My daughter, Melissa, is a dance major in college. Recently she shared a paper with me that she had to write about her philosophy of dance. It was beatiful and expressed more than just what dance is to her. I felt like it expressed my feelings as a parent, especially being the parent of a handicapped child. Then I realized that it expresses whatever it is in each of our lives that we pour ourselves into (whether it is what we chose to pour ourselves into or not). With her permission I'm attaching a part of that paper with you!!
The thing that is most precious to me about dance is that it has been in the context of the studio – learning, stretching, strengthening, daring, insisting, pushing – that I have become who I am. Somehow the journey I have experienced as a dancer can no longer be separated with the journey I have experienced thus far as a human being. Not because I was “made to dance” or “dance is my life,” but because it has been the substance of my life for a long time now. It has been a focus, a context in which God has worked on my heart, my mind, and every inch of me. I feel more than anything that God has used dance as a tool to shape me. I have never felt defined as a “dancer” very easily. Dance was one way…there were millions of others. But what a beautiful way it has been!
I was thinking about it tonight, and it struck me that I have, for the most part, felt that I have poured into dance and have been constantly giving of myself, and yet it has occurred to me recently that somehow in the midst of all that dance began to give to me. I began to be filled up by what I had once emptied myself for.
So, I guess dance is important to me because it has been the context within which I have found courage, the place that I have learned to work hard and be disciplined and to understand what it means to fail, and to achieve; it has been the tool with which to express, but also a way to give, help and serve.
Dance is so much more than just the body moving through space. It is always the whole person, their past, their fears, and all their hopes and dreams, inside their skin, saying something, and in the process becoming something different.
Dance, to me, is about being a human. It is not about being anything other than human; it is about being beautifully human.
What a beautiful thought that as we are being stretched, strengthened, challenged, pushed at times beyond our limits; we are becoming beautifully human. And at some point we see that the thing we've been giving ourselves to is actually the thing that gives back to us, it is the tool that God is using to shape us.
So let's dance, maybe not physically like Melissa does (although I have a blast dancing around my kitchen when no one is looking except the dog), but let's dance and celebrate in our hearts. We were not made for a thing or for a task, we were created to be in relationship with God our Father. As we seek Him and grow through whatever circumstances we are in, we are becoming fully human and more like Him!
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