Adventures at Rasa Ranch #147

[Guest guest]

12/10/03

 

Tomorrow night is the annual Christmas concert for Ananda's school.

For this purpose, over the last month or so, she and her classmates

have been preparing some songs to sing. To be perfectly honest, Jim

and I had been less than excited about this upcoming performance. It

seemed our daughter had inherited both her parents' tendency toward

shyness on stage and, frankly, it made us a little squirmy ourselves

when we watched her.

 

Since it didn't matter to us one way or the other, her dad and I

decided to leave it up to her whether or not we were to attend. This

morning I put it to her by asking her what she would rather do: have

our traditional homemade pizza and Survivor night, or sing with her

friends at the Christmas concert. She crinkled up her face, sticking

her lip out and tapping on her temple. "That's too hawd," she said,

and then she started to get teary and said, "That's way too hawd." I

jumped in with "okay, okay," gently and quickly, in order to relieve

the tension I was surprised to find in her. "I was only curious,

sweetie. You don't have to choose." This brought her immediate

relief and Jim and I gave each other a nod that said, "We're on." We

knew we could always record our show and do pizza the next night.

 

This afternoon I was seated on the bathroom floor and as she was

standing beside me waiting for her tub to fill up, I reached my arm

around her waist and pulled her onto my lap, making her giggle.

"Hey, I want to ask you something," I said. "What?" she asked.

"Well, it's about this concert coming up," I began, "What do you

think is the most important part of your job, singing?"

 

"To make it sound as beautiful as we can," she answered. "That's a

good answer! And what do you think it is that makes the music

beautiful?" She smiled like she knew, and then she proved it,

saying, "Love!"

 

"You are exactly right, sweetheart!" I said, so proud (!) and

tickling her and kissing her. "Some people think it's the notes and

some think it's the words, but we know the secret, don't we?" She

agreed. "When you put all your love into the music, hon, it's like

you're giving it to everybody who is there." She nodded, saying that

that's what she was going to do tomorrow night, and for the very first

time I really wanted to go. I told her I just couldn't wait to watch

her sing at the concert.