and that's the way it is

I didn’t watch the Olympics opening ceremony — which is completely out-of-character for me, since the opening ceremony is often the only thing I watch — but when I learned after the fact that Céline Dion had closed the ceremony, I knew I needed to watch her performance.

I’m not a huge Céline fan — there are only one or two songs of hers that I’ve ever enjoyed — but I knew it had been years since she’d performed on stage. In 2022, she disclosed that she’d been diagnosed with Stiff Person Syndrome, an illness that sounds totally made up, but is in fact a debilitating neurological condition that presents with progressive muscular rigidity and stiffness. This affliction affects the muscles around her lungs — catastrophic for a singer known as the “Queen of the Power Ballad.” So the fact that she returned to the stage in such a high profile, international way was intriguing, especially as most were hailing it as a triumph.

She performed wearing custom Dior and performing an Edith Piaf standard, Hymne de l’Amour. God bless her, she belted it out. You can watch it here.

Here’s how the New York Times described it:

And in a long, white glittering dress, she seized her moment. She relied on subtlety along with lung power. Perhaps her voice was a little scratchier, at times, than before her illness. But the drama of the moment was matched by the dynamics of her performance, rising to an unaccompanied peak before a triumphant final phrase. Yes, she nailed the landing.

Man, I love stories like this: folks who, when faced with something catastrophic, manage to work their way through it, against all odds. I’ve seen her performance described as a “triumphant comeback.” Honestly, I suspect it’s not fully a “comeback” — there’s no cure for Stiff Person Syndrome, so I doubt she’ll be upping the number of her performances to pre-diagnosis levels — but there’s no arguing that this was a moment of triumph. And while I’ve heard these sorts of efforts described as “brave,” or “courageous,” I suspect that her performance was more the work of consistently, with determination, taking one day at a time.

Because any time I hear a story about someone doing something really challenging or difficult (and I’ve been listening to a lot of stories as I research my book), or indeed, when I reflect on past challenges of my own life, the truth is sometimes the only way to make it through is just to make it through. Sometimes life can get so overwhelming, that there’s nothing to do but take as deep a breath as you can, and focus on the next 60 seconds in front of you, and then the next, and so on. Just one baby step at a time. And with consistency, little by little, you suddenly realize that you’ve created some light.

And that’s the way it is.

So my wish for us this week, my friends: that we take everything just one baby step and mindful minute at a time. Here’s to daily triumphs.