Extraordinary Moments



How often do we have them? I feel a bit charmed… I’ve had my share. I love “moments”. Recently, I’ve had the pleasure of quite a few. One came in the form of the sparkle I saw in the eyes of my MS choirs as they sang at their Christmas Program. It felt a bit magical as they sang and responded to direction with their spirits and their voices. Another came a week later when the wonderful community choir I directed sang their Christmas Concert. The whole concert was great, but their singing of Randall Thompson’s “Alleluia” was really moving. Wow--- I wanted to just stand there and breathe for a bit. Then, last night at our Christmas Eve service, I was carried for just a few moments on the wings of a really great musical set of songs—just beautiful! My spirit sang along with my voice and I was wishing I could capture the experience and somehow relive it later.

The best moment came today, at home with our four year old daughter. This year we decided to buy a trampoline that was safety-netted and allow our bouncy daughter the opportunity to really bounce. She’s been jumping on everything since she learned to stand, and today she jumped until she could bounce no more.

Spent from about 40 minutes of continuous jumping, we lay on the pad with our heads together and looked up into the canopy of leaves above us. The sky was grey and the wind was stirring around us in small gusts. The leaves whispered and sighed in their rustling. “Listen,” I whispered. “Do you hear that?

“Yes,” she whispered back.

“That’s the sound of the wind in the trees. Do you hear it get louder and softer?”

“Yes, it’s beautiful,” she breathed.

There it was—a “moment” with my daughter. She’d proclaimed the sound beautiful. Contented sigh… I love such moments. They’re extraordinary.