When I was a little girl, I dreamed of becoming a ballerina. I envisioned my graceful body honed to perfect balance, tone, and size, dressed in pink, shining bright, a fairy princess known and loved by all the world, at home in body, mind, and soul.
I loved to dance. It was a combination of music, movement, and mental concentration that allowed me to revel in the intellectual joy of physicality and spirit, took me to places I knew existed, and yearned to experience.
It wasn’t to be. My reality was harsh to dreamers, and bit by bit the little girl and her dreams grew into the lost child. Disappearing provided the only safety and I learned flee mentally when I couldn’t escape physically. Though I couldn’t define it, and didn’t learn until much later what a white-out was, I knew how to go there and find safety.
So when it came time to heal the wounds from my failed marriage, it was only natural that my unfulfilled little girl dreams began to surface. Hurts from years ago had to be grieved, losses felt—all my buried zombies had to be unearthed and loved -- cleaned up, hair combed, bathed, dressed, made presentable for public appearance, so they wouldn’t spring forth in their terrible guise, taking me and innocent unsuspecting others by surprise.
I was into my third year of this deep healing work when I was hired to labor with a large team of exceptional colleagues involved in the Internet Technology industry. My tower was one of nine, and consisted of about 365 employees—my team consisted of 25 or so of the most wonderful people I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet. Our exploits as a team and as individuals was renowned throughout the fortune 500 company, one of the major players in an organization of 169 offices in 68 countries. Our motto was to work and play hard, and the company made that easy for us, providing extraordinary business challenges, a variety of after hour socials, tickets to many outside events, and loads of team building opportunities.
My first week with them gave me my first chance to shine. Our team had won a competition within the tower and our ‘prize’ was to enact in play form the role our group performed within the tower—to the entire tower during one of the many events we hosted. The performance concentrated on teambuilding itself, how we excelled and the ramifications should we not function well together. My new and soon to be best girl friend Marilyn was in charge of production. She had a cast of characters from that ranged from Captain Hook to the Baha Men, Cinderella, and Liberace. I presented her with a huge challenge: how to write me into a play that was to be presented in only a week?
She consulted with our supervisor, made some quick changes, and cast me as Tinkerbell. She showed up for our first dress rehearsal, my second day on the job, with a costume. I had met all the team on my first day in a weekly meeting, and knew all the faces. After a bit of walking everyone through their paces, Marilyn described how and when I would enter, what I was to do, and how the other characters would be affected. I dressed quickly and moved to the stage.
We began rehearsal and I waited in the wings until my prompt. When it came, I floated my mass to the center of the stage, doing my best often practiced ballerina cabriole, and positioned myself in front of the actor I was to engage. I fluttered and flitted, flouncing my skirts and waving my wand, and performed my wordless part to the best of my ability. Nothing was happening. The actors weren’t responding.
I stopped short, looked around and saw that everyone, Marilyn, my supervisor, and all the rest of the characters, were collapsed with laughter. I was puzzled until I heard my boss, through peals of laughter and tears, tell Marilyn she had cast my character perfectly.
We made it through rehearsal and the subsequent performance, and the reaction of the audience was much the same. I worked for that firm just under three years and was gratified to be detained on many an occasion in the hallway or elevator of the headquarters, asking ‘hey, aren’t you that fairy princess?’
It was some years later I realized I had, for one shining moment, fulfilled my little girl dreams. If my experience can serve in any way to support, encourage, champion, or substantiate this truth: it’s never too late. Our dreams, can, and do come true…..
Dream big-- I do! 
Copy & paste to friend: (Click inside box; Ctrl + C to copy; Ctrl + V to paste)
|
|
read more blogs!
|
|