The shoppers were having an ordinary day, checking out sales and picking up a few things. Then when they walked past a blank storefront, a Disney character appeared.  It seemed to be their own shadow, yet instead of Joe Schmoe on his cell phone it was Goofy or Cinderella. Children's eyes lit up with the possibility of becoming a princess, and a teenage boy started dancing with Mickey. The veils of anonymity that normally shield people in public dropped like a rock. Children smiled. Grownups believed in magic. For a moment everyone forgot that people are watching and became a little freer to laugh. 

Sometimes I wonder what the people I know will be like when they step beyond the curtain of earthly life. Benjamin for example. Autism has him trapped for now but one day on the other side I will find out what he really loves and stands for. Most of us are held back by fears and tethers of self consciousness. 

How will I behave when being me does not seem dangerous? When John and I were leaving California I finally had the nerve to invite our friends to a concert of our music. We were leaving the state in a few weeks so rejection had lost its grip on me. People we love danced in the aisles while we sang our hearts out. ​It was one of the most joyful evenings of my life. 

One time a man who is very slow to enter into conversation admitted to me why that is. 

"Every time I think of what I might say I look at all the possibilities for it being wrong, and by the time I have dissected it for potential misunderstandings the topic has moved on."

How sad to think that he is so bound by fear that most people have no idea who he really is. 

It invites me to look at the people around me who stumble, and snarl and imagine how their feet will move when they hear their true song begin to play.