Early on the morning of my 40th birthday, the Provo Tabernacle caught fire. The irony of it was that just shortly after learning this, I received a cello for my birthday -- a wish that first began in the Provo Tabernacle.Over a decade ago, I was sitting in the Tabernacle listening to a concert by the Utah Valley Orchestra. There was a flier advertising an orchestra for people over 40. You had to be new at your instrument and you had to be over 40. I thought how much I wanted to learn to play the cello, but I was in the midst of having kids and raising a young family and so I decided, "When I turn 40, I am going to learn to play the cello and join this orchestra." In the years since, I have held onto that goal, and as my 40th approached, I made it very clear that for this birthday, I wanted a cello. In my mind, I could see myself on the raised platform in the Provo Tabernacle playing with the orchestra.
So it was the ultimate irony to receive that long-awaited cello at the same moment that the source of that dream was going up in flames. This year of 2010 seems determined to demonstrate the law of opposition for me. Did you know that my mom passed away on my 20th wedding anniversary?
The Tabernacle has been a place of important happenings for me: the aforementioned orchestra concert, our family's first Meridian Vespers Christmas performance, multiple stake conferences, a Messiah Sing-along, and most recently, my son's high school graduation. It was a place where significant things happened: events that celebrated accomplishments and evoked the Spirit of God and caused me to pause in the daily grind of life to celebrate that which is better. I was able to play the organ in the Tabernacle; an intimidating yet heady experience.
I think it is appropriate that last night at the memorial concert for the Tabernacle that I could not stop the tears from flowing. It may have been just a building, but it was also the place of some of my most tender memories. I will mourn its loss and rejoice in the experiences there that meant so much to me.
