Seagulls
Jekyll Island, Georgia 2007
"Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up."
In high school, I fooled my friends into believing I could sing alto so I could hang out with them. They were talented singers, so all I had to do was stand between strong altos like Patty and Valerie, and I could stay in pitch.
Terry was our pianist and Leigh our musical director. Becky, Faith, and Mia sang soprano. We were a girls' ensemble from 9th to 12th grades.
One time we sang Christmas carols at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park before the start of Oliver. The musical was sold-out, but we got to watch it for free from the back row of the theater just for singing carols.
However, we were more excited about our debut performance on radio at the Tri-County Mall. We were to show up on a Saturday morning, be taped, and then go home and listen to ourselves on the radio. We had told everyone we knew when we would be on the radio. We practiced for several weeks for our "breakout" performance when Hollywood would discover us.
We showed up at the mall, Terry took her place at the piano, and we began to sing, "’Twas the Night Before Christmas," which lasts about three days. Well, not really, but it seemed like it that morning.
The problem was the acoustics in the mall were horrible. None of us could hear the other to stay on pitch or tempo. Terry did her best to help us, but the piano arrangement didn't lend itself to help the singers. It had a life of its own.
We were all over the place, but when the performance was over, we assured ourselves we didn't sound too bad. Hollywood would call us by next week.
However, when we listened to ourselves on the radio, we heard something else. All our grandiose ideas about how good we were went flying off the rooftop with Santa's sleigh.
Needless to say, none of us were discovered by Hollywood scouts.
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Dear Lord, help me remain humble and remember where my true gifts lie.
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