This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Neighbor News

Rejoice, Live, Be Happy

Dancing enhances your lives, it is not like portrayed on Dancing With The Stars

Elita Sohmer Clayman, Community Contributor


Weeping may remain in the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. What a lovely phrase, line, saying or whatever you want to name it. I heard this on my soap opera the other day and say what you may about soap operas, they come up with some excellent expressions among the provocative story lines. This is from the Book of Psalms.

How can we as mortals explain this saying? I think of it this way. Many times we have sadness and it seems to escalate in the evening hours. Sometimes in the early morning when we awaken and are refreshed from our sleep, we take time out to rejoice in our blessings.

Many people on their answering machines will end their message to the caller with, “Have a blessed day.” That sentiment is particularly relevant in this rush-rush society we live in. Times are tough now for many people without jobs or losing their homes, etc. So we who are blessed with having these things, can look upon ourselves as being particularly favored and fortunate in our good happenings.



So if there is weeping in the night, then certainly we shall rejoice in the a.m. hours when we count our blessings and anticipate our good happenings for that day. Good friends and delightful family members are what we have to rejoice about and if we can feel the happiness and celebrate and revel in these moments, then we are surely having a blessed day. That day will be remembered when maybe something goes wrong on another day.

Dear friends of mine via the email and reading my dance columns in dance magazines made me two glass paintings. They painted on thick glass with acrylic-type paint pictures of dancers dancing the Waltz and the Samba and shipped them to me along with special hooks to hang them. They appear in a place of honor on my living room wall and every week when I dust them off during cleaning time, I rejoice in their friendship.

So peace and tranquility and rejoicing can be had in many ways. Another thing we do that gives us pleasure and joy is our ballroom dancing that we have done since November 2, 1977, which is almost thirty-four years now. The happiness I derive from competing with my coach, to doing showcases in the studio, to keeping my mind active and functioning and to just plain social dancing is certainly a plus for happiness. Ballroom dancing gives me a boost and makes life interesting and happy. I could not imagine my life without it now.

Many people I know after watching the current 2016 edition of Dancing With The Stars hesitate to go to a studio to try and learn to dance even though in their heart they really want to succeed at it. They see the stars learning to dance and they read about how they practice seven hours a day, six-to seven days a week. They know their bodies and their purses cannot afford the money it costs and the physical toil on their bodies , regardless of their now age. These stars get paid money per week to take these lessons, to practice and to almost make it their prime source of living for the twelve weeks or so of the television show. Ordinary people take one lesson a week, maybe go to a social dance to practice what they learned. They do not go for hours every day and make it the center of their life. That is why I say, these shows do not entice people to dance because we who do dance already,know this is not the real way of learning to dance.

I always say to people who ask me about taking lessons if it is as hard as it appears on DWTS show, I relate to them to go and try a few lessons, whether private ones which are expensive or less expensive group ones which will give them an idea of what will be happening as far as learning and absorbing the knowledge of dancing.

Find out what's happening in Fairfax Stationfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

I say to everybody, do not let DWTS influence your desire to not learn to ballroom dance. Go and try a few lessons and see for yourself how much fun it is and how wonderful it is for your mind and body.

The physical aspect is good for your health and the mental aspect is excellent for your brain. Your brain will learn and be sharper for the experience of remembering and accomplishing something so pleasant, you will wonder why you waited so long to try it out.

Weeping may remain in the night, but rejoicing surely comes in the morning and may I so boldly add, it comes in all day long too and rejoice you will when you go out to learn to ballroom dance regardless of your now age. It is never too late to learn and you will derive happiness,joy and pleasure while being active and being active will make you feel extremely competent and fulfilled.

Find out what's happening in Fairfax Stationfor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Elita Sohmer Clayman Fairfax Station Patch


The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Fairfax Station