Carter Family Camp is coming to a close soon. For summer as a family we decided to have activities for our daughters for most the day just like they would if at a summer family camp. One day my, while my wife taught, my daughters and I sat down to dream up art. We scheduled about an hour for the art but after about 30 minute we were all done.

All of us feeling a bit sluggish laid back and we’re tempted just to lay there and look up at the clouds feeling that nice coastal breeze beneath a beautiful tree canopy. This would’ve been nice, I mean we had done this not too long ago. It would not have been a big deal to lay back look up and daydream. But, for some reason our energy led us to brainstorm ideas of other artsy things we could do. We all threw a couple ideas out there until one in particular caught our attention.

Something to pour our hearts into

One of my daughters yelled out, “Let’s play instruments together.” This idea stuck. Not because I’m some great musician. I have never even trained to play an instrument. I avoided music class in elementary school but, we felt that this was a moment to create something together we could pour our hearts into.

Tuned the instruments

We all agreed to play instruments together. We got two guitars and a keyboard. I took out my phone. I found an app to use and we tuned the guitars using Guitar Tuna. I sat back and let our oldest daughter, who’s taken many instrument classes, teach our youngest daughter how to tune a guitar — teacher and student, I paused to drink in the moment.

We each took a role

After a little bit of practice and jamming, we realized some of us did things better and worse than others. So we assigned roles. Our youngest daughter took lead vocals and song writer and our oldest daughter took band leader and played the guitar while I just played the keyboard and did what I was told. My little girls have me wrapped around thier little fingers.

We played together

We made a song together called “We Live in Harmony.” After a few takes we finally got the tune, the music, and the words right. We sang with our whole hearts. We played together. We figured out a way to create a moment together that we will never forget again.

We didn’t make any money from this moment, we didn’t gain any influence from this moment, we didn’t gain recognition or fame. We just found a way to dwell well together and cultivate a harmonious moment.

This moment came because of our willingness to look and sound silly with each other — we felt safe together and open to playfulness.