9.04.2009

One Year Ago

September 5, 2008
Our Sound Foundation "team" with whom we did everything.
We’ve all been there: you wake up one morning, go about your routine, and are in the middle of brushing your teeth when the thought jumps out like a mischievous brother from behind a door. “What was I doing a year ago today?” Your mind rewinds past a Christmas, a birthday, a year of growth, and a lot of maturing and then pauses on a memory that occurred exactly 365 days ago. That’s what I’ll be doing tomorrow. No, I won’t be looking back to a world event or an amazing discovery. I’ll be reminiscing instead about my last day at Sound Foundations—a music course—in Indianapolis, Indiana. For three weeks that stretched like an eternity for a girl who was away from her much-loved family but that moved much too quickly for a girl who was making lifelong friends, Mikaela and I were with 57 other homeschooled, Christian young people learning how best to glorify God with our music.

I got to experience conducting an orchestra!
We crammed for theory tests on harmonic analysis, watched and listened to an elderly man sing the Psalms with his beautiful white-haired wife, and arranged a hymn for our orchestra. We even survived piano master classes with a Russian pianist with plenty of skill but just no tact!
Mikaela's looking quite proficient!
We had fun, too—like when the elevator door slowly opened to reveal a huge overstuffed armchair elegantly placed in the center of the small space. And speaking of elevators, the button to the boy’s floor didn’t always work so swell—but they discovered a way to help it along: you had to stand on one foot with your tongue hanging out and sing the Hallelujah Chorus. Right! We got amazing packages from our family and friends back at home, and we were notified about them by a little piece of paper that proclaimed “O Happy Day! You have a package!” Whereupon we skedaddled to the office to pick it up, to the envy of the others! (-: We learned what it sounded like to sing “He Is King,” “As a Deer,” and “The Smile Song” all at the same time in different parts of the bus on the way to church: a fun sort of cacophony! We also realized what it is like to endure fourteen days without rain, and some of the girls even went out and had a water fight when a downpour finally came.

An object lesson from which we never quite recovered!


We could not have known it at the time, but that was the last Sound Foundations that would ever be held. Nevertheless, when the final note of our last choir song “Fairest Lord Jesus” died out at our concert, we all felt bewildered that it was over already, and the only thing we could do was look around at each other, hug, and say “good-bye” a million times over.

We made many friends!

From those three weeks I learned to worship God in a precious way I had never been able to do before; I grew by fellowshipping with girls who, amazingly, lived just as “counter-culturally” as myself; I learned how little sleep I could survive on; I learned and was inspired by the challenge learned that it is up to us to push forward a revival of God-honoring Christian music for the next generations.
In honor of my sentimentality, I am calling all Sound Foundations alumni (even if you went a different year!) to come out of the dark and comment! What have you done since Sound Foundations? What is your favorite memory? For the rest of you, what were you doing a year ago today?
As for me…Sound Foundations was a year ago, and when was the last time I actually took up the challenge, used what I learned, and stood for God-glorifying music? Um…oh yeah—yesterday.



8 comments:

  1. Enjoyed your post, Lauren. I don't remember what I was doing a year ago, but I believe it is good to reflect on whether or not one has changed in a year and how. It is amazing how time flies! Reflection is good so we don't get too caught up in the busyness of the present. : )

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  2. Hi Lauren! Thanks for posting this! I can't believe that it has already been a Year since our Sound Foundations! it was SUCH a Blessing to have you and Mikaela on the same team as Nicole and I! I miss you all! btw, can I get some of your pictures from sf? looks like you have a few that I didn't get ;) Look forward to hearing from you! sorry for not being good about staying in touch! =)

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  3. Thank for bringing back some very fond SF memories! I agree with Kristen- I can't believe it has been a whole year either! Becky and I love reminicing about the wonderful times we had during those three weeks. I learned so very much and made such great friends! I enjoy keeping up with what you are up to on your blog... Keep pressing on! God bless you!

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  4. One year ago today I was getting ready to fly to England! It is so fun to remember the places the Lord has sent us...
    Your post did make me miss SF and all the dear friends made. I need to go look at pix. :)

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  5. Thanks for all your lovely comments!
    Ruthie--it's sad, but most of the time I don't even remember significant anniversaries! But you're right--it is good to look back and trace your path of growth! I so appreciate your encouragement and example of maturity!
    It is great to hear from you, Kristen! I enjoyed getting to know you as well, and I will try to send you an e-mail of some of our pictures very soon! And as for keeping in touch--I haven't been too awesome at it either!
    Jenny-thanks for your encouragement! I definitely count you and Rebecca as some of my dear friends made at SF! I'm glad you're enjoying the blog!
    Sarah--how weird--I hadn't remembered that England was this time last year, but I guess it was! Yes, a sappy slide show with "The Call" in the background should do the trick!(-;

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  6. I have been thinking recently that the one year mark was coming up, but I missed it! It was a fun, stressful three weeks wasn't it? I can't narrow it down to a single favorite memory, so will memories do?

    The head under the box... no, I still have not recovered either.

    The "privilage" of playing "Hayden's Friend's Wife", and having to take the detached head.

    Singing with all my might every morning.

    The tremendous pleasure of dropping our orchestration in the box.

    Mrs. Knight taking me kindly under her wing, and helping me understand theory.


    My least favorite memories:
    Being sick, and those awful recorders.

    Norah

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  7. Norah--it's so great to hear from you!
    Thanks for your wonderful memories--I still remember you playing Haydn's friend's wife as well, but I had forgotten that you were sick. )-:
    I miss you and hope things are going well for you!

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  8. Oh my. Thanks for telling me about this post! What a great time we had... and we learned so much too! SoundFound prepared me so well for college (I'm a sophomore Piano Performance major at Houston Baptist University) and gave me the strong, scriptural foundation for my love of music that I needed.
    Your way of describing Dr. Shklar (is that how you spell it?) is just perfect! :D And no, I guess I still haven't recovered from that object lesson yet, either... because I still laughed when I saw it (and am still smiling now). And those singing times in the bus were one of my favorite memories!

    The entire experience handed me such a great treasure: the keys to God-glorifying music. There is such power in that! I wonder, too, if I stand up for it, for HIM, as much as I could. Hmmm.

    Father has taught me so much in the 3 years that have elapsed since we were all together in Indianapolis. It's good to think it over. I must admit, I still re-listen to my recording of the concert, have most of the student songs still memorized, and have the "Common Tone Theory" engrained in my imagination forever (thanks to a tune Carolyn Lo and I put to it!). <3

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