Spring break 2026 was supposed to be simple.

Sun, sea breezes, new flavors, cobblestone walks, hikes, bikes, kayaks, seafood… all of it.

It was also a long-awaited trip for my 81-year-old father.

Everything looked like it was going smoothly. TSA was easy, passport control was smooth, the flight landed without issue.

It felt like one of those rare trips where everything just works.

The plan was clear:
UNESCO sites, perfect light, pastel de nata, beautiful hotels, long walks through gardens and beaches.

But travel rarely follows the plan.

What actually happened started with a misstep outside the Uber. My father fell on the cobblestones.

He brushed it off, so we continued to the hotel.

“Bom dia. We have a reservation under Chen, please.”

“Oh… I’m sorry. Your reservation was never confirmed. We tried to reach you, but the message didn’t go through.”

At the same time, his elbow started swelling.

We didn’t have a hotel room.

This is the moment the mind tries to take over:
We should have booked directly. We should have seen that step. We should go home. We should never have come.

But we didn’t.

We scrambled, found a new hotel, and spent the next four hours at Hospital da Luz getting an X-ray.

The diagnosis was reassuring. We adjusted everything around rest and mobility, and kept going.

Not the trip we planned—but the trip we were actually in.

And something shifted.

We slowed down. Coffee stops became longer. We started noticing more instead of rushing between plans.

We took in coastal drives, seafood stops, and quiet moments by the ocean.

The hotel in Lagos ended up sitting above the cliffs of Ponta da Piedade. We could step outside and smell the sea air.

By the end of the week, the weather was perfect every day.

One of my favorite moments was eating passionfruit popsicles near Monsaraz castle, completely unhurried.

Because things had gone sideways, we were finally just there.

And I keep thinking—this is exactly what happens in a music career.

Not just one thing going wrong.

But things stacking:

• audition rejection during a difficult personal season
• financial stress layered onto teaching overload
• momentum interrupted by a pandemic
• injury on top of uncertainty

Resilience isn’t what you do when one clean problem appears.

It’s what you do when multiple things break at once—and life still keeps moving.

When things don’t go as planned, you get a choice:

Let the chaos define the experience.

Or adjust, stay present, and find what’s still here.

The cobblestones in Lisbon are still there.

The question was never whether something would go wrong.

It’s what you do on day two.

Where in your musical life are you still clinging to the plan instead of living the reality in front of you?

With you,
Ixi

📝 P.S.

If you’re in your own “broken elbow moment” and just need space to think out loud, I have a few 30-minute calls open this month.

No charge. No agenda. Just space.

Reply here and we’ll set it up.

The Practice with Purpose framework is $99 for 2 6-month planners! It includes:

• the complete framework ($37 system)
• your 2 physical planners included (a $80 value, shipped to your door)
• training modules and ongoing resources

A system built on alignment, connection and flow.