Guest guest Posted December 10, 2003 Report Share Posted December 10, 2003 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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