Life As A Dance

If you are 40+, you may remember shows like "American Bandstand" and "Soul Train." I, as others did, watched the shows to learn the latest dances out at the time. Of course, during the 80s, video shows became prominent, and I spent hours watching these shows just to learn the dance steps from beginning to end. While some dances were easy to learn, like The Robot and The Bump (you really couldn't mess that one up), others were a bit more difficult for me, like The Running Man. In fact, it took me months to get that one, and by the time I did finally learn it, the dance was played out. Similarly, "American Bandstand" and "Soul Train" became "played out" as well.

With shows like "Dancing With The Stars" and "So You Think You Can Dance," the dance craze (as far as viewing it on television as we did in the 60s, 70s, and 80s) has made a comeback. Dance pervades our society. In fact, I was just watching the tv show "Closer To Home." In the last scene of the episode, two opposing attorneys were talking after a case, and one said to the other that they would continue their dance again at another time in the future (paraphrase). Evidently, some dynamic exists between the two that has resulted in not only mutual respect, but also care for one another. Why am I talking about dancing? For some reason, that statement the attorney made to the other resonated with me. I began to reflect on what he meant by the statement. I then saw something I wasn't expecting.

The word "dance" has a variety of meanings. The simplest meaning is "to move rhythmically usually to music, using prescribed or improvised steps and gestures." I thought of this as related to my own life. Indeed, the steps I have sometimes performed have not always produced rhythm in my life. As I reflect, I have sometimes let steps lead me in directions I should not have gone in, pathways I should not have taken. I have even allowed my toes to be stepped on at times during various stages in my dance of life. But as I think about it, something led me to the dance, and that is the music. I wasn't expecting this...

Music evokes feeling and emotion. It is that sometimes melodious, sometimes harmonious, always rhythmic element which pushes you to get out onto the dance floor (sometimes). That which moves you to get out of bed each and every single day. That which compels you to face whatever obstacles might land in your path and adversities that might stand in your way. That which leads you into discovering what's in store for you that day. So it's not always the dance that makes the difference, then, it's the music. But I think it matters who makes the music. God makes the music in my world. And I acknowledge that while the steps I have danced have been awkward at times, atrocious at others, but also pretty good sometimes, the music has been beautiful.

The sounds God has put together to make music in my world include my husband, who has been in my life for the past six and a half years. While in our own dance we have sometimes stepped on one another's toes and skipped steps resulting in lack of rhythm, the music is still playing and we are learning to dance better with one another. God has created sounds together to make music in my world which includes my beautiful daughter, who is now two and a half years old. I sometimes step on her toes, which makes me uncomfortable at times and probably hurts her a little more, but we keep dancing. I often try to lead her in her dance, but she sometimes doesn't follow. Nevertheless, the dance between us is good - and we are learning.

One can always learn to dance. But it's the music that gets you out there. God makes my music, and I try to dance the best I can. He is teaching me as the music continues each and every day. Who makes the music in your world? And how's your own dance to that music?