As I played the music, there was a line of performers singing and dancing along. They all replied, "It's Alright "!. This started as my version of the Curtis Mayfield song "It's Alright." It's one of my favorite tunes to play in the hospital. At home in Georgia, people sing along. For them, it is a gospel refrain from the black church, and they are eager to join me in singing. This time, however, my chorus line of performers is not a group of black folks from the American South. It's Kajsa from Sweden, Farhad from Sweden, Sibu from South Africa, and others. In this instance, it's less Southern church and more like an improvised new musical clown theatre with great performances. That said, the chorus line in front of me quickly began to create lines to the song they were making up as I play my ukulele. Smiles and laughter break out as new improvised choreography is created. Later, we transitioned into singing Bob Marley songs, then songs by ABBA, as well as a few songs from the musical The Sound of Music. It was a perfect ending for the first day of the Clowns Without Borders General Assembly. We had just finished the day of meetings, talks, and workshops. I was glad to be able to play some music and spend some time singing and clowning around (pun intended)

This General Assembly is a meeting of chapters of Clowns Without Borders. The countries represented were Brazil, Sweden, France, England, South Africa, USA, India, Switzerland, Germany and Belgium. I was there with our executive director, Naomi, representing the USA. It is my first general assembly, and I'm grateful I could attend this meeting. We gathered in September of this year at Circ Cric, about an hour north of Barcelona, Spain. This musical interlude was the perfect way to finish the day.

In our first meeting, every one listed the different languages we all speak. Eventually, we had a list of languages. The focus was to get us to communicate well.

A highlight happened that first day when Bjorn from Sweden introduced the idea of "snälltolka." It is a phrase that means to "interpret with kindness." It is a perfect way of approaching and listening to what can sometimes be difficult conversations. In many of these instances, we find ourselves in tricky situations where we try to express ourselves and make our point while listening to others who want to make their point. Sometimes, we might not agree. There is a lot of value in the idea of snälltolka. It's an important concept to remember when we are in a problematic conversation or sharing opposing points of view.

The general assembly ended on Friday, and the next few days were filled with Clowns Without Borders Spain celebrating their 30th anniversary. My flight back to Atlanta left Sunday morning, so I was eager to participate in the celebration. Saturday, there was a celebration at an outdoor park in Barcelona. I took my time that morning, taking the train and a bus back to Barcelona, and eventually, I ended up at the venue about an hour before the celebration began. I was there just in time to see several circus acts rehearse with the band.

As much as I love seeing live performances, I like seeing artists practice and warm up before a show. You get to see the work that goes into what can look like a simple performance; however, that simple performance is built on the preparation the artists did before the audience arrived. Later that day, I loved watching the performances I watched rehearsed earlier. The audience grew to at least 1,000 people. I watched as the people in the audience danced. It was beautiful to see this celebration of Clowns Without Borders Spain. Later, I joined in the dancing. I didn't always understand the words in the music. But there was so much joy and excitement in the audience. I applied the concept of snälltolka and interpreted the singing and celebration in the kindest manner I could imagine. Then I thought about the music I played at the general assembly a few days earlier.

As the band played and the people danced, I thought about Clowns without Borders celebrating their 30th anniversary. I thought about how 30 years is a long time. As part of the celebration, they showed pictures and videos over the past 30 years of their work. Then I thought about how long I've been performing, including the 23 years of hospital clowning. I kept dancing. Time well spent. The perfect way to bookmark my stay in Spain. The first night, I sang songs with the folks from the general assembly, and now, from my last night in Barcelona, I was dancing. And just like Curtis Mayfield would say, "It's alright."

It's Alright to Snälltolka in Barcelona