ONE of the books that changed my life

As a kid, I have little to show forth. I don't have a lot as my dad would not buy me the toys that I wanted because he was instilling discipline and the value of simplicity. The only thing I had was drawing. But it came to a point that I was going no where with my art work and I would get lost into the crowd of being like everyone else.

But today, one of my repertoire is my musical abilities. By no means I am comparable to a lot of people as I have cut down my involvement with music in the recent few years. At the age of 12, I took piano lessons and went through all those pieces that were supposedly build up my skills but I got bored with and I did not really liked my piano instructor.

But one day my cousin came to stay with me for a period of time and he brought his guitar along and I decided to take it up to play, just to stay away from the piano... which I eventually quit taking lessons. I needed to learn basic chords and I found a book at home with chords in it and I would diligently study and memorize the chords and practiced with it until I could play all the chords like its in the back of my head.

I am not a musician today, I only play for my own leisure but music started a chain reaction in my life to how the way I see my creativity, but also more importantly, it shaped me spiritually as music was one of the biggest influence that drew my attention to God and his calling to be different.

I am thinking to myself... internet was not a huge deal when I was 13. If not for this book that gave me a basis to learn the guitar, a lot of things would not have happened as it is happening today. The book belongs to my mother, who knew she used to learn it but now no longer remembers a single thing about playing... or does she.