Once upon a time a childhood favorite came to life… and it was just what I needed.
I recently had the extreme pleasure of attending Mary Poppins at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. It was a last minute momME-night-out with 2 mom friends of mine. Let me start first by saying that if this show comes your way, check it out. It is fabulous.
I sat in the theater expecting the movie of my childhood to come to life on stage. I had not read of the additional songs, expanded story lines, or any of it, but you can check it out here. There were a lot of young children there and while my daughter would have been fine, it is a bit darker than the movie. What I never expected were the take-away lessons that I guess I never paid attention to, or maybe they were new for the musical. So here are my Top 5 lessons from that night:
5) Everything is better with tap shoes. I grew up as a tap dancer and there is still something that a large tap production does to my heart that brings a huge smile to my face. To see “Step in Time” as a tap number made my night! I won’t give it away, but wow Bert… you’ve got style. What can you “tap” into from your childhood days that brings a smile to your face and makes you feel good?
4) “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” is just a really cool word. It’s an excitement, a feeling, a smile. The choreography to this song was phenomenal. The energy electric. How can you be in a bad mood if you sing it? You can’t, so do it!
3) Find the fun. Like Mary Poppins says “In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun.” We think of the things we “have” to do as “chores.” This makes us put them off, dread doing them, taking longer than need be as we drag through, etc. We talk about teaching children to clean up by making it a game, or floating cheerios in the toilet to help little boys aim. How can we make our “chores” fun so they’re more enjoyable? What about turning on the radio and dancing your way through cleaning the house? How about playing basketball with the dirty laundry? A friend of mine puts on a tutu and tiara when she cleans the house. I play “Fly Lady Bingo” on Facebook. I make a list of 6 15-minute tasks and the caller will call each at random. I can’t put off that “I really don’t want to” task, I’m now cleaning along with others, and I have some accountability. I do this with work tasks too. How fun is that?
2) “Perfect mom” is NOT June Cleaver, but Mrs. Banks. Now I realize that there is no “Perfect” mother, but I can look up to Mrs. Banks. She is there for her husband, she puts up with his crap, she wants more from life, she doesn’t understand playing “the part” and has dreams of her own, she wants to spend time with her family, and she loves to sing and dance. I normally dislike the idea of “perfect mom” because as women, we tend to do this in order to judge ourselves against it to ensure we come out at the bottom. But in this case, I don’t find I judge myself. What I see is a reflection of how my life is at times and would like more of. She is inspiring and attainable. Her house is clean because she has live-in help and since that is where I am hardest on myself, I come out on top since I have to do it myself and I run my own business, lol. It’s ok to aspire to be “better” at something… it’s called having a role model. It’s not ok when we then compare to them so that we can ridicule and pressure ourselves. Have aspirations, have role models, but be secure in the knowledge that you can only be the best YOU, and you have your own journey. No one travels the same road, so no one can be exactly the same.
1) “Anything is possible if you can only get out of your own way.” ~Mary Poppins. Wow, I didn’t see this one coming… probably because it’s part of the new scoring. I heard that line just before she began to sing “Anything Can Happen” and it was kind of a slap upside the head reminding me that I can do anything I want if I would just get out of my own way. If I stopped making excuses, letting fear get the best of me, worrying about what others might think. What dreams or goals do you have? What is stopping you from attaining them? When are you in your own way? If you’ve gotten out of your way, any tips?