For the earliest humans, the absence of vegetation and shortening of days probably felt like the end of the world. Meanwhile, their far more secure descendants scurry to and fro amidst a maelstrom of competing plans, frantically trying to get everything where they need it to be before an arbitrary calendrical eschaton.
Our Christmas commitments have lightened in some ways and become complicated, but not enough to completely distract us from the beauty of the season. Case in point: last Sunday we had two separate cultural engagements, which both turned out to be a delight.
In the morning, Fenya and Austin agreed to sing during our advent service. For a couple with choral music on one side and modern rock sensibilities on the other, they did a fine job together.
It was also very well received, and it took Glory and I quite a while to get out of our aisle while congregants hemmed the performers in, proferring thanks and praise while slipping in requests for future performances.
But we had to expedite our departure, because Glory was due to perform at the Festival of Trees that very afternoon. The dancing was fine but I was actually proudest of Glory for something else.
During their team dance, one of the girls began feeling unwell. Glory asked if she was all right, and her teammate clearly wanted to continue. A moment later though, her knees buckled, and Glory, standing beside her, quickly took her arm and led her offstage almost immediately, the other dancers following closely behind.
It didn't feel immediate to her at the time; in Glory's mind she reeled, wondering if cutting the dance short was the right thing to do, before finally deciding it was. When I showed her the video, she was astonished at how little time actually elapsed between the collapse and her leading the team offstage.
The other dancer is feeling much better now, but wasn't able to make it onstage for the finale. Luckily I had just enough battery life in the camera to catch the performance in its entirety, albeit from a bad angle.
The crowds at the Festival of Trees can be bit much for me, but the array of decorations coupled with lively performances make it a visual treat, for a while at least. It made for a long day in some ways, but having so many opportunities to take pride in my girls made that easy to bear.
No comments:
Post a Comment