Thursday, September 07, 2006

Home

What makes a place a home?

We moved to Buffalo three years ago. We bought a house. We had two children. We added to our family. But what makes this place our home?

Our family here is wonderful, and I love you all. You make our life here complete. But for the last three years, I’ve found myself occasionally lamenting the fact that we are here, while so many people we love are not. Couple that with the fact that I haven’t actually been working in Buffalo, and you’ve got a formula that does not equal a feeling of home.

I find myself immersed in sadness from time to time. Not continually, but every once in a while. Though working from the house has been a great blessing for my family, I’ve discovered it also puts quite a limitation on me personally. I don’t leave the house very often. I don’t interact directly with people on anything close to a daily basis. I haven’t made many friends.

But, for one night every week, I am now a singer again. I am starting to ground myself in this place we have lived in for three years. Last night was my first rehearsal with the Buffalo Choral Arts Society. It is a group of 100 or so people who enjoy the one thing that I have kept with me throughout my life, that I’ve shared with both friends and family. It felt like I was coming home.




On a less sappy note, we truly live in a small world. As I stood up during a break in rehearsal, I looked around at all the people in the rehearsal hall. Absolutely, completely, unexpectedly, I recognized a face. Ready for this? It was Mike & Cecilia & Esther’s cousin Amelia, whom I sang with at John & Esther’s wedding. It was her first rehearsal too. Neither of us knew the other had auditioned. The way we figured it, if we can get our families show up for the first concert, we should be able to account for filling at least half the seats of whatever hall we perform in.