Amaryllis, a love story

About a month ago I looked at the plant in an old cracked pot. It had ugly yellow leaves that I cut away. I’d never done that before, but figured I had nothing to lose, it looked terrible. Weeks passed, I thought I’d killed it and then, one morning there were two shoots coming up out of the pot. As you see by the picture, our Amaryllis is more beautiful than ever. She was a Christmas gift from my mother in law many years ago. It came with a little pot, a bag of dirt and a bulb. I planted it and it grew into a lovely green plant. It died and I thought, wow, false advertising. The box had this beautiful flower that never materialized. I didn’t throw it out and it sat on a shelf for months and months. You know how that is, it becomes part of the decor and you don’t even see it anymore, kind of like that last Christmas decoration that you missed in the New Year’s Christmas purge. Anyway, one day I looked and saw it again. I threw a little water on it and forgot about it again. A few months later I had a healthy plant and my first bloom. My lesson learned was never give up on a plant.

Obviously, I have an observation about music students from this story. A long time ago I taught public school music during the day, and drove to people’s houses to teach piano lessons in the afternoon. (a very inefficient way to teach music, but it was nice going to people’s homes for the newly minted Texan from California). I had a student that seemed to have no talent. We’d worked and worked and I saw no results. I was ready to tell the parents to save their money, when one week I gave him a piece by Bach. Zap, his brain turned on and he was playing like crazy. He started a band at school and wrote arrangements for them. He was a double major: computers and music at Trinity. Got a Fulbright Scholarship to study music in Java. He teaches music at a college in California. I always think of this student when I am ready to give up on a student.

This Sunday is the All School Concert. We’ve practiced and practiced and I have to admit, maybe almost lost confidence that we’d learn our songs in time. But this Sunday you’ll see how bright and glorious our musical garden is. We can’t wait to share our music with you.