Way back in time,
When life was different,
There was a young clown who had been born into the circus and the circus life and that's all he knew.
Performing most days with the other clowns,
Having fun and just clowning around.
The circus would set up in every large town and city in the land and spend several weeks in each location.
The young clown did not like this very much,
As he would make friends with the locals and before he knew it,
It would be time to move on again.
In time he began to resent this.
He dreamed one day of being free and leading a new life away from the circus.
It was a new town and as ever,
All the people in the circus had a job to do.
Clowns job was to hold one of the many ropes used to put the tent up.
The clown who was unwillingly helping to hold his rope was getting distracted by the rather strange behaviour of the lion tamer.
Who was talking to his lions that were still in their cages,
Getting restless.
It looked as if he was communicating with them and the lions understood every word.
In this split second of complete distraction,
As the lion tamer managed to calm the lions,
The clown let go of the rope.
The tent began to lose its balance and within a short time everyone else holding the other ropes were unable to stabilise the tent and it collapsed in seconds.
The circus did not open on time that night and the circus master was not happy.
Clown was summoned to explain himself.
Clown being clown was unable to control his nerves and he did not explain himself well.
His punishment was to work in the hot dog trailer outside of the main tent and he could not return to clowning around until the circus master had decided that his punishment was over.
The clown hated the smell of hot dogs and frying chips.
A smell he had been brought up with.
A smell that invited people in.
But in the end,
Signalled that soon the circus would be on the move again to another town.
A never ending cycle.
He became angry,
Rude and disrespectful to all the customers and word of mouth spread at each show and slowly people stopped visiting the food trailer.
In the end the bad word of mouth spread so fast that it travelled to towns where the circus was due to arrive.
Sales fell and clown became more and more the victim of other people's dissatisfaction.
The circus became an unhappy place for everyone.
Clown was stuck in this mess.
That deep down the clown knew whose fault it was.
This made him feel worse and angrier.
Clown began to worry about the future and how clown had messed it up.
One sad,
Lonely day.
Clown was walking head down past the lion trailers and even the lions could sense the anger.
They roared in self defence.
A way of defending themselves from any threat that they thought existed.
Seeing this happen the lion tamer shouted at the clown to come over.
His tongue was calm and friendly.
Not something the clown expected and they both sat down together on a bale of straw that lay on the ground next to the trailers.
The lion trainer spoke.
I've been watching and I can tell things are not right with you.
Even the lions know.
They pick up on your energy and emotions and get scared.
The secret of being able to tame a pack of lions is to be calm yourself.
Before you can change anything on the outside you must change what's going on in the inside.
The lions just reflect what is going on inside of you.
What you really see is your own aggression and fear.
As clown listened to the lion tamer there was a realisation that the lion tamer was not the master of the lions.
He was the master of himself.
And because of that the lions felt safe and calm.
They continued to meet every day in the morning break hidden away in safety from the rest of the circus behind the animal trailers.
The tamer teaching clown how to deal with his own internal wild animals that seem to inhabit his body.
Taming each one by paying attention to all the sensations within the body and relaxing and soothing the body with deeper breaths and being still for shorter periods of time.
The tamer taught clown how to feed the lions and how to gain their trust by first feeding himself with kindness.
Focusing on the positives.
Being polite and friendly towards others.
He also noticed that the tamer also spent time talking to the lions about the day he had had and how he was feeling.
This seemed to help everyone calm down.
And soon the clown began to engage more with the customers who came to the hot dog trailer.
At first it was strange being friendly and calm with everybody and sometimes even hard work.
The more he reached out to others the easier things became.
Sometimes the hot dog van was the focal point of the circus and in time clown had forgotten all about his past mistakes and was enjoying his moments serving hot dogs and being with people.
It wasn't long before the circus master rewarded clown for his big turnaround and was soon back with his old friends performing pranks and making customers laugh in the ring just like clowns do.
Clown had shown bravery and courage in learning to tame his internal lions and other internal wild animals.
Clown had learnt to share with others how things were going and how clown felt.
This had the magical effect of making clown feel more relaxed and friendly with all the circus people,
Animals and customers.
Soon the circus was a happy place once again.
Especially in clowns own world.
He decided that he liked the circus and he would stay for many more years clowning around.
But he still found time to sit with the old lion tamer every day on a bale of straw next to the trailers to chat,
Relax and just be with the lions.
Thank you.
