I’ve been running intervals lately on the treadmill to concerts on Netflix.
(Yes, it is as fun as it sounds. 😉 )
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One of the many great moments in Beyonce’s Homecoming Coachella special
Happened early on in the show. I’m not referring to the insanely electric, ginormous band, intense choreography, guest appearances, pyrotechnics, her making me ugly cry when she spoke of motherhood, the Maya Angelou voice-over bits, the time she called the band members out and held them to a higher standard of performance, or even when she prayed up the team.
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Granted all of those were phenomenal, but there was another, much more subtle moment that taught me a very important lesson.
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At the start of the show, during the intro of ‘Crazy In Love’, she appears on the top of the risers. She’s 100% in her power as a purposeful performer as the desert crowd explodes with applause.
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Her expression is one of hot, untouchable focus. And then, right before she says ‘Coachella. You ready?” She breaks “character”. Her badass posture loosens (if only for a second) and she even laughs a lil’.
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Her eyes scan the space and she smiles. (I spent more time trying to screengrab a shot on my phone than actually writing this, so we’re gonna use this pic. Watch the first 3 minutes of the show to see it in its fullness though, friend.)
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After working for over two years with over 200 band members in order to forever raise the bar for Coachella concerts, she pauses and smiles. After working tirelessly to “personally select each dancer, every light, the material on the steps, the height of the pyramid, the shape of the pyramid in order to assure that every tiny detail had an intention”, she pauses and smiles.
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Before showing up to serve as the first black woman to headline there, she pauses and smiles. Upon getting ready to dance for nearly 2 hours straight when, less than a year prior, she thought she’d never dance again after the twins’ scary birth, she pauses and smiles.
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As she was at the precipice of crushing a massive goal, she paused and smiled. Perhaps she smiled in gratitude for God showing up as God always does. Perhaps she also smiled in gratitude for herself as a powerful co-creator with the Divine. Perhaps she smiled as she took in the high-vibes of the stage, the audience, and the teammates she had slain with for so long. Perhaps she smiled and laughed at the pure joy and honor of living out her soul’s purpose.
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May we be like Queen Bey and honor the holy ground that is the space between the work that we’ve done toward a goal and actually executing it. It’s pertinent to our sustainability and it’s pertinent to our effectiveness to pause, take it all in and smile.
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Don’t worry, my fellow spiritually-attuned go-getter, this practice will in no way diminish your ability to, ‘see it, want it, stunt, yellow-bone it
dream it, work hard, or grind ’til you own it”.
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In fact, pausing and smiling in the space between will make you more powerful than you’ve ever imagined.