| "Love of beauty and the desire to create it is a | | | | the desire |
| primal instinct of man." Eleanor McMillan BrownThis | | | | to master music of magnificent proportion.After |
| weekend brought me the privilege of chaperoning | | | | all-day rehearsals, as well as sectional rehearsals with |
| forty | | | | master teachers brought in from New York City, |
| musicians to the Catskill Mountains of New York for | | | | the group came |
| a youth | | | | together and practiced one last time, late Saturday |
| orchestra retreat. Designed as a scenic get-away in | | | | night after |
| which to | | | | dinner. As they were tuning, I walked around the |
| ardently rehearse for an upcoming concert, it proved | | | | room making sure everyone was comfortable and |
| an | | | | ready for one last practice session. I walked up to |
| exhausting-but delightful-escape with | | | | my fifteen-year-old son and twelve-year-old daughter |
| teens.Considering that I made the preliminary | | | | and whispered in their ears, "Create Beauty." Fueled |
| arrangements, and | | | | with little sleep and bad camp food, neither were |
| actually booked the accommodations at the retreat | | | | amused. But then the conductor raised his baton, the |
| center, I | | | | cute high school senior lifted her flute, and thus |
| thought I had a fairly good idea of what to expect. | | | | began the genius of The Magic Flute. And then the |
| When the | | | | oboist, a highschooler I had never met before, with a |
| retreat director described our cabins as "rustic," I | | | | bandana covering her hair and too-many earrings |
| envisioned | | | | covering her left ear, came in, followed by the |
| cute and cozy. Campy. Kind of with a Ralph Lauren | | | | clarinetist, to create extraordinary beauty. And I just |
| meets L.L. Bean thing going on.She greatly oversold | | | | sat there, with tears rolling down my cheeks, an |
| them. I had better luck in third-world | | | | uncontrollable reaction to witnessing magnificence.It |
| countries. While the kids rehearsed late that first | | | | caught me quite off-guard that these kids-dirty from |
| night, I | | | | too much |
| searched for the cabins in the middle of absolutely | | | | of the retreat experience and too little of the |
| nowhere-pitch dark-with a couple of flashlights, a | | | | available hot |
| poor-to-scale hand-drawn map, and two very tired | | | | water and soap, and sleep-deprived from too much |
| orchestra moms as my only guides. We found these | | | | sleeping-bag |
| tarp-roofed, | | | | chatter-could produce something so |
| id-I-mention-no-locks-on-any-doors near midnight after | | | | glorious.Sometimes kids surprise us. Sometimes, after |
| a long three and a half hour drive and a very bad | | | | we want to wring |
| camp retreat dinner. We moms thought it would be a | | | | their necks for their appallingly irresponsible behavior |
| good idea to locate the cabins and get things "settled | | | | (losing |
| in." Mortified when we finally found them by the | | | | their backpacks, forgetting their music, leaving their |
| thought that these cabins were really "ours," we let | | | | dirty |
| out a half-hour litany of moans and groans, only to | | | | dishes for us to clear), they sit down and do the |
| decide to make the best of the situation by trying to | | | | most astounding thing. They pick up and instrument |
| cozy them up. That literally meant | | | | and play something |
| turning on the singular light and cranking up the | | | | extraordinary. Or they write an essay and it changes |
| space heater | | | | our |
| per each cabin.Then came the rain. It started as a | | | | worldview. Or they perform ballet with perfect |
| sprinkle and turned into a | | | | timing. And we |
| constant stream, silently but surely soaking the | | | | scratch our heads and think, "Could this possibly be |
| hundred-plus | | | | my kid?!?"Because just when you're ready to throw |
| suitcases, sleeping-bags and pillows that had been | | | | in the towel, throw |
| dumped onto | | | | your hands up in quiet desperation, and pound your |
| the ground (no, dirt) by the camp help. So at nearly | | | | fists on the |
| midnight, in the cold downpour of the rain, we | | | | table in a round of madness, your kids will do |
| schlepped forty kids' stuff | | | | something that |
| into one of the cabins. It was pitch black, excepting | | | | will convince you that they are filled with brilliance. |
| the two | | | | That |
| puny flashlights and those five measly light | | | | they possess a hidden gift or an indescribable magic |
| bulbs.Suffice it to say that the first night was | | | | or a |
| character-building. | | | | hilarious gift of humor or a quick mind or a strong |
| I had eight twelve-year-old girls in my cabin. Giggly, | | | | shoulder or |
| wanting | | | | a gentle spirit.And you are so thrilled to have had |
| to chat well past "lights out," but with the cutest | | | | some small part of the |
| tank-top-pajama-bottoms combos I've ever seen, | | | | creation.Carolina Fernandez earned an M.B.A. and |
| (and more make-up than one could imagine for a | | | | worked at IBM and as a stockbroker at Merrill Lynch |
| weekend retreat in the middle of friggin'nowhere) I | | | | before coming home to work as a wife and mother |
| had the distinct impression that it could be an | | | | of four. She totally re-invented herself along the way. |
| interesting two days.And then came Saturday. And | | | | Strong convictions were born about the role of the |
| Mozart. Grieg and Bizet. Rehearsal | | | | arts in child development; ten years of homeschooling |
| after concentrated rehearsal brought teenager to his | | | | and raising four kids provide fertile soil for devising |
| instrument | | | | creative parenting strategies. These are played out in |
| and magic out of chaos. For somewhere beneath all | | | | ROCKET MOM! 7 Strategies To Blast You Into |
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