Yep.  I play the bagpipes. The story of how it all came about is recorded in a small, green book I made… 

With St. Patrick’s day right around the corner, I thought I’d snap a few pictures and share this story with you…

  One day, in early summer of 2003,  I was driving my daughter home from ballet class.  I was scanning the radio stations when I heard it. 

Bagpipe music. 

Haunting.

 Mysterious.

 Uniquely beautiful.

  I LOVED that sound!

I had always wanted to learn more about the bagpipes! Right then and there I decided to seize the day!

At this time, my mother was in the final weeks of her life.  Her untreatable condition continually reminded me of the brevity of life.  She wasn’t even 50.

As I watched her fade day after day, I realized that NOW was the time to pursue this dream…Carpe Diem!

By the way, my mom happened to think bagpipes were pretty awesome, too.

I had no idea how to go about this!  I had more questions than answers.

This strip of paper pulls out to reveal the major questions that were running through my mind at the time.

The card with the picture of the bagpipes pulls out of the pocket and has some writing on the back.  It was true, I had never actually seen bagpipes before and wasn’t sure exactly what they looked like.

I got some funny looks from some folks when I told them that I wanted to pursue this dream, but I was determined not to give up!  The card with the shamrocks opens and asks the question I was asking over and over…

This page folds out to show maps of Scotland and Ireland.  My initial research informed me that the Great Highland Bagpipes (the ones I wanted to play) were from Scotland, not Ireland. 

I began to read all the information I could find about bagpipes and became more and more excited!

I looked up some family history at this time, too, and marked the area that my father’s ancestors were from.  Not too far from Scotland 🙂

Now that I had learned more about the instrument and it’s history, it was time to make some phone calls!  Stay tuned for Part 2 of my adventures in learning to play the bagpipes!