Sometimes we get stuck seeing things our way. Would you like to see some things through another set of eyes? Maybe it will make you think and stretch or maybe just chuckle or shed a tear. Here is my world through my eyes...
This evening my wife suggested that we go to the All District Band concert. We had been a few times in the past when our kids had played in it. This year we knew some of the kids playing in it and we decided we wanted to show them our support.
I was pleased to find that Dr. Quincy Hilliard was the conductor of the Symphonic Band. He had conducted one of our children when they played in that top district band a few years ago and I remembered him because they played some of his compositions and one in particular had really touched me.
Tonight he told about a song entitled The Day the Clowns Cried which he wrote after reading an article in USA Today several years ago. The article mentioned a time during WWII when in a little town Ringling Brothers Circus had come. It was 1944 in Hartford Connecticut and the people went to the circus to forget the war and be entertained. The heat of the day was so much that they hosed down the huge tent to try and keep things cool inside. However they used a flammable liquid to water down the tent and a couple of children playing with matches burned the whole thing down. 100+ people died, a third of which were children. Click here to read an article about it.
In the song he starts with the happy music as the circus began but then pandemonium breaks out with the fire and finally a sad dirge as the crying clown exits the tent with a child's body in his arms. Twinkle Twinkle little star is woven through the piece to represent the children that were there. This song really had some emotional power for me today and I thought you might enjoy listening to it as well.
Another song he composed and was played a few years ago is The Unknown Soldier. This one had me flying out of my seat as it finished in applause. Throughout the song I was remembering my father who was a war veteran.
Hope you enjoy them and get some of the feeling from these videos.
I had an experience this past week that really meant a lot to me. It really opened my eyes to what great joy it is when a loved one returns home after a long absence. [It gave me insight into the prodigal son and also maybe what it will be like to cross the veil]. But this situation was not a prodigal returning but rather a hero. I'll let the pictures tell the story. I appreciate my great friends sharing this homecoming with me.
Waiting for family members to return from deployment in Afghanistan. The anxious excitement after not having seen your son, father, brother, Dad or Mom in a year can be almost overwhelming especially for the young ones. Loud celebratory and patriotic music blasts to the crowd. The atmosphere is electric.
Miles trying to work out some of his excitement waiting for Dad.
The band waiting to play for the grand entrance.
The family waits almost patient. The plan gained from past experience is to let Dad come to them in the stands, so they won't get lost in the crush.
Memorabilia abounds throughout the gym.
Tokens of a daughter's yearning for Dad.
Smiles not yet to their fullest wait in nervous excitement.
The moment arrives and they march in neither looking to the left nor the right, but seeing all. The joyful sound of the welcome surely was sweet music to their ears and a great release for all the families.
The last test of discipline, to see your families faces...but not yet allowed to touch them.
Released at last the crush begins.
Families find each other.
And some try to escape to home.
Can't wait for Dad to get to him so he goes to Dad. Let the loving begin, youngest to oldest.
Mom can't wait her turn.
And discipline breaks down and things get out of order.
Finally!
Trudy's biggest smile in about a...year!
Finally Trudy's turn!
A long turn!
Finally back together again!
This reminds me of Alma 27:16-19: "...and behold, this was a joyful meeting. Now the joy of Frederick was so great even that he was full; yea he was swallowed up to the joy of his God, even to the [near] exhausting of his strength...Now was this not exceeding joy? Behold this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly...humble seeker of happiness. Now the joy of Trudy in meeting her husband was truly great, and also the joy of Ayana, of Kyla, and of Miles, but behold their joy was not that to exceed their strength."
It was such a pleasure to be a part of this and see their love for each other. Thanks so much for inviting me to share.
I met with a client today that feels the weight of his problems pretty heavily. He started out telling me what he imagined my thoughts were before he came in for his appointment. He imagines that I take ten minutes prior to our appointment to go over affirmations for myself that I can make it through the hour we will spend together and to remind myself that the time will pass quickly. He imagines that his problems weigh on me as much as they do on him. When I told him that I enjoyed meeting with him and looked forward to our appointments he was unsure whether to believe me or not.
Later in the appointment I think he thought he would throw me a curve ball that I couldn't hit. So he wondered since I had known him for so long and knew him pretty good if I could identify five "accomplishments" in his life. I took on the challenge and surprised him with what I came up with.
As I think about our time today I realize that we all need to feel our lives have been worthwhile and have value to others and ourselves. Sometimes we live so fully in the moment of life and problems that we don't see the bigger picture. Often my job is to see that bigger picture and help my clients see it as well. Help them see how their days piece together into a large beautiful tapestry.
