On Friday night my family attended a performance of Cirque du Soleil. What a
marvelous experience! The sheer unbridled joy of people coming together to
watch feats that seem impossible, that cause people to ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ out loud
is so gratifying. I am not sure what I enjoyed more: watching the performance or
watching people WATCH the performance. As the lights hit the faces of those
around me, especially my now-adult sons, watching their faces erupt with
laughter or awe, simply filled me to over flowing.

The performance included the usual: A juggler, tossing
plates, balls, knives and bowling pins into the air. The tightrope walkers high
above the audience balancing on bicycles and chairs causing us to keep one eye closed for fear of their falling. The two young women who were contortionists,
twisting their bodies into all manner of shapes that didn't seem humanly possible. The clowns whose entrances
were spaced just perfectly so we could take a breather from holding our bodies
tense from the more daring acts. The young acrobat who stacked chair upon chair
hundreds of feet into the air balancing first on his hands, then his hands,
then his head. The most amazing, at least to me, were the two men on the
humongous gerbil-like wheels that turned and defied gravity, spinning, turning,
flying at break-neck speeds into the air. I held my breath, looked through
closed fingers as if watching a horror movie…..only this was real, happening right before
my eyes.

At some point in the middle of the performance, I started
thinking about the trust these people must have, must demand, in order to do
the work they do. Their very lives depend upon the people they live with and
work with to keep them from falling, from tripping, from perhaps even dying. I began to think about what
it would mean to have that kind of trust in every work setting. What would it
mean for each of us to trust our co-workers in this full-bodied way? What if we
needed to work so closely with one another, sharing the breath and the beat of
the heart of another so we wouldn’t fall down and hurt ourselves? What would it
be like to look into the eyes of the person at the desk or office nearby and
say: ”I’m trusting you with my life.”? This is certainly what the Circque du
Soleil performers must do twice a day for every day they are doing their
amazing work.

As for me, I’d like to think I also have the grace to be a colleague most like
the juggler’s assistant. Wearing a beautiful costume, her smile rich and pure, her
sole job is to hold the space for the one who tosses, pitches and throws. She
hands him what he needs to look good, to be successful. At the end of each part
of the act, her other job is to focus the attention on the one who is the
center of the attention.  With a flourish
of her lovely arms, she affirms her co-worker with a “Tah-Dah!” and the
applause ensues, the audience wildly affirming his skill and expertise.

Each of us, in our work setting, with friends or family,play certain roles. In your work place, what role do you play? My prayer is that each of us
might work more like these amazing performers…….knowing the trust we must
have in one another……the trust that the other is looking out for our very
lives.And that the end of the day, we each might lift our lovely arms toward one another with a "Tah-dah" and stand in the arm glow of the applause….together.