September 13, 2022
It rained off and on all day on that Monday. Thunderstorms blew through several times. The sky was ominous. We were watching the weather carefully because we had tickets to see Rob Lutes perform at an outdoor garden venue that evening. We last saw Rob perform in the Lochlin Community Centre before Covid and we were excited to be seeing him again. Jim and I headed over at 5:30 to have dinner with Rob, and his hosts, Thom & Sue. The weather had been holding and we were all hopeful. Rob had been performing in Toronto the night before, and was heading home to Montreal after his concert in Haliburton. It was such a treat to meet him and enjoy some delicious food. He shared stories of his travels, his family, his love of music and his experience during Covid. Again and again the music community brings very interesting people into our county. We are so lucky. Jim and I were volunteers for the evening and our job was parking and greeting. Thom & Sue had set up a series of masterful, really masterful, tarps to keep everyone dry. All their years of camping have given them lots of opportunities to perfect how to set up a tarp that works properly and keeps the rain off of people. I think they had the largest tarp I have ever seen. They had big pots of zinnias around the stage and their gardens looked beautiful. People arrived, settled in and took the opportunity to catch up. It felt so good to be together enjoying beauty and friendship and music. The concert began at 7:30 and it was a fantastic evening. Rob is a seasoned storyteller, historian, musician and all round friendly guy. The concert was a lesson in the history of music as he taught us about the blues, jazz and ragtime. He went as far back as when Yankee Doodle Dandy was the number one song in 1750. He sang covers and mixed in his own songs. We laughed. I teared up more than once. It didn’t rain. As a matter of fact it was a beautiful evening. The clouds slowly moved on. As it got darker all the outdoor lighting came on and it felt cosy and very special. There were about 35 of us in the audience. And surrounding the audience were so many crickets chirping their songs. Mist settled around us. Eventually stars came out. It was a perfect evening. It just made me realize that I can’t always plan based on the weather. If it says it’s going to rain, it doesn’t always rain. All of us in the audience could have looked at the thunderstorm at 3:00 in the afternoon and made the decision to stay home. We could have decided it was going to to be too wet, too uncomfortable and not worth the effort. And if we had made that decision we would have missed a truly memorable evening. Louis Cozolino, a social worker said , “we are not the survival of the fittest. We are the survival of the nurtured.” We flourish when we are nurtured. Music nurtures us.