This book is written by Greg Cootsona, a pastor who’s a passionate musician. Incidentally, two identities that I hardly feel any affinity with. But perhaps because this book is written from a lens so refreshingly different from mine, I enjoyed reading it tremendously.

I love how this book dwells on getting close to your soul. “It takes time to feel time” consists of simple words but packs a truth so profound that I suspect it will take me years to unpack its entire meaning. Recently, I said nope to presenting at a conference during teachers’ protected time in June 2024. It wasn’t difficult for me to decline the opportunity. However, given my tendency to embrace novel challenges, I knew very well that this was something that I would value highly in years to come. Nonetheless, when I read that “you can say yes to the luxury of time”, I knew that I had made the right decision. More downtime is good for me to examine the rhythms of my work life and analyse how I roll with the ebb and flow of time. I wrote in my rejection email that I wanted to have a schedule that is “as uncluttered as possible”; I guess listening to my instincts is the best thing to do.

I particularly enjoyed the section about how musicians must practise the fundamentals of their musicality diligently for years so that they hone their skills to a level in which infusing spontaneity is something they inject easily and delightfully. Again, I have a relatable anecdote. So, I stayed back today to crack my brains at the Escape Room activity that we were to organise for students next week. And I tried out Pictory.AI for the first time ever. Basically, I tried not to see it as a chore but instead, as a chance to experiment with all those fancy AI tools out there.

Teaching is a chaotic profession in which you are expected to achieve great things with fractional attention, so I don’t know whether I would always have the mental capacity and emotional bandwidth to invest in upgrading my skills. Sometimes, after finishing all the myriad non-teaching tasks, I just wanna scamper home and take a nap. But I’m reminded that I can only improvise when I have put in the time to master my craft.