At The Closing of the Year

If I cannot bring you comfort
then at least I bring you hope
for nothing is more precious
than the time we have and so
we all must learn from small misfortune
count the blessings that are real
let the bells ring out for

at the closing of the year Christmas
let the bells ring out for Christmas

at the closing of the year

Last night was the last caroling engagement for my advanced choir. 40 kids on a crowded little So. Cal island community. The one person whose absence weighed on me was one of my senior sopranos - she had been out for all of the winter season for health reasons (and when I say "health reasons" I mean a combination of pneumonia and concern over possible heart condition) She kept e-mailing me and apologizing for missing so many events, including the winter concert. I kept telling her that she needs to take care of herself, and not worry about us so much.

At the same time, I also know that it killed her not to be able to perform with us. Caroling is half the reason these kids are in the advanced choir to begin with. And this particular kid - a good Christian girl with an off-the-scale level of congeniality, sympathy and compassion... well, it was a severe disappointment not to be there with us.

That's why I decided that if she could not help us bring holiday cheer to the masses, we'd have to bring some to her.

I called her parents and asked if it was okay that we came by the house on our way down to the island and drop off a few goodies. They gave us the thumbs up, so we assembled about a third of the group outside her house, and surprised her with a chorus of "O Come All Ye Faithful" - a bouquet of flowers, a couple of gift cards, and a little something from Build-A-Bear. We just about put her in tears.

If we sang no where else this year, this one tiny performance would have been enough.

Happy Holidays, everyone.