the path of life

i mentioned that i'd been invited to play one of my original compositions during offertory at church.  i hadn't played a piano for more than a few minutes in at least two years, and i didn't even have the music with me.  my mom managed to dig up my handwritten original at their place and scanned it for me, and after three days of sitting at the keyboard, on the floor, with headphones on at midnight (a good way to get a back ache =p), squinting at my scribbles, i began to hope it could really be done.  my ears and my fingers remembered more than my eyes, thankfully, and i spent the next seven days hijacking friends' pianos =)

the morning of june 2nd, i found myself doing quite a lot of praying.  i have to confess, foremost in my mind was this lofty petition: 'Lord, please don't let me make a fool of myself!'  ;-)  self-centered, perhaps, but also a prerequisite to what I really wanted, the reason I wrote and performed this music in the first place: to give life to the Scriptures, to give them voice the way a scene materializes in the hands of an illustrator.  you can judge for yourself whether I succeeded to any degree. 

the piece is based on psalm 16:11 - 'you have made known to me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy.'  my dad took this video - you'll have to excuse the jolts and zooms =p.  if you get this by email, you'll need to come to the website to see it.

 

I would not have necessarily chosen 10 weeks after having our third child and two weeks before moving half way across the country to dust off the old fingers, but, hey =)  it was a bit crazy, but I loved every moment and deeply appreciated the privilege.  it meant a lot to me that my parents were both there too.

the rest of the day was special too.  my godmother and her son a and his girlfriend met us at church and we caught up over a leisurely lunch.

the traditional bill-grabbing event ;-)

the girls were really taking advantage of all the arms willing to carry them, can you tell? =p  we already miss being (relatively) close to nai nai and ah gong and grandma #3!