Here’s my story of a holiday break with an elderly couple, and a bunch of business professionals, that showed laughter and music’s power to unite differences at a four-day Christmas camp. The right tunes brought people and cultures together through, in spite of differences through a square dance caller, laughter and an Alpine Christmas camp. I’ll tell you the story to show how harmony happened in spite of us….
The International Christmas event took place among 125 leaders and scholars from 20 countries, who gathered at Miskoka, near
As we rolled back tables and chairs in preparation, it dawned on us that few of us from any country had any idea about how to square dance and many had never danced at all, or so they said. With hardly the last chair removed, our elderly callers announced they’d been doing it for 40 years of marriage and there was nothing to doing the dos-a-dos. “Even our 14 grandchildren do ‘em…” they added. To which a doctor shot back… “Any of them here to help me?” One young gal stepped in, but from what I saw, it didn’t help him any.
Once we began to dance, harmony seemed no longer an option at first, and that’s where laughter took over. As the group began to shuffle and swing, squares shifted from college experts, to top business leaders mixed into a wild web of feet, knees and elbows, in hectic motion.
Calls came as if we knew how to respond … “swing your partner,” to “Hey, sir – you forgot your lady friend!” The callers continued their music undaunted …”Go left – not right sire – oops … now look … you’ve stepped on your lady’s foot again.” “Round and round,” they called, as if we’d follow. We laughed and all I know about laughter release of serotonin seemed like synapses that connected us across cultural gaps. 
The next day’s musical effects were also clear. We awoke early to traditional carols sung, tiny bells run in the halls and just outside our windows. The sun beamed warm rays through thick firs in our Alpine village, casting shadows here – glistening over soft snow there. One white birch just outside my window stood especially tall among clusters of rustic trunks. Branches clothed in white bark- uplifted – as if to harmonize the season. Music filled the dining room which had been darkened, except for 125 lights that flickered as if to unlock our hearts and minds through their magical dance.
From this professional Christmas camp in an Alpine village to research about how music and laughter empower the mind, we find newly discovered powers within music to liven connections across differences. Because its rhythm changes our brain waves, music can also lift moods, add memories that had previously escaped you, and tell its own stories on your page.
How could laughter or musical intelligence mix into h
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