The Best Day of My Life - Mother's Day 2017

Today is the best day of my life. It just demoted the last best day of my life. Let me start with the one that was just demoted because they are somewhat connected. It's possible the best days of my life were once the birth of my children. But that was a long time ago. So I'm not really sure. But I'm pretty sure these two stories outrank childbirth. Maybe.

My younger son Ben is a senior and is finishing his 7th year of orchestra. He lives for lacrosse so each year we were surprised that he wanted to continue playing violin. I think he was surprised too. He was good but not the best. Well, the best in my mind but he didn't live and breath orchestra. He never took lessons. His tuxedo was a hand-me-down that we made work all four years of high school. He would never play at home where we could hear him. In fact, it was a point of contention. I once threatened to ground him if he didn't let me view his recorded playing test. Seriously, all those years and I had never heard my son play outside of an orchestra concert. My husband and I often wondered if he was even playing. Maybe he was the best air-violinist on the planet. But then why continue? And last fall he was the Assistant Concertmaster in the Chamber II orchestra for the semester so he couldn't' have been faking it. Right?

So, last January he needed a new bow. Being a totally clueless orchestra parent, I had no idea that he'd needed one for a long time. We went to Atlanta Violins in downtown Roswell. It's in an old house full of beautiful instruments and people who do in fact live and breath playing. The fella took us into the room with the bows. The walls were lined from floor to ceiling with beautiful violins. He took out several bows ranging in price and quality for Ben to try. He had Ben face me, having no idea this would be my first time watching my son play solo. Ben smiled. He knew I was getting away with something. He began testing the different bows. I sat there calmly bursting with pride. I resisted pulling out my phone. No pictures, no videos, no posts on Facebook. Once we were in the van, I privately confessed that was the best day of my life.

Last night, I told Ben the best Mother's Day gift in the world would be for him to play a song for me. He laughed and said "no way." I believed him. My Mother's Day started off rough with Multiple Sclerosis and back pain reminding me who was boss. We got home from church and brunch and I got into bed for a bit. After a while, Ben entered my room with a speaker and his violin. No! How can this be? He's going to play for me? I asked if I could record. He said no and so I just sat in bed absorbing every single second. He played two songs from "A River Runs Through It" (one of my favorite movies) and then "Pipers to the End" by Mark Knoffler (one of my favorite songs). I wiped away the tears with my bed sheet as the tears of joy flowed. At one point my husband Greg joined us and I'm pretty sure I saw him wipe away a tear or two as well.

MS and back pain had nothing on me at this moment. The seas were quiet and my heart sung with happiness.  After he was done, I told him this was now the best day of my life.