Friday, August 25, 2006

Just Dance



I went to a wedding the other day. It was a lovely “at home” affair, and was a wonderful ocassion. There was much obvious love between the couple, and very deep emotions as they shared their feelings about their new commitment together, and their new families. I have no doubt they will have many years of fearless love and happiness.

At the wedding, there were two flower girls, one of them quite young. I really do love to watch children. As the wedding ceremony began, she noticed she still had flower petals in her basket, so she started flinging them with abandon. And when she had used up her collection, she asked the older flower girl for some more, which she happily gave. More launching of flower fireworks. Wonderful.

As evening came, and the dancing started, I saw this little girl take note that the bride and groom had just made their appearance on the dance floor. Certainly a special occasion to be watched from afar, right? Heck no, it’s time to dance, and she started to do just that. Spinning around with the biggest smile upon her face. She was in the moment, unworried what someone else might “think” and just freely expressing herself. Also wonderful.

I think of how she would likely react as she grew older. She’d learn about decorum, about proper behavior, about being reserved. Why do we teach these lessons? Where does this inhibition creep in? And then, many years later, we are (re)learning anew to live in the present, to relish this moment, to dance when we feel like dancing. I suppose it is just human nature. It was interesting that I never noticed the parents of this little girl during the entire wedding and reception. She was free to express herself, and she did so with wonderful innocence and joy.

I think there is a lesson for all of us there.
When you love a person all fear disappears. And when you are afraid all love disappears.

-- Osho Rajneesh

Dance like no one is watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like no one is listening,
Live like it's heaven on earth.


-- William Purkey

4 comments:

Pat said...

How wonderful that the parents didn't stop the little girl from dancing. What a gift to her. Dancing, I suspect, is a truer language than words, and we don't dance nearly enough.

Steven Crisp said...

Yes, certainly true for me I would have to say. You know, certainly you have to learn how to dance well before you go make a fool out of yourself in public. Yep, largely caught in that self-concious trap.

My family knows there is another trying to break free, since I'll dance around and clap my hands in the house. But that's about as far as the craziness goes -- 'cept maybe these blogs ;-)

Thanks for the visit ... and dance lessons.

H0n3yb33 said...

Hopefully many "adults" learned a lesson while watching her. 8)

Steven Crisp said...

Honeybee,

Good point. Though this was a wedding reception, and there was an open bar. So you be the judge ;-)

It's a lesson I wish I had learned at an early age so I could have applied it to my kids. We were pretty big on decorum, I'm afraid.

Thanks for the thought.