“If you have the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance!”
Are lyrics from a popular song, which played as background music to my mom’s life video commemorating her 80th Birthday. She lived 10 more years and shortly after that celebration began deteriorating with Alzheimer disease. She never did get out there and dance, as she once loved to do. Although, from the wheelchair, days before her death, we DID dance at her last New Year’s celebration.
In analyzing the key positive and negative words of the above paragraph, those that stand out as significant in creating thought patterns are:
| POSITIVE | NEGATIVE |
| favorite | background |
| chance | chance |
| hope | deteriorating |
| dance | disease |
| new | never |
| celebration | last |
| death | death |
“Paying attention to our favorite things is an important self-awareness. When we attempt to tap into our passion, those favorites come in to play…our favorite color, style, past time, the place to travel, food, animal, etc. Our favorites indicate what brings us joy and pleasure. We identify our desires. So often, we are told to focus on our needs NOT desires. In actuality, by listening to our desires, we begin to hear our dreams. When we hear our inner voice and give it the attention that it deserves, we begin to think in new patterns. We then develop new ways of being. We follow our desires and become more desirable. We believe that we deserve to craft the life of our dreams.”
– Lao Tsu
We begin to see the opportunities in the moment and to take a chance of looking odd, feeling too old, waiting for a better time, getting the right gear…whatever the excuse, we often miss the chance.
Hope can be a great inspirer and also a procrastinator. Hope contains a great deal of patience. My mother had the patience that eventually allowed her to hope to pass her by in certain areas. Dance is one way that keeps us moving through hope. It keeps the momentum flowing with the dynamic tension of stillness. It is a balance of both. There is a continuity of new and old, one unfolding into the other.
When we live in our background, we live in the past. We simply take a passenger role to life and passively observe it through the window. We watch the rain and wait for it to pass. We allow life to happen by chance that may never occur. It may be too late to play the leading role or any role for that matter. Deteriorating is an active word. It is a slow process, yet nonetheless, a process in motion. It moves toward decay, death, and decline rather that growth and action. The last scene always tells us how it will end.
My mom was also an artist. She painted beautiful flowers and inspiring scenes all the way to her last breath. Although she completed her final painting through me, the guidance of her spirit taught me to capture the moments in beauty and joy. My mom dared to dream through her passion until her final breath. She moved her background into the foreground as she entered her destiny.
Reflections
- How balanced is your work/life situation?
- Where are you missing the dance?
- Where do you need to learn some new steps?
- How will your story end?
- What part will you play in creating your life?
- Do you dare to dream?
