This Story Begins with a Boy Singing in the Shower

This afternoon, while I was upstairs reading, our 13-year-old son came home from basketball practice. He headed to the shower as part of his preparation for his middle school music concert tonight.

Usually, I am not home when he showers in the early mornings; I have already left for work.
From my room this afternoon, I could hear the water running, and him singing: "It's the most wonderful time of the year."    



Indeed, as crooner Andy Williams lyrics suggest, it is a most wonderful time. This is the concert season and our house is full of music - shower singing, trumpet lessons, bass practice. Tonight our younger son sang in his middle school chorus and played trumpet in the middle school band. Tomorrow he will do the same at his school's pep rally. (This photo is of  our son, second from left, goofing with friends at our home before last winter's concert) 

Tomorrow night, his older brother will play upright bass with his chamber-music group at a concert at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Trenton.

I am so grateful our boys are having these encounters with Beauty. Music wakens our souls. Music connects us to the source of our being and to the wonders of the Infinite.

Once again, our boys are teaching me lessons I need to learn. Their music making makes me wonder: how often do I seek to make music? Why, as have I grown older, and busy with the everyday chores and necessities of raising a family, I have forgotten my desire to sing in a choir or play a musical instrument?

These days are serving as my wake-up call to creativity. Music brings me joy and it also is a path to the Infinite, to the One who summoned us into being.

"All the way to Heaven is Heaven,"  St. Catherine of Siena.