The Uses of Hypocrisy

I wrote the following to Anne at underabell.blogspot, a couple days ago, when she was wondering whether this was a good time to undertake practice:

It's always the wrong time, for all kinds of perfectly good reasons. You just have to practice anyway. Practice when you're not in the mood, practice when you can tell it won't do any good, practice when you don't have the time, practice when you've got no discipline, practice when you're too upset -- tired -- confused -- uninspired -- to practice.

The problem with waiting for a better time is that the only thing that's likely to make better times for it is -- practicing.

It was great advice, I think. I did have the grace, at that point, to be embarrassed by the fact that I was writing that when I hadn't practiced for four days. Embarrassed enough that I went right back to practicing, and I've been practicing daily since.