have you ever heard something so beautiful, so chill-inducing that it moves you to tears? perhaps not, but i've already established in previous posts that i am an unabashed sap, so i thought i'd share a little gem that i discovered today.

with young kids, sleeping in on the weekends is sadly not an option. saturday mornings are an exercise in stealing tiny moments of "me" time in between firing up the coffee maker, feeding the baby, tuning out the cartoons, moving the next load of laundry to the dryer, and clearing up the week's clutter. but sometimes a moment is all you need to find a little nugget of inspiration.

while making breakfast this morning, we started talking about "saigon cinnamon"--how it's much more flavorful than regular cinnamon and how it would be perfect for the new banana walnut honey pancake recipe we're trying out. in typical stream of consciousness form, my mind meandered over to thoughts of "miss saigon," one of my favorite musicals. so off i went to youtube, to watch a little snippet of "sun and moon."

in my grey fleece bathrobe, with a ponytail and glasses on, sure, i belted it out along with kim and chris, the main characters. trust me, it was a sight to behold. but then i found the real gem: an audition clip of lea salonga trying out for the part of kim in front of claude-michel schonberg, nicholas hytner, cameron mackintosh and alain boublil, the writers and producers of the musical. it was astounding.

here was this sweet, simple girl, who asked for an autograph before she started to sing, and happened to bring them to their knees after she sang.

it was a great reminder that the people you admire, who have achieved fame and fortune, are still real people: chasing their dreams, pounding the pavement, and doing the best with the gifts they've been given. in her case, that gift just happens to be a voice like an angel, as ethereal as the sun and moon about which she sings.