Short Commentary on Dance, Life and Love

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul” – Martha Graham.

So, it’s official, I am addicted to partner dancing. Once I got settled into my new home in Okotoks, I decided to make a choice between a course in self-defense kick-boxing or Latin partner dance. Talk about choosing a path previously less traveled and having it make ‘all the difference!’ I’m starting to think my hips might be more dangerous than the high knee kicks would have been!

What fun! What joyous delight! First off – the growing confidence I am finding to walk into a large group of strangers and attempt to learn something absolutely brand-new and foreign to me. To just take a risk and give a try – we are capable of more than we think we are! That’s the theory that took me around the world years ago to hang with Mother Teresa’s sisters on the streets of Calcutta, India. It’s what landed me in England for a year writing a Master’s that I thought was way beyond me. It’s what caused me to take up an apron and join a team at a little bible camp with a vision, and yes, it’s what’s causing me to find cute dancing shoes and train lower back muscles!

Author Richard Rohr shares a mantra of how in life; somehow, with the trust and love of God - ’everything belongs.’ It just so happens that as I embark on these dance classes, I am also embarking on a course I’ve mentioned before called “Living From the Heart” which delves into contemplative Christian spirituality. I’ve written about the great, mysterious, cosmic, all-consuming Dance before, the one all of humanity is invited to enter into with the Triune God of Love, but boy…it’s one thing to write about it and another thing to experience it.

There is an overlap between the physicality of learning dance and what I'm labelling the ‘active passivity’ of experiencing Love, even in the midst of uncertain times and while holding ‘with an open hand’ the lives and experiences of others. I am bolding declaring to be a living witness to Rohr’s mantra, ‘everything belongs.’ I testify! I celebrate! I am grateful!

As I continue the journey of discovering what’s around my next vocational and relational corners (Oh yes, I’m on the market in more ways than one – and I’m still open to leads) and as I continue the Dance, I offer these words from Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. I would welcome your comments and thoughts. Peace.

“God is not always silent, and man is not always blind. In every man’s life there are moments when there is a lifting of the veil at the horizon of the known, opening a sight of the eternal. Each of us has at least once in his life experienced the momentous reality of God. Each of us has once caught a glimpse of the beauty, peace, and power that flow through the souls of those who are devoted to Him. But such experiences are rare events. To some people they are like shooting stars, passing and unremembered. In others they kindle a light that is never quenched. The remembrance of that experience and the loyalty to the response of that moment are the forces that sustain our faith.”