Encouragement to sing and dance in the sunshine

We were watching a video that a music teacher had posted on her Facebook page.  The teacher was singing with a pupil, and the pupil was special needs.

It was absolutely delightful, so touching that it brought tears to my eyes.

I showed it to my 14 year old who enjoyed it too.

"Why can't other people do things like that and just be accepted and enjoy it too?" she asked.

I knew what she meant.   There is so much CRITICISM out there, so much SARCASM and HATE that the average person has to be VERY brave to put themselves in a position of being seen.  Even if they are super good at their chosen thing.

And being super good at a chosen thing takes masses of time and energy and pushing of oneself, which I kind of disagree with.

I'm the sort of person (I have found a few others) who doesn't agree with the whole Olympic games thing.  I don't think it's natural that a person should spend just about their whole lives focused on one thing, with one goal, often to the detriment of many other things in their lives including relationships.  Of course, this is a personal decision that an athlete/musician/artist makes and I would never tell anybody what to do - I'm just aware that the pursuit of excellence in any area must take a toll.

People who ARE super good at something can then become idols - put on pedestals, worshipped ... this isn't natural either.  

I think of children who, at age two, three and four are dancing and singing, joyful and oblivious to how they sound and look - but unfortunately as they get older,  they often start to compare themselves to others, and they dance less, sing a littler quieter, worry about what people will say.  Or even worse - OTHER PEOPLE compare that carefree child to someone who can dance better or sing more in tune perhaps.

So what can we, people who respectfully love children, do?

We can encourage our little singers, dancers and game players - not by constantly  allowing them the spotlight, and getting them to perform for visitors - but we can sing and dance with them (if they want), or telling them that they look happy when they dance.  We can kick a ball around with them, have fun, but not always have our eyes on how good this would be if our child was part of a team, playing against another team, or have lessons and then take part in competitions, make videos, gain international success ...

We can encourage our older children that ENJOYING SOMETHING IS A WORTHWHILE REASON TO DO IT!   They don't need to be perfect to enjoy something.

I often think of this when my daughter says "Mum can you sing while I play the piano?"    I can carry a tune, but it's often wobbly or weak, and I don't like to annoy people.  But my children just love hearing me sing!  They don't compare me to anyone else.  Darlings   xxxxxxx

If you can, provide equipment for your children to make videos of themselves - priceless keepsakes of a time when they would sing, dance or act.  My daughter has videos of herself and her brothers that they love to watch and re-watch.  Simple little things - plays they made up, places we went - things that were "normal" life back then, but are extremely precious memories now.

Encourage them that their play or their song doesn't have to be polished and practiced - our favourite old videos include many "bloopers".  If we had only videoed things that were polished we would never have made anything!

Talk a lot about the positive traits people have, and nice things you notice about people.   Lots of people - in real life or in videos you watch.
     
Stop any negative talk, 
put-downs, 
sarcasm, 
disrespect
hate and 
jealous talk that turns into tearing down others.

Start at home, then spread the love    :) 

Go outside today and sing and dance in the sunshine just because it's enjoyable.