Each time I have one of these monumentally triumphant days when I Face My Fears, Turn Off My Tears, and Tame My Temper, I want to indulge in a good, kick up your heels celebration dance, just enjoying and celebrating that I am doing the best that I can under my current circumstances.
And I am doing the best that I can, being the best I can be, because I really believe in the goodness of Life. Life really is wonderful even when Life is boring, challenging, or terrible. Being alive is the greatest gift there is - having the opportunity to love, to feel wonder, to experience the joy of creating....to truly live rather than simply exist.
So, my celebration dance. I begin with a wild, down to the floor and up again Twist, then bounce around in a circle in an exuberant Pony, then pump my arms up and down in the Monkey, shake my hips in a grand Shimmy, and in a happy throw-back, kick up my heels in a Charleston. I have actually danced like this, in happy abandon to the music, and maybe I deserve to do it again. Maybe I need to do it again.
If we look Life clearly in the eye, you and I will admit that it's a fatal error to be too serious. To take even tragedy too seriously is to forget that its flip side is comedy, and that no matter how devastated we are, something is going to happen that is so ridiculous that we will have to laugh. All it takes is the antics of a toddler or the inspired physical comedy of a teen, or a friend's loving, snarky comment, and we can't stop a giggle. To swathe our minds continually in the black of anger, fear, or mourning is to deny that God made a rainbow meant to dress our hearts up for eternity.
So let's dance in celebration together. Celebrate because as Albert Einstein said, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle." Celebrate because we're both doing the best we can under the circumstances.
We could do some upbeat Swing dancing. Or a dignified ballroom waltz. Or start a Conga line gyrating through a Mall. Or do the Macarena. Or don cowboy hats and try a boisterous country line dance. Or smile as we make those synchronized moves side to side in a Cha Cha Slide. Yell for everyone's arms to sway up and down for "Y.M.C.A."
If you're really athletic, we could wear parachute pants and groove to "Hammertime," or float backwards in a Jackson Moon Walk, or wave and slither our arms around in a Madonna Vogue Dance.
If you're really, REALLY athletic, we could try dancing on the ceiling with Lionel Ritchie or tap dance on the ceiling with Donald O'Connor. I'm up for anything that soothes and uplifts your soul and mine.
Wait a minute. You're not telling me you're too EMBARRASSED to dance like this in public, are you? Why should you be? Dancing is everybody's right, even if you get the rhythm wrong. Do you always get the rhythm right in everything you do and say? Sometimes I get it horrendously wrong. Open mouth, insert foot. Lose the soul's rhythm of kindness and forgiveness. That's part of Life too. Of daily living. God understands that, even if we don't. God understands that if we're going to dance to Life's rhythm, we'll occasionally be out of rhythm or mess up the steps.
I truly believe that Jesus danced at the Wedding Feast of Cana, especially after he changed the water into wine so the partying could continue. Jesus came, after all, to give us abundant life. And abundant joy, growing from abundant trust in His Father Who is our Father too. Jesus loves our spontaneous reaching out to enjoy the abundant Life he gives us daily, Life that endures and triumphs, through our deepest struggles and pain.
Just remember this:
"You've got to dance like there's nobody watching,
Love like you'll never be hurt,
Sing like's there's nobody listening,
And live like its heaven on earth." - William W. Purkey