I think I am a lot like Moe lately. My work has been incredibly stressful lately - easily the most stressful 9 months out of 24 years in my career. It just leaves me physically, mentally, and emotionally spent and it really does impact my practice. I still relish and look forward to spending some time with fingers on strings most days, but I don't have the energy to get as much out of it as I could.

The project that has been causing this misery is wrapping up in the next couple of weeks, and I will be changing roles and moving into an entirely different line of business at my company. It will be a new set of problems, of course, but a welcome change and I have talked to a number of people who have been on my new team for a few years and the stress level is much lower. My mental and physical health will benefit, and I think my guitar time will become more productive again.

Meanwhile I am treading water. Playing enough to prevent regressing but not enough to really advance. That bothered me intensely for awhile and you guys saw me talking about how stuck I was and how frustrated I was about the lack of advancement. I'd love to be advancing rapidly but have accepted that things are what they are right now and honestly I have been just battling to get through days sometimes so guitar has had to be more of a comforting habit than a serious endeavor. Hearing me play does not bring comfort or solace to anyone else in the house, but just feeling the strings, smelling the wood, etc. for 15 - 30 minutes a day really helps me.

I believe as I transition into a less stressful role at work I will recover some of my energy and enthusiasm.

So, we're talking about how long it takes to learn and the point here for me is that for many of us "real life" can make the journey more challenging. In my younger years, I know that I would have just put the guitar away and forgotten about it. At this point in my life I think I have learned to be more patient and more committed to achieving the personal satisfaction of learning to play music. So, how long will it take before I can play guitar? You guys know my answer. It takes as long as it takes.