Learning the cello is like taking a long trip

Master Sheng-Yen, one of the most famous present day Chinese Ch'an ( Zen) Masters:
'Practicing is like going on a long trip; you have to take the first step before you can reach your goal. But after many steps, suddenly you are there. There’s no reaching a distant goal without taking many steps.'

Above, Master Sheng-Yen or Shifu as his students call him, is talking about practicing in the sense of cultivation. We cultivate a garden, we cultivate ourselves in order to be better people, and we cultivate the art of cello playing. Impatience is one of the most common obstacles to mastery of the cello.