When Bluebirds Appear

I have not danced for over five years. This has not diminished my love for dance and I constantly seek happenings about dance all over the country. I and we hope to get back to dancing by the winter of this year. We do not expect to ‘fall’ down when we finally go back to dancing. Dancing is like bike riding, they say you never forget it. I certainly hope so. We have not danced because we were in a horrendous auto accident over five years ago in June 2008 due to a man texting and not watching where he was going. He hit us and the car and we are progressing health wise and the car is gone.

My little six year old granddaughter Ava likes to move her darling body to music played on a toy that gives out the most adorable songs to her. She moves her hips and body as if she was a ballroom dancer. Even her Grammie (me) never moved that way and with such intense joy. The minute we arrive to see her every three weeks from our home over eighty miles away, she puts on that music and I always say "many ballroom lady dancers would give anything to move that way."

However, whatever way we move at any age and many of us are seniors or getting to be seniors, we always wish we could move better than we do. It really does not matter, as long as you are doing it and trying to do it. The effort is more than half of the result. The result is amazing and anything you accomplish is truly worthwhile.

Shakespeare in Sonnet 126 –"oh my lovely, who is thy power?" What he meant is that

We have power over time and we are immune to its capacity to cut it down. You and I have only grown more beautiful as we aged. Those words are the interpreter of his sonnets in a book called No Fear Shakespeare published by Thomas Thorpe

So we must continue to try to dance and even persons like me who have setbacks in their dancing must strive to never really give it up for longer than we have to due to setbacks such as accidents, illness or financial problems. It is something that stays with us forever and I look at my many dance photos from way back when I competed in competitions with my various teachers and I see me as young, vibrant and ever so happy. I cannot be young again, but I can strive to be vibrant and happy, trying to still ballroom dance even at this later age.

There is an expression that says springtime of love and therefore we can amend it and say that all times are times of love for ballroom dance. You can say goodbye to yesterday and say hello to today and tomorrow. Maybe today, you cannot dance for some reason, be it health, finances or no time, but yes tomorrow is the ‘there’ to make it happen.

There are lots of advertisements about getting rid of pests around or in your home. This is not a really pleasant thing to contemplate, but we can also get rid of pests that trouble us in our life. Perhaps there are people who annoy us with their comments that are not so nice. There are people who try to tread on our toes (no pun intended) by putting us down verbally. There are sales people who irritate us in person or on the phone and yes; there are relatives and friends who aggravate us too.

Just smile at them when they do and that can irritate them even more than they do to us.

My uncle Julius (mom’s brother) did that well. When he and his wife Aunt Adele got into a spat, he would walk out the door, take a trip around the block and then come in, smile at her and go upstairs. If he had answered her back, the arguments would have continued and she would have won. He won because he resolved it in his own quiet manner. I am sure psychologists would say to answer back, to clear it up and etc. However, for Uncle Julius this was his way of making and keeping peace.   

I myself would rather answer back and let no one get the best of me especially a pest of a person. Many people try to be pests when talking about you and your love for ballroom dancing. They do not want to participate in it and therefore do not want you to do it either because they feel in their heart you are accomplishing something they cannot or will not want to do. Do not let them get in your way of attaining this special and beloved hobby.

Laurence Miller of Maine who was our first ballroom dance teacher for us as a couple says  “dance is a spiritual expression of our soul onto the dance floor and a partnership with music-for those who have ears, let them hear.”  Laurence and I competed, with him as my professional partner for eight years and then he left for the northern part of the country and I went on to compete with other teachers. None were of the caliber of Laurence and none inspired me to excel as he did in those eight years. He gave to me the extension of the love for ballroom dancing which I had as a young woman in my early twenties. I took some lessons as a single person, but the teachers did not instill in me the desire to continue on.

When I married and we went to Paris on a trip and I saw the elderly people on the tour get up at the Lido nightclub and they danced beautifully, I made up my mind that we were going to learn to dance as a couple. This is when we met Laurence and the rest is dance history.

Go out and ballroom dance and do it at your own speed, time and financial ability and enjoy it and like little and beautiful Ava, move your hips, body and mind to happiness with the music.

As Shakespeare said we have power over time and do not let time have power over you. Use your valuable moments to enjoy life and if you have the desire to dance, it is not too late. You have the power to do anything you want to achieve. You can take up tennis, golf, dancing, sewing, travel, writing, going to shows, eating in various restaurants or anything else that calls your name and says “I want you.”

You have to have the response to say in your mind “I want you too.”

Believe in yourself and fight for what is right for you.

I heard a line in a soap opera I watch. Someone of importance in a lot of people’s lives said before she passed on in the story line and also in real life. She said in the story part “When bluebirds appear, I will be watching over you.”

Watch over yourself and your life and the bluebirds will come.