The Notes fall in place

As the guitar teacher and Asherel were strumming together, the marmalade cat added his discordant "meow!" He was clearly not musical, being several notes off-key.

The cat had wandered into the backyard studio, and then made himself the object of attention as desperately as he could. He had one mangled ear, healed now but clearly chewed off in some altercation.

"Hi Taylor," said Lenny the teacher, unable to ignore the cat's unmelodious mewing.
"Did he lose his ear in a fight?" I asked.
"Probably," said Lenny, "He is the neighbor's cat and it was that way when we met him. But he does terrorize my cat so I wouldn't doubt it."

The cat climbed into the guitar case, and mewed again, begging me to resume scratching him behind his ears. Asherel strummed and I scratched. And mosquitoes buzzed, having been reincarnated in the suddenly humid warm days of Indian Summer. Lenny smacked one right in mid strum.
"You could at least do that on beat," I said.
"I was never a drummer," he told me.

It was one of those happy little vignettes of life that had arrived by a miraculous confluence of events, engineered, I am convinced, by the Master Engineer. Asherel had won an art contest last year that entitled her to a free art class with Community School of the Arts. (CSA) Since I don't own a pottery wheel, she had signed up for a class that taught Clay-making with the Pottery Wheel. Sadly, the school called me when class was about to begin to tell me that registration had been dismal this year, and the class was canceled. But she offered me to choose another class.

Meanwhile, Asherel and I were attempting to learn how to play guitar together. I play a little, enough to get us started, and we had been slowly working our way through basic chords. Asherel still laughed every time we played the Beatles song, "Rain", not convinced that my rather sorry singing and playing was optimal. However, we are maxed out on funds for extracurricular activities, and while not ideal, I could teach guitar, at least as well as I teach Algebra 2.

"There are no other art classes she is interested in," I told the CSA representiative, " I am an artist myself and have taught her or can teach all the other areas you offer in art."
"How about a music class?" she asked.
"Do you have guitar lessons?"
"Yes, but he teaches out of his home, not here."
She gave me the address. It was 5 minutes from me.  A free semester of guitar lessons and 5 minutes away.

So it didn't even matter if we didn't like Lenny- he was free and close by, and he couldn't be worse than me in teaching guitar. But lo and behold, Lenny is a stupendous guitarist and a gentle and a kind man that knows Beatles songs by heart! When he heard Asherel was a Beatle groupie, he immediately taught her a song to practice. And while she picks out the tune laborious note by laborious note, he is so skillful that he can accompany her and it sounds like a concert.

So the cat and I, sitting in the waning afternoon sun streaming in the open studio door along with the mosquitoes listened .  Some people might only have heard stumbling plucking strings and soft accompanying chords, but I heard the hand of God arranging every note of a precious life.

Jeremiah 1:5 (New International Version)

 ⁵ "Before I formed you in the womb I knew  you,
       before you were born I set you apart;