How…But WOW

That’s how I describe the best times in my life, both professionally and personally.

How did I do all of those amazing things in one week/one month/one year? The three days, for example when we hosted The Real Group in concert, had a celebratory court date, and organized a 150+ traveler field trip to Chicago to see Hamilton. Or the months in which Mandy conducted the All-State Honors Choir, we welcomed Alice Parker for the world premiere of her arrangement of Cindy for the Aces, and raised over $100,000 to travel to Europe with our choirs.

I’m writing this post in such a week – including a Jacob Collier concert in Detroit, recording sessions, a hernia, a Farewell Concert, a spring play, and much more in 7 days.

There’s a risk, in the moment, of focusing on the how of the situation. How am I going to survive this? How am I going to stay healthy? How can I possibly hope to stay sane?

But in my experience, every “how” week as become a “How…but WOW” week in retrospect. When I look back at those “how” weeks, I can’t but feel overwhelmed by the blessing and the great feelings of the memories. The “how” recedes and the “WOW” comes to dominate the perspective.

Of course, we can’t build our life out of “how” weeks and “how” months – we simply can’t always be at that pace and continue to be functional human beings. But it helps me immensely, when the “how” moments come around, to know that they will become “WOW” moments in time.