remember to dance

It’s after eleven o’clock. We’re hot, exhausted and filthy after spending an entire day in stifling heat at the baseball park. All I can think of is how good it will feel after a quick shower to slip my clean body into those cool, fresh sheets and drift off to sleep.

And then I hear her.

Singing her heart out.

Lost in her imagination, completely unaware that others might hear her, see her.

Dum-dum. Swishhhh. Dum-dum.

Oh, and she’s dancing, too.

Dancing like she’s on stage, performing for the world to see.

I smile.

I can’t remember the last time I danced like that…

When I felt the music…

Deep in my soul,

or when I was even quiet enough to hear the song inside of me.

When I moved because I couldn’t sit still,

and joy propelled me to run and leap,

twirl and pirouette.

I can’t remember the last time I stepped sure-footed,

and my foot landed where it did because it felt right, not because it was where I placed it.

So as sleep arrives,

I reminded myself to remember

To be still enough to hear my song…

To let it fill me until it spills from my fingertips.

To let it propell me forward,

So that I do what I do with joy.

I remind myself to follow my daughter’s lead

And dance to the rhythm of life.

*****

Recognizing the gift of internal music, movement, and a sweet eleven year old’s inability to sit still

with Emily

and Darcy

Remember to dance.

**Thank-you, Miss Kay, for letting me share these images of you,

and for sharing with Lexi the gift of dance.