A Touch of Irish Song and Story

St. Patrick’s Day seems like a good moment to share a bit o’ storytelling that has transfixed us. If you have six minutes for a song and dance from the Emerald Isle, you might find yourself enchanted.  

When someone shared this with our Grotto team, we thought, Really? A puppet show? But then… we couldn’t look away. 

There’s something about the way it all works together — the song, the story, the puppet and puppeteer — that cast us back to our childhood. It felt like we were sitting criss-cross-apple-sauce on the grass around this performance. That’s a good feeling — to remember being a kid being transported by wonder. We should do that more. 

Creating stories is an ancient art, and it’s been done millions of ways — no one knows this better than the Irish. We feel lucky to be able to do that work here at Grotto. Most of what we make is done behind the scenes and is shared as a final product, but it’s captivating to see the relationship between the creator and the created in performances like this. That’s why we can’t look away from cooking videos or time-lapse shots of painters at work. 

There’s just a hint of anticipation in this kind of storytelling. It’s not just the art or performance that intrigues us — it’s also seeing how it is being created. We wonder: What will those ingredients turn into? What is he painting? What will happen? 

Too much of our lives are planned and programmed and scheduled and managed. We know what will happen nearly every moment of our day. That’s not a bad thing, but it can dull our ability to ponder and imagine new possibilities — to consider that things can be otherwise. 

So make some time to be a kid now and again. Give yourself room to wonder, and don’t be afraid to dive in and follow it when something beautiful finds you.