Sharing the Light

this was a strange week in many ways.  Snowmageddon took over the GTA - it's bark was way worse than it's bite, thankfully. Some of our classes were cancelled just in case.  I have been very tired, and feeling the effects of the winter blahs, probably much like many of us are feeling at this dark and bleak time of year. I have been tempted a number of times to wrap myself in a blankie, watch a talk show and eat ice cream direct from the carton.  We can rarely afford the luxury of some pure, unadulterated sucky me time.
So, feet dragging at times, I got myself up to the classes I had running. It was at times a difficult task to remove myself from the couch, but I constantly preach that often the times we least want to do something, the more we truly need to do it.

There are two moments that I would like to share with you from this last week in my CORE life. I was hired to teach a ZUMBA class to a group of women of all ages on Tuesday night, and the ladies were ready to party!!  It was an energizing, rowdy and all around amazing hour of ZUMBA fitness. But the moment came as the opening strains of "Let It Be" started our cool down routine. As I often do, I closed my eyes at the beginning of the song to ground myself and relax into it's familiar tune.  I realized that something this time was different.  Above the CD recording, I could hear the voices of the women in the room, singing along, raising the ending of the class from fitness cooldown to spiritual moment.  It is perhaps not public knowledge, but the choice of Let It Be is of great significance to me. You see, I knew a little girl. She was amazing. And I saw her dance - before I ever knew that God was going to make her His angel so soon. So each time I play this song, I model my movements after her, and blow her a little kiss to heaven.
It was an unparalleled moment, so completely unrelated to that little girl, and yet it created in that room the most beautiful rainbow, with its colours connecting us all in that moment.
Today I taught a class and there was a girl with Down Syndrome. She shyly hung out at the back of the room, unsure of what was to come. As the opening strains of music played, and the class settled into it's familiar rhythms, I could see her face.  She was alive. The music sang out from inside her. She was glowing. By the end of the song she was front and center, and giving the rest of the class a lesson on "Feeling the Music 101".  She left the class at the end, stopped at the door, and turned around to shyly smile at us all before she left. 

We all know life has some unexpected things in store for us.  We never know who's life we may change, or who may change ours. And we never will, if we allow ourselves to stay wrapped up, comfortable and avoiding the opportunities we are presented each day.