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Absence makes my heart grow even fonder of my fiddle, which is currently in the shop for a long-overdue physical. I really miss it, and can't wait to get it back next week! At this particular moment in my life, it is causing me a little more stress than happiness. I'm dealing with a teacher that isn't a good fit and making plans for transferring to a new school. But I love the violin, and I love music. I can't imagine my life without it. The stress I'm dealing with right now is just a bump in the road. While this week has been stressful (orchestra performance tomorrow, so three rehearsals this week, plus getting prepared for a lesson) it's generally more happiness than stress. Since I'm an amateur and doing this for fun, once it becomes more stress than happiness, it's time to re-assess just what I'm doing. ;-) I get the warm fuzzies. She's my escape vehicle, a slowly unraveling mystery, wonder and delight. A new road.

Carol

Um, both. We have a very tempestuous relationship--I feel like absolute pond scum if I go more than a day without playing, but practicing is still frustrating and difficult. Can't live with it, can't live without it, in other words. Love, love, love - although I'm sure that when I spend another hour on a spiccato aria from "Lakme" that I will want to get divorced... =) Lately if the violin is causing me too much stress, I'll pick up the viola, and vice-versa. Really great question for the weekend poll Laurie! I find that even though the violin can cause a great deal of stress if you are vainly trying to perfect something hard or are simply out of practice, but it is a much more positive kind of stress than that caused by "Normal Life". I find it so relaxing to work through a problem on the violin and it totally takes your mind off other non-musical issues and actually ends up acting as a real stress-buster. Much happiness--much.
I am my own task master. This is a project that I look forward to working on with no end in sight. Lol, Karen, I do the same as you, except instead of picking up the viola, I pick up the tuba! Happiness. It has never failed to reward me with progress when I've practiced it, sometimes in ways I wasn't expecting.

And on any given day, I can at least make one pretty note on it.