Well, happy Monday! I don’t know how many of you have heard of Sir Ken Robinson, but he was a great author and thinker and he passed away last week. And somebody in a memorial post on social media referenced his book, “The Element,” and it reminded me that I had that book on my shelf.
And it was a book that I’d started reading, but I don’t know about you… sometimes you’re just not in the mood for whatever it is you’re reading about and you put it up. That was the case with him and so I got it back out. And in the first chapter, he talks about three separate individuals that were into this category of; maybe schools not for them, maybe they have a disability, maybe they can’t learn and this goes all the way back to the 1930s.
And what they found is that each one of these individuals had a passion and that passion was a little bit off of the mainstream. It might not include sitting in rows being taught and being able to pay attention that entire time, but if you gave them a pencil and asked them to draw something, magic happened. If you turned on music and allowed them an opportunity to dance, magic happened.
So, here’s the message in this COVID-19 world… we want people to conform to the boxes that we build because it makes life easier for us. If we’ve learned anything through serving those with disabilities, is we need to unlock the passion not in us but in them.
And when we do that, we need to sit in awe of the magic that pours out right in front of us. Stay encouraged, feed the passion because if passion and work come together you’ll see the magic happen. I hope you have a great week!