Circus Of Life

Tonight we saw Cirque Du Soleil, an extravaganza of movement and light and sound--more going on than you could possibly take in all at once. I found myself having constant thoughts of "how did they do that?" I was exhausted just watching the performers--how could they even learn to do all those things, not to mention perform them, timed correctly, every day, sometimes twice a day?
 
What they do, of course, is their job. They have been training for years to learn their specialities--whether acrobatics or juggling or balancing. When they get out there, they are simply doing what they have trained to do. Very fast. And very well.
 
Once I recovered from the sound and motion, I began to think about how similar what these performers do is to what many of us do every day. No, we are not acrobats or contortionists or jugglers. Yet, what we do each day to make our lives work is a constant balancing act. Making our families and our bosses and ourselves happy often takes a bit of twisting ourselves into a pretzel. And who hasn't felt as though he or she is constantly up in the air or jumping through hoops at least a few times a week?
 
I say none of this to minimize the work of the performers I saw tonight. They do a fantastic job entertaining and astounding audiences all over the world. Their work is hard, and it takes years of practice and a willingness to put themselves in potentially dangerous spots every day. But when we look at them, and wonder why we can't do such amazing things (aside from, oh, fear of heights and pain?), I would encourage us to see what we accomplish each day--whether it is at work or at home or in our communities. We may not be acrobats, but we fly sometimes too. We may not be jugglers, but we manage to keep all the balls in the air. We may not balance large objects, but most of the time, we get a lot of things done without hitting anyone in the head.
 
And that, you see, is what makes us the stars of our very own life circuses.