Meanwhile, in East Texas...

Our daughter has found her place in the world.

Yesterday my wife and I drove down to see Kid 1 direct her band in the annual Christmas concert.  Note I said "Christmas."  That was intentional; it wasn't a, "winter celebration," "Kwanzaa-fest," or "holiday concert." 

In any case, as the lights dimmed and she stepped to the podium, I had a hard time seeing my daughter, the grown up woman.  Who I did see was my little girl at age three, her hair in pig tails, who used to hold her arms up and conduct with the music on the radio.

Time marches on, though, and she has paperwork from the State of Texas and from University of North Texas that confirms that she is qualified to teach band to junior high and high school students.

It's hard to describe, but she was in her element, and as parent I'm not sure that her Mom and I could ask for anything more than that.  It was as if all of the parenting, the years of helping with homework, the trips to concerts and football games, and the seemingly endless hours of college forms (not to mention the seemingly endless tuition payments) came to fruition on a small stage last night in a little town in East Texas. 

(Side note:  My wife gets most of the credit for all of that; she may be the most involved parent of all time.  I was vaguely aware of some short people living in the house for several years, but my wife knew every detail of each of their days, every day.)

Our daughter has found her place in the world.

Will any of her students turn out to be a 21st century Benny Goodman, or a rising star on the jazz or classical music scene?  I don't know.  Maybe not.  But that's not the point.

The point is that our daughter has shown herself to be a positive influence on the lives of a lot of kids in that little school district, some of whom, she tells me, don't receive a lot of positive influence in their lives.

Like I said, it's hard to explain, but last night revealed, to me at least, that the day to day parenting that's involved in raising a child can show up as a cumulative result in an unexpected place.  As the stage lights came up and my little girl stood on the podium and raised her arms, it was as if the fates, or karma, or the Good Lord said, "this little one has found her place." 

And friends, as a parent, that is powerful stuff.