Talking Horses and The Like

"After that I shut my eyes and my teeth and prepared to drive the dagger into my heart. But before I had done so, this mare spoke with the voice of one of the daughter's of men and said, 'O my mistress, do not by any means destroy yourself, for if you live you may yet have good fortune but all the dead are dead alike'."

"I didn't say it half so well as that," muttered the mare.

-C.S. Lewis, The Horse and His Boy


After attempting to play some insensible piano accompaniment parts by someone called Josef Matej, I've been quite suddenly inspired to pick up the piano where I left it off 9 years ago. Never, in my wildest dreams when I was younger, would I have imagined voluntarily putting myself through the torture of another piano exam... but now, it just seems so different... It's like being forced to eat brocolli when you were a kid- you'd kicked, screamed and threatened to starve- but years later you find yourself looking for it in the supermarket because you've grown to enjoy its taste and you know that it's good for you.