Each of our lives have beautiful patterns and when we can step back and see it from a distance we can appreciate the beauty of it. Too often our daily lives are so close to the weave of the tapestry and daily activities of life that we cannot appreciate that something more than just survival is happening. Certainly our tapestries are all different with different patterns, each with a beauty that requires appreciation. Maybe the appreciation will require some detailed knowledge of our life but the beauty is there for anyone that will take the time to look, including ourselves. When seen and appreciated in this way it is much easier to recognize the accomplishment and fulfillment that life, even a difficult life, can bring.
When the tapestries of our family or our society or our world are all put together the combined view is beautiful as well. So while our individual life might feel of little value in the daily grind, when seen as a whole life or as a family tapestry or a societal flow of life it fills an important place in the world, not as filler but as an integral part of the widening world around us.
After I told him what accomplishments I saw in his life he was calmer and quiet as he considered what I had said. He recognized that what things I highlighted from his life were indeed accomplishments. I started at the more concrete and finished with the more character oriented ones and I think he saw himself differently than he did before. He saw that maybe he did fit into this life and maybe wasn't the foreigner that he felt he was before.
What started with a question that he thought had no answer turned into an answer that helped him to see his valued place in life.
This reminded me of a song by Bette Midler. Maybe you can guess it. Here is a performance of it.
and a second video with pictures that add to the song.
Lyrics of From a Distance by Bette Midler.
From a distance the world looks blue and green,
and the snow-capped mountains white.
From a distance the ocean meets the stream,
and the eagle takes to flight.
From a distance, there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace,
it's the voice of every man.
From a distance we all have enough,
and no one is in need.
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease,
no hungry mouths to feed.
From a distance we are instruments
marching in a common band.
Playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace.
They're the songs of every man.
God is watching us. God is watching us.
God is watching us from a distance.
From a distance you look like my friend,
even though we are at war.
From a distance I just cannot comprehend
what all this fighting is for.
From a distance there is harmony,
and it echoes through the land.
And it's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves,
it's the heart of every man.
It's the hope of hopes, it's the love of loves.
This is the song of every man.
And God is watching us, God is watching us,
God is watching us from a distance.
Oh, God is watching us, God is watching.
God is watching us from a distance
I found myself at work talking to a co-worker and my father came up in conversation. My Dad has been dead for sixteen years. He was a military man having spent 25+ years in the Army.
I told my co-worker that my Dad volunteered to serve in the Army during World War 2. He was married and had two sons another had been born and died at birth. Dad went to war and when he came back his wife felt he had changed so much that she wanted a divorce. So they ended up divorced and his son's of course stayed with their Mom. The older son remembered his Dad and kept in contact with him to some degree through the years. The younger son didn't remember his Dad too much and relied on what his mother said about him and so didn't have any contact with Dad until my Mom invited him to come to my Dad's 70th birthday many years later and he came. He said he probably wouldn't have come except his own son wanted to come to meet his grandfather for the first time.
My Dad told me the story that he was so disgusted with the Army that when WWII was over and he got out of the military that he used his uniform to wipe his feet on on the back porch of the house. Dad worked as an ice man providing ice for people's "ice box" after the war. He went back into the military to go to the Korean conflict and then stayed in after that. He met my Mom and married her with her three children. Then they had me.
When Vietnam came around Dad volunteered to go to war for the third time because he was a true believer in America. At that point in his military career he didn't have to go but wanted to go. I turned 8 while he was gone and in our religion that is a big time. Because my Dad was gone my older brother baptized me a member of the church and Brother Lewis confirmed me. (For those who might remember this is the Brother Lewis who lined up a second time to kiss my wife after we were married!)
In years to come my Dad would talk about the war occasionally but was most comfortable talking to other veteran's. Other than being polite he often didn't have deep or long conversations with other people. When my Mom would have a party at the house (she loves people and having visitors) he would often spend most of the time in his room...unless there was a veteran there in which case he would get in a deep conversation about war and the military.
When the first Gulf War happened and he was an elderly fellow and couldn't get around well but I remember him getting agitated and standing up and saying very animatedly that if they would take him he would go and fight that war too!
My Mom always calls him a warrior and I would have to agree. He felt very strongly about supporting the government's decisions in matters of war. No complaining, second guessing but just ready to line up and do the hard work that had to be done because in his view that is what kept our country free. Maybe he was right and the way we think now (soldiers purposely hurting themselves to get out of Afghanistan, killing themselves to keep from going, going AWOL to avoid it and generally not being willing to do the hard work needed in a war.)
In comparison with my Dad it appears our country has lost something important in it's people as a whole and it may be that what we are missing today is something vital to maintain our freedom. Where do we go from here? Or maybe the better question, Where will we go from here. How can our young men learn patriotic duty from fathers who themselves don't have the devotion needed in something bigger than themselves to sacrifice at war?
