Well…it’s been a while since I have been in a mood like this before doing my update. I can hear the collective “oh brother” emanate from across the web now. I used to be more introspective when I first started doing this update thing several years ago. Things are always in flux…sometimes your priorities are dead on, others….well a tweak might be in order I guess. For some reason lately I’ve been stuck on the thought of the last time. I know….if you’re a theologian you’re thinking….Revelations and THE last times…not quite the direction I’m going. I’ve really been pondering the last time I do things…you know what I mean? For everything we do there will be a last time. For the most part I don’t even think we are aware when they happen. Here’s a for instance…I was a pole vaulter in high school and there was a last time I ever pole vaulted. I honestly don’t think I considered the magnitude. Sure it was a small thing….but really….the last time I was ever going to grasp the fiberglass pole and launch myself skyward to clear a metal bar straddling two tall posts, then landing on my back staring intently all the way down hoping against hope that the touch or breeze I made as I passed over wasn’t enough to jar the cross bar from its perch. I wish I had savored the moment more. I’m sure I had someplace to be or someone to see and rushed through it….either in a track meet or a practice for an event that never happened. Whatever the case…I’ve been thinking about stuff like that. How about people we meet? There are lots of folks, and I’m not really talking about “the important ones” (like family and super close friends)….I’m talking about acquaintances. There are folks in your lives that you’ve seen for the last time and didn’t even realize it when you waved bye or casually shook their hand as you headed off to something more important. Isn’t that crazy? This stuff will drive you insane….I have literally thought about hundreds of folks and hundreds of things I’ll likely never do again and can’t remember the “last time”. Bugs me I guess.

My daughter Savannah and Darrell’s daughter Makenzie both competed this past weekend in a humongous cheer event on Atlanta, GA. They both did great with Kenz’s squad finishing 2^nd in their division and Savannah’s squad finishing 3^rd in hers (they did not compete against each other). These trips are awesome and something I’ll cherish for as long as I have my memory…and though I’ve been pondering “lasts” for a while, this weekend it was snapped sharply into focus again as I watched through the eyes of the seniors on each squad as they competed as a high school cheerleader for the last time. They knew it and tried to absorb every moment they could. Wish I had that clarity at times in my life paying attention to some of those lasts. Savannah and Kenz have a few more years until the cheer “lasts” hit them…and as a dad I’ll do my best to help them soak it all in between now and then.

As a quartet we’ve traveled thousands and thousands of miles and sang thousands of times to thousands of people….some of those places we will never be at again and didn’t really realize it was the last time. Some of those people have either left the church, moved away, or moved on to Glory….and we’ve shook their hands for the last time and didn’t even know. We were in the studio last week cutting tracks for our upcoming Christmas CD and I looked around and thought….there will be a day when I’ll be in here for the last time….is this it? Only the Lord knows…we would all go insane if we knew all He knows. I’m thankful He gave is the knowledge and understanding He did…and that He left the other stuff in the unknown column for us. Recently after coming back from the Michigan trip Marty and I were the last ones in the van as all the others had been dropped off and we chatted for a while. I confessed to him that I recently came to the realization that I had been working in the quartet so long (emphasis on working) that I had failed miserably at enjoying many of the blessings God gives us as I was working towards something “bigger”. I hate it when I feel the need to confess, but purging can be a good thing. It is SO easy to get caught up in the industry…got to get to a bigger church, got to get played more on the radio, got to sing at the quartet convention…on the main stage no less. It’s like a carousel you can’t get off…you forget the goals you’ve attained because you are working so hard for something else. Back last summer I woke up and asked myself…why didn’t I enjoy the group more in the previous years? Why didn’t I cherish the times instead of focusing on next week, next month, and next year? I told Marty no more….whatever happens will happen and from now on I am going to enjoy this for whatever time we have left and whatever “level” we attain. Same goes for my personal life….my goal for 2010 is to try and appreciate things more. It’s unrealistic for me to treat each day like the last (literally) or each chore like the last time I’ll do it, but I can soak it in more and absorb all that life is giving me before I move on to something that I feel is more important. I told my wife a few days ago, there was a last time I golfed with her mom and dad…and I don’t really remember it. I always thought there would be one more time, but their health declined and there wasn’t any more times. I’m going to try and not take the pleasures of life for granted. I love going to my daughter’s cheer practice on Monday nights…and lots of parents around the gym complain because it takes up their time. I understand that….life is fast now days and if we stop we sometimes get run over. But I see a day a few years from now when Mondays won’t be about cheer practice…I won’t be watching her try desperately to get a new move down or struggle to have the energy for the end of the workout. I’ll be home watching TV or doing something else…that time will be over. Sometime down the road I’ll be back at my home church every Sunday again…and I won’t be hauling in heavy speakers or typing frantically an address in the GPS again that it says doesn’t exist…nope, all of that stuff will live only in scrapbooks and on CD’s. The quartet will disperse and it will all be a memory…but until then I’ll enjoy and thank God for the opportunity He gave me. I say all this to tell you guys…soak up life, wring it out until the last drop of joy has been drained. It’s all a gift from God and one day it will be dust in the wind (as my boys from Kansas so eloquently put it)…everything is dust in the wind.

I’ll catch up on the quartet stuff soon….there’s plenty to talk about but for some reason today I didn’t have the heart. This thought of lasts has been consuming me lately and I thought maybe a therapy session with you guys might clear me out and let me move on. Have an awesome week and enjoy all that the Lord has given you today…tomorrow will take care of itself tomorrow….

Von and all the guys at CO4

I bet when you read that headline you were thinking I’d be talking about our wonderful trip up north to Michigan last weekend didn’t ya?? Well guess what….it’s about our own hometown of Nashville! I’m going to keep this one short…will be blogging about last weekend later this weekend. First things first…tomorrow’s scheduled singing at McFerrin Missionary Baptist Church in Madison, TN is cancelled. In fact…church itself is cancelled for tomorrow. If you aren’t reading this from around the middle Tennessee area you might be asking yourself… “self, why is the singing and church cancelled?”. Well….we got one of those golly-whopper snows I whine about not getting in this blog all the time. Yep….we have ourselves a white-out around these here parts. Some areas of Nashville got over 9″ of snow, while others (like where I live in Hendersonville) got more like 4″ of snow….and about 1″ of sleet and freezing rain. Talk about good sledding! Last night I was out driving around doing doughnuts and having all kinds of fun.

Okay….quick recap….no singing for Called Out Quartet at McFerrin on Sunday January 31st, 2010. The singing will be rescheduled soon. Once the church staff regroups and we look over our mutual schedules we will name a date and time. But…please do not show up tomorrow…you will be VERY disappointed to find a VERY empty parking lot. For all the members of the church please remember….no Sunday School or Church services tomorrow. Hope you all have a fun weekend….and a safe one. Got to go now and throw a snowball or do doughnuts in my Jeep. I think the forecast high on Monday is 40…so this stuff won’t hang around forever!

Von and all the guys at CO4