Bravo to my daughter for daring greatly

Last night my daughter appeared in her first starring role in a major production for our acting community here in Bermuda. She was Ngana in the musical, South Pacific; superbly put on by Gilbert and Sullivan. When she entered the stage and sang her first song in French, tears came to my eyes. Tears of pride. Tears of joy. Tears of love and support.

My daughter is only 10 years old but is wise beyond her years because she has something that many of us never attain in all of our years or attain much later in life. She embraces her vulnerability by putting herself out there. As Brene Brown says, she has chosen courage over comfort. She constantly goes beyond her comfort zone by being courageous enough to be vulnerable. Giving herself the capacity to have strong belief in herself and faith that if she is true to who she is, everything will come to her when the time is right.

She is not afraid to put herself out there; even though she knows sometimes things will not go her way. She keeps trying until what’s right for her comes to her. As I saw her on stage last night, full of nerves and confidence at the same time,  I understood something very fundamental about my daughter and about life – when we are who we are meant to be, regardless of whatever anyone else thinks we should be, a certain light radiates from deep within us that draws people to us. Lures people to us and what we have to discern is whether those people that are lured to us are lured to us with the best intentions or with the intentions of taking away our light because they know no matter what, they can never be who we are.

My daughter has learnt from an early age that the only person she is competing with is herself. She knows in order to be true to who she is, she has to work on herself. To embrace her imperfections and vulnerabilities. If she goes for something and it does not work out she learns from that rejection and works on whatever was not right and then goes back each time thereafter with a new skill learned.

She has also learnt to walk away when something no longer resonates with her. When the feeling deep inside is telling her she is not in the right place. That she is not being true to who she is.

When I heard her sing last night, I heard a determination in her voice that filled me with hope and pride to know my little girl is on her way. Knowing she is equipping herself to deal with the hard road she has ahead of her by not worrying about what anyone else is doing nor is she worrying about what anyone else is saying about her unless it is to her benefit. And the confidence she carries with her tells me she has mastered and understands she must continue to master what the great Lao Tzu said,

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.”

Bravo to my daughter for her superb performance last night. May she have many more and even on those nights when she may not be her best, may she continue to work on her craft and herself to bring the best person she can be into the room. Allowing herself to continuously open doors for herself. Allowing her light to shine by being content with who she is. And for "daring greatly" by placing herself in the arena and being who she is. What a joy.

Bravo to the entire cast and crew of South Pacific for a job well done. Opening night down. Here’s to a continued successful run.