I saw this quote below earlier today and kept thinking about it long after I'd seen it.

"Life is like playing a violin solo in public and learning the instrument as one goes on."

It was said by Samuel Butler in 1895. He was an English novelist.

It strikes me that he is so right.

We are all learning to live our lives. Not just us in Moodscope but every citizen of the globe whether depressed, bipolar, totally free of mental health or physical issues, the physically ill, children, everyone.

We too are putting ourselves out there like the person playing the violin in public who hasn't a clue how to play it.

This picture is the stuff of nightmares (playing or doing anything in public without practice beforehand.)

But we do it every day!

We go out there on a daily basis and do normal things not really having been taught how to do them perfectly so we make mistakes, we mess up, we feel bad about ourselves, we get into difficulties at work, in conversations etc. But so does everyone, not just us who struggle with our health.

We are our own teachers and us in the Moodscope community are very harsh teachers and mark our own selves down with every tiny mistake we make.

So, life is a daily learning process, and no one can ever teach us or anyone how to lead a 100% perfect life, yet still we leave the house each day and subject ourselves to life with a capital L, shouldn't we be proud of our little achievements? Instead of self critical and always urging our inner selves to do better?

I realise blogs have been written before about little achievements but Samuel Butler's quote seemed to me to explain why everyone and especially us should be so pleased about them.

Julia

A Moodscope member