Here are some reflections on LARKfest...
Getting ready to rock...
The crowds start to roll in...
Boys get a pic with a very cool d.j. from 102.7 EQX...
Our sweet girls take it all in...
The set up...
My dad and brother...
A very nice surprise...fans made t-shirts sporting "Burnham Bros."...our boys were really impressed...
Forrest and I huddled up ...
And then they rocked....
And they rolled...
You've probably read many of my blogs on the journey of our boys. But LARKfest for us was a moment of triumph not because the boys got a lot of radio play, not because they played for thousands of people, but because it was a personal triumph.
The previous days before the concert our family came down with a cold and cough....and...Forrest was hit the hardest. If you are a singer (and I am) I know this is a singer's worst nightmare. Especially when days before the performance you come down with laryngitis...which Forrest did. The thing is we just couldn't cancel. The boys had been advertised on the radio. There were eight bands playing on the mainstages and the boys were one of them.
As long as I have watched Forrest perform, I have never ever seen him nervous. But as the days approached the performance date, he came down with a case of nerves. We just couldn't cancel and the show had to go on. Needless to say, if you were in the house with us the week previous to the LARKfest you would have seen me feeding tea, broths, lozenges, herbs, hot water, honey, lemon, and every possible thing I could think of to give the boys!
Saturday morning arrives. The LARKfest is this very day. Forrest is feeling better but not for singing...dry cough, scratchy throat and he is hoping his voice will last the 45 minute performance.
The boys finally are set up for the performance and they go on in 10 minutes. I buy Forrest a large cup of hot water from Dunkin' Donuts and I am cutting it with cold water to make it just right. He smiles and says, "Mom, it looks like I'm sipping on a large cup of coffe." I respond, " Yeah, well, today you are really not 13. You are a fifty year old singer for a rock band." Yep, this is a standing joke with everyone Forrest meets. They always seem to say, "You are not 13 but 50" or "You have a heart of a fifty year old."
Here is where the valiance of Forrest shined through. We had been praying all week. But minutes before he went on he comes to me and says, "Mom, pray with me". We pray and then I tell him, "Forrest, God has taken you this far these two years. He will not abandon you now. You've got it in you. Now go and rock the world!" I hug him. This calm resolve comes over him and then we proceed to watch the best performance I have ever seen the boys give.
Yes, I am proud. If I seem boastful I am sorry. But for me it is the conquering of something so overwhelming that makes me so proud for life is full of things to overcome. In fact, life is mostly made up of overcoming obstacles.
The rest of the day was a dream. The boys and our little girl, Lily, enjoyed the performances of the other bands there. Forrest walked through LARKstreet with his brothers knowing that he had overcome something that he had never faced before. He learned to trust God and to trust himself.
Whatever we do in life, whatever God has called us to do, we can do with confidence for as the Gospel says, "I will never leave you, nor forsake you...I am with you always until the end of time."
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