I went to the symphony last night...

In fact, I attend it quite regularly...every night, truth be known.

As I sit in my greatroom working on my laptop at the dining room table I am assaulted by nature's symphony that plays each night.

I have a pond where all kinds of creatures live.  They pretty much sleep during the day but as soon as the sun sets they pull out their instruments, warm up their vocal chords and begin to play the most interesting music I've ever heard...

The bullfrogs illicit deep, baritone croaks...several of them following in tempo, one right after the other.  The treefrogs croak in opposite beats, adding to the fullness of the symphonic melody they play each night.

Once in a while the dogs will enter with their unique strains of music.  Sometimes their contribution lends a more serious tone, as their warning barks to predators communicates "stay away".  Sometimes the sound of a distant siren will compel them to begin to howl...the most serene and captivating howl I've ever heard.

The crickets chirp nonstop through the night...increasing their crescendo and then subsiding again.  At unexpected moments the puppies will join in with their playful growls as they wrestle and tustle with each other.

Thus are the sounds of the symphony I attend each evening.  Sounds of life that play even at night as I wind down my days.

But none of their musical scores can rival the concert I attended the other day.  I was down in the garden, weeding and harvesting...securing tomato plants more securely to their stakes, rearranging watermelon vines that keep wanting to invade the aisles.  All of a sudden I heard a song and in that moment I knew I would cherish it forever...

The garden is down in the little valley, not far from the creek.  The house is up the hill a little ways where I can see it.  The kitchen window overlooks the little valley and in the silence of that afternoon came a song that filled my heart to overflowing.

It was my daughter singing as she did dishes.  Sounds a little funny I'm sure, but she has a beautiful voice and she thought she was in private...singing from the center of her heart, full of feeling with a depth that defies her short 15 years.  I couldn't hear the words very clearly but I could hear the notes in her voice and she was singing a song to Him.

I don't think I've heard a more beautiful sound.  Even as I sit here right now, listening to the symphony that still continues at 1:00am, it'll never replace the memory of hearing my daughter sing.

*happy sigh*