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Is this a safe space?
Doesn’t matter, I’m saying it anyway:
One of the parts of raising kids that no one warns you about is all of the terrible performances/competitions you’re subjected to. I have three kids. All of them are involved in athletics and the arts. And it gets ROUGH.
I once had to turn to live tweeting high school volleyball games to make it through a season.
I’m not joking:
And don’t get me started on the music recitals. There’s no room for that many terrible renditions of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” on that many instruments in a proper country. This ain’t the dream.
But around a week ago, I had the opportunity to go to my kids’ music recital. And something very strange happened…
I didn’t feel like I was being held captive. I felt captivated.
I watched kids of so many different ages—some were mine, and most were not—stand in front of an audience of mostly perfect strangers and play everything from Beethoven compositions to piano sonatas to jazz numbers on upright basses to Childish Gambino and Bell Biv DeVoe pieces. I saw high schoolers who’d mastered multiple instruments. I saw middle schoolers commit entire Mozart pieces to memory. I saw elementary aged children apply music theory lessons they’d just learned weeks before in live performance.
I saw young creative minds at work. I saw the Image of God being painted in sound waves. I felt my spirit being fed by the youngest stewards of the reign of God.
And I began to realize why no one warned me about all of the kids competitions & performances I’d be subjected to as a dad.
It’s because I wouldn’t have learned to fully appreciate the beauty without knowing what it looked like in infancy when it was still chaotic.
Now I’m grateful for all that stuff I had to sit through before. It helps me see the beauty of creation with more clarity.
That picture that you started with.... it's only wonderful because of the dark clouds (imo). If they werent there, it'd just be a washed out mess of whites and yellows. The dark clouds create that wonder.
And yah, kids events can be both brutal and also amazing.
Thank you for this lovely reflection, reminding us that beauty often finds us in unexpected places. (Glad you included the picture!) 🩵 🕊️