Tell Me on a Sunday, Please!

My friend Molly Moon Ogden (don't you just love her name -- Molly Moon) gave a stellar performance the other night, and it is worth commenting on.

Molly loves musical theatre. Her daughter and my three are involved in an amazing musical theatre program called Kids Who Care, and we have watched our children blossom in this program. But Molly takes her love further and has been studying with Betty Lynn Buckley who has moved back to Fort Worth and is teaching classes to aspiring musical theatre performers.

"Teaching classes" makes it sound so simple -- show up from 4 - 5 and learn how to sing. STOP! From everything Molly has shared, these are intense classes with transforming information in them -- lessons on meditation and calming yourself so that when you are on stage you won't be nervous. Lessons in character analysis and the right songs for your voice and presence to sing. Lessons, of course, in diction and voice. They have been intense and time consuming, and on occasion, a punch in the stomach.

And Molly has learned amazing things, so much so, that she is willing to pass this information along to others. She finds joy in sharing what she is doing and learning. So D1 has been learning from Molly who is learning from Betty Lynn.

This past fall, D1 had a duet in a play and explained to Molly and I that she didn't sing in front of people which is a problem when you are in a five weekend run of a show. The most amazing words came from Molly's mouth, "We all have gifts. Some of us can share those gifts with others through our voices. It is our job when we are on stage to take what the audience already knows and remind them of that when we sing. So, give them the gift of your voice and take them to a place where they remember."

What amazing advice.

And Molly's performance exuded that advice. On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, Molly and six other performers reached deep in their souls and shared their gifts with us. They made us laugh and made us cry. They made us yearn for long lost loves and reminded us about romance. The notes they sang and the stories their songs told made us all remember and touched our hearts.

As I fell asleep Wednesday night, I thought about the lessons Betty Lynn was sharing with her students. How nice it must be to have someone so skilled to share with you insights and techniques she had learned from the masters before her. Any time you are working on a performance there are hours of rehearsals that go into things before the show begins. And there are notes after the first performance to improve the next.

I wish God were a bit more like Betty Lynn. I'd like some notes after my rehearsals. I'd like a voice to boom down from the darkness and remind me of my direction and my gifts.

• God: "Don't worry about the economy -- go build your business. I will be there to take care of everything.
• God: "You are doing a great job with kids. Keep it up."
• God: "No, you aren't going to live your life as a lonely old woman... Mr. Right just isn't ready for you yet."
• God: "Go take a class from a master and get better at something."

But since God's voice only comes in whispers, I will have to be content with what I learn as life passes me by. I will work to help my children find their gifts and share them with others. I will continue to find joy in the gifts my friend share with me. I will look for the masters and learn from them.

And I will remind you that if you have a bad news for me, "Find a circus with a flying trapeze. Tell me on a Sunday, please."