December 1

It's here. And I am not ready. For the past two months I have been preparing my choir at church for a very important event. Our Madrigal Dinner. This is huge. SO much work has gone into it-and I am talking an unbelievable amount with the costumes and the banners and the sound and lights and decorating and music preparation and drama preparation and food preparation. This is huge. I know that probably to the outside observer everthing will wonderful and entertaining, but I know there will be problems that I will know about, things I could have done better, things that I just didn't think to do. Bj really put this into perspective for me the other day. He said to really think about how long I have been doing this, (directing a choir) which is actually not that long. In months only seventeen months. Seriously? Only seventeen months. I have been a choir director for only seventeen months. Not my whole life? Nope. It only feels that way because I have worked so hard for so many years to do this. I have spent so much time singing in choirs doing madrigal dinners, singing around the world, singing around my home. I have only done this for seventeen months (more if you count my student teaching...) not even two years. So here is some perspective for me. I know that I will go home tonight examining every flub, every gesture that could have been clearer, and that part that I should have gone over but missed. I know that I will do this because I am still learning, and I hope in twenty, thirty years I will be doing the exact same thing.