the road, I realized that it is actually good to have a hobby, that stays as your hobby. Are you following me?
Growing up, music was my absolute number one interest, number 2 might have been reading, handicrafts or something like that. It took me years of thinking before even coming up with what would be interesting to spend time doing apart from that. My criteria? I wanted something…
1. that included physical exercise (we all have had physical therapists telling us we have to exercise more, haven’t we?)
2. that wasn’t very dangerous or heavy on injuries
3. to balance the very gentle nature of the harp
4. with an interesting history, so that there would be more to learn than just go to a work-out and try my best, and then go home.
I think my sister once mentioned that there was a Japanese form of martial arts, that to her looked like dancing with swords. This sounded like my cup of tea, and I figured out what I think it was that she had seen: iaido. Iaido is an ancient martial arts form, sprung in Medieval Japan and passed on, teacher to student, until present age. You practice pre-set forms performed with a sword, most of the time without any opponent. This has truly become my perfect hobby, and a place where I have met so many good friends, many of them actually very interested in music.
Recently I have also picked up yoga, since my increased time teaching has made me very sore in my back and neck and yoga seems to be unbeatable in building strength and stretching the muscles.
So what is your hobby?
