Balloons

After today’s shows were done I got home and sat down with my electric balloon pump to inflate the balloons for tomorrow’s show. I still remember the first time we offered the balloon show and workshop. I knew I had to help with the prep as it’s a lot of balloons to pump on your own I thought, particularly since we were using hand pumps at the time.

Ben was all kinds of stressed and each balloon that was overinflated or popped seemed a lot. But we got through and as always practice eases the mind.

After a couple of years of balloon shows, Ben wondered out loud why it was taking me longer to inflate balloons than him. I showed him what I was doing and he laughed so much he fell off his chair. I had been listening to the jester show 60 odd times a year where he described stretching the balloons to make them easier to inflate and so as a pulled each balloon from the bag I gave them a stretch.

Oh, the time I had spent not realizing that the “stretching” was just a line of script with no basis in reality. These days the student has truly become the master (at least in inflating balloons) and I whiz through 150 in next to no time. Although I will admit tying them off still takes a toll on my finger.

The bit I like the most though is that no matter how early the start (read still “mostly asleep”) carrying the brightly coloured bags down the stairs brings a little light to my soul. Seeing the kid’s faces as they watch the show and then have their balloon creation come out as they twist their own dog brightens the world not just at that time and place but also my outlook on life in general.

So enjoy a balloon this week and let your light shine.