Tonight, You Sang

Dear Lucia,

Tonight, we took you to your fourth holiday party in a week. Like the good sport you are, you tolerated the noise and being kept up way past your bedtime. In fact, you may have been the hit of this party.

Tonight's party was a Winter Solstice celebration, held by your mother's doula. I'll get into this more later, but many of the Pagan celebrations have been misappropriated by Christians for their own holidays. This is technically the Christian holiday for Christmas, the birth of Jesus Christ. However, Pagans had way better ideas for celebrating this time of year than Christians.

Anyway, during this Solstice party, some bluegrass was played. Party-goers began plucking away at guitars, banjos, a ukulele, and something consisting of a string, bamboo, and a bucket. The music was fun and made everyone feel comfortable and warm.

Your mother was holding you. As she turned you out so that you could see the musicians play, these shrieks came from your mouth. You sang for the first time tonight. Your voice surpassed the cooing that had been going on for weeks to this holler that was heard by all.

I saw this coming, but it finally struck me how wonderful it is. Lucia, I heard your voice and nothing was ever more beautiful to me. I could listen to you sing for the rest of my life...and I probably will.

So, keep singing, shouting, squealing, yelling, or whatever you do that expresses how you feel. I don't ever want to silence your voice. And you shouldn't let anyone silence you. Use your voice, Lucia. Make yourself be heard the way you did tonight.

Love,
Dad