A funny thing happened on the way to the demo.....

I volunteered to be a part of the Canada Day demo for two reasons, I love to celebrate the birth of our country any way that I can and I figured the more exposure I get to situation where I am not comfortable the better. During the first practice, I was so nervous that I had a difficult time getting a grip on myself. I think that I was anxious because I have been working on my form and haven't showed anyone in a while. At least that is the only reason that I can see. I managed to complete it and only looked like an amateur a couple of times. The second ( and final ) practice was much better, I had had a chance to practice a bit with my partner and work out some logistics ( where to stand and all that). I was quite comfortable afterwards, hoping that I would not be too nervous on the performance day.
The day started bright and shiney, I think there were even some birds singing. My partner for one of the forms was my daughter and she has been performing at various demos since she was four (she's 12). We started the day together with breakfast and some visiting and then got ready to leave for the celebration. She wasn't nervous at all. We arrived early and wandered around a bit, talking with friends from Silent River and waiting to begin.
And then we started, the lion dance was very cool, I am beginning to tell the difference between different dancers and their styles. I thoroughly enjoyed the show. We were up next, we walked out onto center "stage" (it was outside) , looked into each others eyes and began. It felt absolutely fantastic, we were in-sinc and our intensity was out of this world. We finished strong and then waited for our next form. Then we performed with a larger group, we had only practiced together a few times but we managed to stay together and look good.
So here is the cool part, after we were done, someone said, that wasn't too bad, I was nervous this morning but it went okay anyways. I started to respond with yeah, me too and at that moment realized that I hadn't been nervous, before, after or during. I felt cool, calm and collected and it was an amazing feeling. I have been doing many different things to decrease my nervousness, like meditating and putting myself in situation where I need to remain calm at all costs. That day was the first day that my work has begun to pay off and it felt great.