Is anybody else ready for April to be over?

I am.

And so, evidently, is the forlorn-looking puppy staring out from this calendar, hanging in the West Ridge Nursing Home room of our friend Henrietta Welch.

Between the terrible tragedy at the Boston Marathon, the hospitalization of several different friends, Income Tax Day (once again, we owe a four-digit amount of money), some frustrations at work, a relentless time crunch (typical for this part of the school year but still exhausting),  and these never-ending rains, April just keeps serving up pain laced with unpleasantness for Kathy and me- and for just about everyone we know.

And yet, even as the water rises and the news headlines worsen,   there are still signs of hope and goodness  and grace, even in the midst of awfulness.  In the wake of the tragic, senseless bombing of the Boston Marathon, one of the most beautiful messages passed around Facebook and other social media was this thought from the late Fred Rogers:  When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me “look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers- so many caring people in this world.   That  may sound like the simplest of observations, but isn’t it absolutely true?  I think many of us found tremendous comfort and encouragement in the heroism and selflessness demonstrated by so many people in Boston, just as we did in the wake of the attacks on 9-11, Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy, the Sandy Hook shooting, and on and on.  Isn’t it interesting how it’s in life’s darkest moments that light shines most luminously?

Of course, the tragedy in Boston also makes just about any April complaint seem pathetically paltry by comparison… but the lesson is the same.  Look for the Light.

Some of the glints of light I’ve appreciated as of late . . .

  • We had a concert at Carthage last Saturday night that featured our choral groups and Wind Orchestra.   My Chamber Singers sang two pieces,  including the Kyrie from my Short Requiem, which I wrote for Derek Machan and the choirs of Waterford High School.   I was a little nervous coming into the concert,  since we hadn’t managed to sing the piece in Siebert Chapel up on the risers – nor had we rehearsed it as much I would have liked.  But the men and women of Chambies came through with a lovely and expressive performance that pleased me very much.  But what really topped off the evening for me was when one of my voice students made a point of finding me afterwards to tell me how much he appreciated the Kyrie- and especially how the music has the quality of urgent pleading, unlike a lot of other settings of the Kyrie which sound a lot more placid.  I’m not relating the story to pat myself on the back,  but just to say how much I deeply appreciated John’s thoughtful compliment about my piece.  It was clear that he had really listened to it closely and reflected on it with some care.  And I’m positive that he has no idea how much that meant to me.  What a gift we give to someone when we give them the gift of our undivided, respectful, thoughtful attention.
  • We have had a turbulent semester with Music Theater/  Opera Workshop. The plan – which was promising – was to combine the MT and opera students in a program which would alternate between the two worlds…. Bernstein’s West Side Story paired with Gounod’s Romeo & Juliet . . .  Rent with La Boheme . . .  Elton John’s Aida with Verdi’s Aida . . . you get the idea.  But it’s been so hard to keep the oars in the water, with so many students – such a complicated program – and three different teachers trying to keep it all straight.   (Honestly, it makes mounting Donizetti’s “Elixir of Love” in a month feel like a piece of cake by comparison!)  But today, as I spent the hour coaching one singer after another,  I found my frustration giving way to hope and even joy.   Almost every singer I listened to today was in much better shape than the last time I heard them  (nothing could have been more gratifying than to hear progress) plus a couple of numbers are already sounding spectacular.  We still have a long, long way to go – but I left workshop today with a real smile on my face,  feeling incredibly thankful- and greatly relieved.
  • “The Morning Show,” the interview program I host every weekday morning on WGTD,  has been a really important venture for me for a long time,  but during this exceptionally busy school year,  there have been times when I found my enthusiasm for it flagging just a bit.   I don’t mean to imply that I was tempted to quit or feeling any significant sort of unhappiness.  It’s just that it was beginning to feel a little bit stale, after so many years.   But then several weeks ago came news that left me absolutely staggered-  the Morning Show has won an award from the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association.  A Morning Show entry had been submitted each of the last four years,  but instead of cheers and applause,  all we ever heard from the WBA was the sound of crickets chirping in the silence.   But this year was the breakthrough, and it probably has a lot to do with the particular program we submitted to them:  an interview with a local woman, Jamie Johnson, and her husband Mike- who co-own a cleaning business.  Right after Hurricane Sandy struck the Pacific Northeast with such ferocity,  Mike headed there to be part of the cleanup effort, while Jamie kept the business rolling back here.   The interview that we did (with Jamie in the studio and Mike on the telephone from New England) was not only the story of that massive cleanup, but also the very personal story of how they and their two young sons were coping with this extended separation.   I suspect that it was that human touch that the folks at the WBA appreciated more than anything- and the voice mail message I got from WGTD general manager Dave Cole telling me about the award has to be one of the most thrilling moments of my long tenure at the station.  And then, on top of that,  within the last ten days I’ve had the great honor of interviewing singer Michael Feinstein and TV chef Curtis Stone (“The Take Home Chef”/ “Top Chef Masters”) . . . and needless to say,  I feel as excited and energized about the Morning Show as I have ever been.

The rain keeps falling, it’s true, and life seems to get busier. During this upcoming weekend, I’ll be playing for Large Group Music Contest and three different student recitals at Carthage, while Kathy chases around to various meetings and performances…. which means that we’ll see each other for Saturday breakfast, Sunday morning church,  and for a few fleeting moments as we each collapse into bed each night, and that’s it.  Arrrgh!   But somewhere amidst the April Showers are May Flowers just waiting for a chance to bloom-  and even when life is tougher than we want it to be,  there are graces along the way that we simply must savor and cherish.   I’m suddenly thinking of a couple of lines from a song I wrote many years ago called “Everything can Change,”  written in memory of Dan Bednar.

Tonight take a moment to ponder,
in all their amazing wonder,
the Blooms of Blessing God has planted
that we so often take for granted . . .
blooms we trample beneath our hurrying feet. . .
blooms that were meant to make our lives complete
and O so sweet!

In a month like this one,  it’s very easy to miss the blooms- but they’re there.  They’re in the songs we sing and the songs we get to listen to …. in the great conversations we have …. in the lessons we learn  …. and in the challenges we confront and surmount,  in the midst of April with its ceaseless rains.