That Moment When...

That moment when....you cry at the sound of "O What A Beautiful Morning" being sung on the radio.

There I was in the parking lot of my grocery store, losing it to one of the most cheerful ballads Rodgers and Hammerstein ever composed.  It's been 9 years this week since my father passed away and Oklahoma! was a favorite musical of his.  It's the last play they saw as a family on Broadway before he, his parents, and five siblings moved away from their childhood home on Long Island and headed westward.  My father was not a bashful singer and he would break out into this song often on Saturday or holiday mornings -- whenever the mood struck him or if Mother Nature was showing off so the sentiment readily applied.  Fortunately, he was a good singer as well  -- not formally trained, but possessing a robust tone and perfect pitch to boot. Whatever he did, including singing, he performed whole-heartedly -- singing from his toes through his chest and out of a jolly rounded mouth:  the BYU cougar fight song, When It's Springtime in the Rockies, Shortin' Bread, There Was a Desperado,and... "O What a Beautiful Morning."  

The singer on the radio stopped and began advertising the current production of Oklahoma! at our local outdoor theater. So what did I do?  Dried my tears and convinced my husband to go.  A few days later, we were sitting on a rocky hillside under the branches of ancient oak trees while the stars were teasing their way into the night sky.  The opening strains were great -- worth the lumpy seating conditions. The play actually went downhill from there, but still all in all we enjoyed a pleasant date night.  After the last curtain call, I was grateful for the echo of my father's fortissimo singing.  The memory made me want to dig deeper to muster a little more enthusiasm.  I vowed to live a little larger even while doing the small things like Saturday morning chores or waking the boys up to brush their teeth.  Too bad for my children that my voice doesn't sound anything like Shirley Jones.

"As we engage in the work of the Lord, He will increase our capacity as we increase our desire."  

--L.Tom Perry