TCATS #389 - The Blanket

I'm going to keep it extra real for this blog post. 

There have been three thoughts regarding the Tabernacle Choir that have been going through my head this past week. 

First, we received instruction from our vocal coach, Rebecca Wilberg, to spend the next couple of months trying to get our voices back in shape. She sent some specific exercises to work on, to that end. So, along with singing at Church and singing in the car, I'm going to try and work on those exercises so I feel more ready when we all go back and starting singing as a Choir again.

Second, with the reality of seeing fellow choir members again sometime soon, I thought about the people I've stayed in contact with, the ones I haven't, and how I'll really process choir relationships again. I don't know that I came to any conclusion. It was just a thought--and one that sort of just sits there in my head. 

Third, a therapist I see occasionally helped me work through some frustrations I've had during this long Choir pause these past 15 months. Self-criticism has always been a struggle of mine and I've done plenty of that in trying to process why my emotions have been so difficult to manage. 

Aside from those main three things, people continue to ask me all the time about "choir status". While I still can't completely tell them all the details about the plan to return (I hear that such details might be made public sometime in the next few weeks....hopefully), I can tell them there is a plan and their wait to see live performances again is almost over.

Until next time, God be with you.

TCATS #388 - And the Word Was Good

We received word on Friday that the plan to have us return and start singing again was approved! I can't disclose the date of when we'll start up again or go into any details of the plan until an official press release is made, but I think it'd be safe to say that the return will be sometime this year. 

To say that there was much rejoicing among the choir members, is an understatement. Going back to officially resume our musical missionary callings and to uplift and inspire others is all we've wanted to do for the past many, many months. So to finally have a date on when that's going to happen is exciting indeed. 

The press release that DID come out, though, was regarding the Choir going on tour in 2022. This tour will include the same cities and concert venues that were part of the postponed 2020 tour (and 2021 tour). You can read more about that, HERE.

That's about it. 

To all the fathers out there (and potential fathers), Happy Father's Day! If you haven't seen today's tribute via Music and the Spoken Word, tune in and enjoy...

Until next time, God be with you.

TCATS #387 - Nonplussed

We received a short paragraph in our newsletter Friday that basically told us that we wouldn't unite our voices again until sometime after the summer. There was no explanation as to why it couldn't or wouldn't be sooner--only that getting us all back together is a "complicated process."

Hmmm. 

I think the only thing I can do at this point is side with Thumper.

Until next time, God be with you.

TCATS #386 - To the Depths of Patience

As much of the United States, and more particularly Utah, gets back to living life that almost reflects pre-pandemic times, the members of the Tabernacle Choir are finding out just how much patience they're made of! Friday's newsletter, yet again, contained no information on when we'll be back singing again. And people are going CRAZY. Several choir members took to Facebook to vent just a little steam.  And I've been getting texts from others who are also trying really hard to be patient but are finding it terribly difficult. It's one thing to be patient when you have an explanation. It's entirely another thing when there seemingly isn't any. 

Some quotes from our FB group and from texts:

"Major disappointment"
"Not this week, dang it!"
"It's like Groundhog Day, again and again and again..."
"I'm hanging on with faith and courage"
"I think it will be July or August"
"August/September"
" I just want information! It doesn’t even have to be crazy soon just at least a date or a plan or something!"
"Maybe they originally thought we'd still have restrictions in place this summer so they didn't plan for us coming back so soon"
"I've been so disappointed they haven't been more transparent with 'the plan'"
"What, exactly, are we waiting for?"

The Church has adopted this very calculated, careful, and cautious approach to everything-pandemic.
And apparently they are determined to keep that approach.

Anyway, I think it only fitting at this point to end this week's blog post with three of my favorite quotes on the subject of PATIENCE. These come from the master of words, insight, and meaning... None other than Neal A. Maxwell:

1) “Patience is a willingness, in a sense, to watch the unfolding purposes of God with a sense of wonder and awe, rather than pacing up and down within the cell of our circumstance.”

2) "When we are unduly impatient, we are suggesting that we know what is best—better than does God. Or, at least, we are asserting that our timetable is better than His. We can grow in faith only if we are willing to wait patiently for God's purposes and patterns to unfold in our lives, on His timetable.”

3) "Patience helps us to use, rather than protest, these seeming flat periods of life, becoming filled with quiet wonder over the past and with anticipation for that which may lie ahead, instead of demeaning the particular flatness through which we may be passing at the time.  We should savor even the seemingly ordinary times...".

 

(Read his talk on the subject, here)

Until next time, God be with you,