When five Down’s syndrome angels dance into your life, pay attention. (This particular motivational keynote speaker did...)
It was a typical travel day in Orlando’s International sensory overload airport. Typical until the Russell Home Dance Team showed up.
90,000 people went in and out of OIA on Monday. Of the 800 flights, 39 airlines were business as usual. One airline, brought in a heartwarming reminder that we could all smile more.
Listen, I’m a dad who pays for dance lessons and watches his kid perform. It makes Isabella happy and that is extremely gratifying. Yes, she’s talented. She just made ‘company’ at Dallas Ballet Center. It is a pre-professional vocation she does 20+ hours per week. For yours truly, admittedly, dance has become a bit of a routine – until Monday.
There were no explanations. No pitch to raise money for the extraordinary, Russell Home. No VP from Southwest Airlines giving a speech about their Southwest's Citizenship campaign. Just five atypical dancers in matching white dresses and pink, slip on dance shoes, smiling so wide they lit up the concourse.
Only a few dozen people watched the troupe in each location at the airport. Roughly 89,900 people completely missed the one song routine. But the audience had very little to do with the reason they were there.
Back in high school I taught swimming. From four year old kids to 40 year old adults. But my favorite lessons were with the Down’s kids who’d come to the Strathcona Pool once a week. Why “favorite?” Joy. Every single stroke, splash and jump was expressed with pure, unfiltered happiness. No agenda. No ego. Just delight!
To experience five pure souls perform what they must have spent hours preparing was outright magic. The rapture they felt after their performance was infectious. People who resisted the urge to rush to their gate were wiping away tears. The travelers who walked right by (with a possible unattached glance) missed out.
We each dance through our day, determined to deliver a desired result. The routine turns into a spinning wheel, blurring the meaning behind it all. Yet, do we dance for the pleasure of it or dance through the motions?
Today, focus on the routine you have at work or with what you ‘have’ to do. Find the bliss in this dance of yours.
You may be tempted to lift back a tiny foot in delight.
Moreover, you’ll love the effect it has on the rest of your day.