Our 6 year old’s quirky song of choice made me reflect on how we should live life like a disco ball.
Enjoying music together with T is one thing I cherish in our relationship. For a long time, all he listened to was Queen’s “We Will Rock You.”
I went on a recent binge of Australian pop star Kylie Minogue’s discography, because her joyful music lifts my mood every time.
T zeroed in on “Your Disco Needs You,” a campy single from her 2000 pop masterpiece album “Light Years,” and now asks for it on repeat.
Popular in the 70s, disco is a genre of dance music described as “typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, horns, electric piano, synthesizers…”
Basically, it’s upbeat and cheerful.
As we listened to T’s song in the car on loop, I thought about the disco ball and how it radiates light in all directions.
According to this article, the first patent for the disco ball was issued in 1917 by Louis Bernard Woeste who called it the “Myriad Reflector.”
The word “myriad” means countless or extremely great in number.
“How interesting,” I thought, as I watched T, from the rear view mirror, bopping in his car seat.
“So lets dance through all our fears
War is over for a bit
The whole world should be moving
Do your part
Cure a lonely heart.”
– Your Disco Needs You
Then my mind went on a super random tangent, thinking about each of our lives as a glass ball.
At birth, our ball is smooth. The myriad of life experiences we have, good and bad, adds facets towards of our ball, making it resemble a disco ball with each passing day.
I often think about how I’d like to hang onto T’s innocence and wonder as long as I can, because that is the purest form of light.
As individuals, we can choose to bounce the light we receive out into the world or we can trap it within ourselves during the harder moments, much like how a ray of light gets lost in darkness.
Similarly, we can absorb the darkness that comes towards us or let it bounce off. Easier said than done, of course.
T teaches me every day, sometimes through hard moments, to bounce light to others.
He is our disco ball, situated in the middle of the dance floor that is our lives, radiating light (even when he’s driving us insane!).
One common thing said about children with FASD is that every day is a new day for them. It’s a blank slate.
I learn a lot from T about letting things go.
Outdoor pools opened last weekend and they were a life saver last summer. We’ve already gone three of the four days they’ve been open!
Prior to last night’s visit, I was in a frazzled mood, after a day of back-to-back meetings and virtual schooling, with not much of a break.
My head was spinning from all the to-dos for the next day and I could feel myself getting antsy.
But then I thought about my silly disco ball. Do I hold this in, let it fester and mar a fun night out with T – or do I let it bounce off and enjoy the moment ahead of us?
I chose to boogie woogie.
It was a cooler evening, so there was only a handful of people at the pool; we practically had the shallow end to ourselves.
The sky was sunny with sporadic dark clouds. So beams of sunlight came and went.
During one moment near the end of our swim, T was chasing me as we played tag in the pool. Slivers of light pierced through the dark cloud and down onto T, illuminating our disco ball.
I watched him as he smiled, laughed and splashed in the water, enjoying and basking thankfully for this little moment of pure perfection.
I danced under many disco balls in the 70’s. After reading this post I will never look at them the same. Love it!
Thanks Diane! Disco is always making comebacks from time to time and always uplifting like our little T to me!
I’m unfamiliar with that Kylie track, I don’t think I can remember anything she did after the 90s. However, disco music can be cool and it must have been an interesting time to go out clubbing
Her 00s and 10s output are the best to be honest. 😊But yes, interesting time to go out. What’s that like these days? Haha. Thanks for visiting!
Yes, yes, yes! I grew up on Disco music and actually going to Discos with friends, Family, classmates. It’s what they call Club music and Clubbing now. Different beat, same goal…dance and let go, be free? Laugh, be happy. Thank you for the nostalgia. My Spotify has a genre for workout and when I want to be positive that’s just up beat from 70’s to now. Music is universal and brings us all together. Happy weekend my friend. Regards to your Family.☀️
I love this!! It’s amazing how much we can learn from kids. What a great parallel between T and a disco ball, he certainly sounds like he’s full of so much energy and warmth. Glad to hear you’re making great use of the pool. Fingers crossed we don’t get as much rain as they’re predicting and you’re able to get more swimming in.
Thank you, L! Yes, endless energy and so thankful for the pools cuz they just drain it from him and he passes out quicker at night. We went again tonight. 4 nights out of 6 nights they’ve been open. Hehe. Enjoy your upcoming week off!
Thanks!! It looks like we’re going to get a lot of rain next week!! Who knows, we may end up ditching our tent and staying in a motel for a few nights.
What a good analogy! And kudos to you for being able to let go of your “to-do’s” and the stress of the day to boogie with T. I love the songs that D gets into too. His favorite has been “Counting Stars” by One Republic. We have been at the pool a lot too and it came on overhead. He stopped telling a kid about puppets and started screaming, “This is my favorite song!” Made me laugh. And then he did the T bop and bounce. 🙂
Thank you, Robyn! Yes, no one is gonna die if the to-dos wait until the next day is how I look at it. 🤣 One Republic is another favourite in our family. T went through the Counting Stars phase too! I can just picture D doing that in the pool.
We were at the pool again tonight. Such a blessing during these summer days. Glad to hear D is back at one of his favourite spots too!
I massively loved Kylie’s song Spinning Around and used to play it all the time. Your kid has great taste 🙂
Thank you! 😊 Yes, he also liked a Martin Garrix song for a while, speaking of EDM. Spinning Around is another great song off the Light Years album! 👍