Community Update

I was forty-four when I started taking ballroom dance lesson
and a year or so later to compete as an amateur with my pro teacher, the
professional. It was called pro-am. Before I danced in that category, I
appeared at the dance studio in a fancy and specially bought cocktail dress and
danced before dancers at the studio. Many I knew, others I did not. While I was
dancing and very nervous to be that age and dancing before a crowd, one of the
patrons there, a very obnoxious fellow named Pat yelled out "smile, baby
smile." I heard that and felt peculiar, but I smiled.

A few months later my pro teacher and I, the amateur danced
in a competition in Virginia,. I was among about eight couples and came in
sixth which was pretty good for the first experience competing.

A year so later, I went with my husband and this coach to
Florida and danced there in seven heats as they are called and won five
trophies. I was so excited and when I came home, I displayed my five on
specially built shelves in the kitchen. I dust them every week. Now I have
fifty-eight trophies and medals and certificates.

When we came home from Florida, I wrapped my five trophies
in towels I had 'taken' from the hotel. They checked our carry-on luggage and
from the bag they were in, they looked like guns or rifles. The checker opened
each towel and saw they were trophies, looked at me and smiled and said OK, go
forward. I was embarrassed they were in towels from the hotel, but proud I, at
that age had won them.

Winning gives you more confidence in your dancing abilities
and great ego enhancement for your mind and body and soul. I continued to take
ballroom dance lessons long before the craze that has hit the country from the
dancing shows on now.

We ballroom dancers knew back then in the seventies and
eighties that ballroom dancing excites the brain, stimulates the brain and
causes adoration in one's heart for having accomplished this great feat. No pun
intended, but the feat stimulates the feet to move and to be active and to
create.

Creating is what it is all about and as you age and now it
is thirty-three years later, I am so proud that I took up this 'hobby' and not
only does it elevate one's self to feel proud, but it invigorates and
stimulates your personal growth and lights a fire under you.

A good fire that warms your entire being and keeps the mind
enlivened and refreshed.

Anyone who is thinking about taking up this form of dance,
do not think you have to wear skimpy costumes, take seven hour a day coaching
or show off half of your body as they do on Dancing With The Stars. This is not
real ballroom dancing as we do; this is show-off for television hoopla.

Real ballroom dancing is for real and everyday people. Try
it, you will be delighted.

Watching a television old movie on the Lifetime Channel
recently I was interested in the unusual storyline. A young woman was dying
from a disease and her son who was about thirteen years old was so sad. It was
Christmas Eve and he went to a department store to buy his mom a pair of red
shoes. His idea on the subject was that he wanted her to have new shoes when
she met God and danced up in heaven. He did not have the full price of the pair
of shoes and as he emptied his piggy bank in the store, the clerk said he was
short five dollars. He was so sad and the customer behind him paid the five
dollars for the child. He told the Good Samaritan that he would pay him back
someday.

He ran home and gave the shoes to his mom who was lying in
bed and she hugged him and said it was the prettiest pair of shoes she had ever
seen. Of course as in stories, she died a few minutes later holding on to the
child, the shoes and her husband.

Many years later, the Good Samaritan was in the cemetery visiting
his own mom's grave and there was a young fellow about twenty-two visiting his
mom's grave.  They chatted and when the
young man walked away, you saw the red pair of shoes on the grave. Of course,
that was far-fetched that the shoes would be still there on the grave for
about   fourteen years and in good shape
too. He told the older man that he was in medical school and he had come to
visit during the semester break his mom as the older man was doing too.

We were led to believe that this was the man in the store
who had given the remaining money for the shoes over fourteen years ago. It
made for a sweet ending that the two met again.

The boy's thoughts that he wanted his mom to have new shoes
for her heaven time were also sweet and dear. 

None of us want to think about this, but the sweetness of
the child in wanting his mom presented to God, so she could dance before him
brings to mind that when we dance, we dance mainly for ourselves and our
self-esteem. That is entirely a nice feeling the child had in his heart.

To volunteer and help people in need or to support charity
work in an organization is a blessed thing to do. There are all kinds of
volunteering.

I go to Weight Watchers here in their Owings Milles meeting
hall. I have been successful in weight loss many times and then as most often
do, gain it back and start again. This time is forever and I mean forever
because it makes it easier on my aching knees to carry less weight on them. I
write on the Weight Watchers blog to inspire others who go to the WW meetings
to stick to it and they will be happier and feel better. This is a form of
volunteerism. It also is easier on my knees with less weight when I ballroom
dance.

We all can volunteer in a different way. We can encourage
others to dance, to even try it if they are a bit hesitant. As Weight Watcher
leaders say at the weekly lecture, just walking into the door of the room where
the weekly meeting takes place is an accomplishment and a victory. To heavy
people going the first time, there is a great beginning of a long journey into
absolute attainment of their desire to be slender for their health, happiness
and contentment.

So too is coming into a studio or hall where you are going
to try and learn to dance and you are so scared and apprehensive. If we can
volunteer our encouragement to someone new, then we have done a mitzvah (good
deed). So always remember that if you encourage only one person and that person
later on encourages another person, then the chain of dance survives and so many
people are happier for this happening.

You do not need to buy someone a pair of dance shoes as the
young boy did; you need only to enhance someone's life by telling them to go
out and try dancing. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a poem that started out
this way:

"How do I love thee, let me count the ways." We
can apply that to ourselves by saying how do I love dancing, let me count the
ways. One of the ways is to always inspire others to do this too and to instill
in them that they have the spirit to conquer any fears they have at any age, to
begin this journey into self-esteem, accomplishment and happiness. Dance brings
all this to our lives every day that we participate in doing it.

However all of this can be applied to other forms of hobbies
that we do. It can be in golf, reading seminars or book clubs, tennis,
traveling, taking college courses and other types of different activities we
love and like.

I write stories and articles on life when I was a teen in
the forties, of marriage, children, aged parents, life as a senior,
grandchildren and weight loss/gain. Whatever you attain in your life to do is
another form of volunteering, because you share your thoughts, desires and
vision and if you give only one person a new desire and hope, you will have
instilled confidence in them to do this too.

You will have extended the golden rod of spirit and
confidence.