Dreams

Well, I hardly ever watch Oprah, but today she's about made me cry. She had Will Smith, and the man he's playing in his upcoming true-story-based movie, Chris Gardner. It's called The Pursuit of Happyness, and even though the spelling kinda makes me twitch, it looks excellent, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it.
And...that's totally not what I meant to write about :-D On to the real entry!
I wrote my first song when I was 12, for a guitar class I took as an elective in the eighth grade. It really sucked.
I wrote my first "real" song when I was 15, during a worship team practice. We'd been reading Psalm 19, and I believe someone said something to the effect of "wouldn't it be nice if we had a song based on this." I moved over to the piano, and started messing around. The song I ended up with, ridiculously quickly, was called "The Rocks Cry Out." Not quite my best work, but not bad for a smart-aleck kid. Our worship team, which at the time was the team that played every week, used the song for several Sunday mornings. The team was very encouraging, including one of the members and a co-leader who also wrote (and writes.) That was Dan.
Dan and I have had quite a bit of history over the last nine years, just in playing in bands together, and he was youth staff when I was in the youth group, as was his girlfriend/fiancée/wife/mother of his child...(lots can happen in nine years, eh?)
Whenever the thought or dream of recording a CD crossed my mind, I always wanted Dan involved. After all, I've been considering it on and off since I was just a young'un, and he's always been very encouraging to me in my songwriting.
Dan moved away a few years ago, around the same time Wendy (the worship pastor at the time) did, and Mike started working at the church. I missed he and Wendy terribly, but Mike grew on me.
When we started talking seriously about doing the album, I was disappointed that Dan wasn't here. I almost wished I had enough money to fly he and his wife in from Calgary. Then, in the course of one of our meetings last August, Mike mentioned that Dan would be coming to KAC as a worship intern, and that maybe he could help me with production. I was so excited.
So the time came a few weeks ago, after the concert hype had wound down, to talk to Dan about his involvement in the CD.
It took a long time to get an answer, partly because it was one that he really didn't want to give me. To excerpt from his email, "I have thought about your invitation to record in the studio and looking at my schedule I have come to the conclusion that I will not be able to do any work in the studio nor be apart of the process in any manner. I am very sorry about this." I was crushed, but I understood. After all, he's a busy intern with a one-year-old son.
Yesterday, I talked to Mike about this, about how disappointed I was. "Why don't you tell him that?" he challenged me. He suggested I ask him again, with a shorter and more specific time committment outlined. I hesitated, because having been accused of it before, the last thing I wanted to be was manipulative. Mike assured me that wouldn't be the case, and so I took him at his word and headed down the hall to Dan's office.
With the thought of, "if you could have him involved in one song..." in mind, I asked Dan if he'd be able to commit to two hours this Saturday to record "The Well." He said yes, and I was ecstatic. We talked for a bit, then I went back down to Mike's office to tell him the happy news. To wit:
Me: Guess what? He said yes! Yay!
Mike: That's great!
Me: I know! I'm so happy! *giggle*
Mike: Uh huh.
Me: I guess the giggle kinda gave it away, huh?
Mike: Yeah.
So, I guess once in a while you have to adjust your dreams a bit to fit them around real life, but sometimes they really do come true.