Friday, October 7, 2022

The Dance of Life


 Life is a dance. We begin to learn the steps at a very early age, and once learned we tend to continually repeat the same steps over and over. Even when the steps aren't working, even when we are stepping on someone else, even when all we're doing is twirling and going nowhere, even when the steps do not match the music we hear in our soul, we still tend to continue to do that which is familiar.

To ask questions, to doubt the steps and the dance, to consider going in another direction can be extremely scary. Maybe others will question why we are changing in the middle of a dance. Sometimes others will try to get us to go back to that which is familiar, the steps they are used to seeing you take. They know you that way and that is the way they want you to stay. 

No matter how comfortable we feel repeating the same steps, the ones that were taught to us when we were very young and which were supported by our churches, schools, families and society, if we are growing and healing our souls, the time may come when we begin to question the dance we have been doing..

It happens to most of us.

Some heed the call to examine life and the direction they are going and some sidestep the call and continue the dance they know. 

Many entertain the thoughts, "What will my family say?", "What will my friends think?" and/or "How do I explain myself and how do I do this?"

Following the leading of the heart takes courage and determination, it is an act of love and kindness to our soul.  

There is not enough space on this blog to even begin to write about the callings of the heart I have heard and the inner fear I felt about following those callings. In some cases changing the dance I was doing to something different was easy and other times it was very difficullt and very scary. However, I learned quite a few years back that to ignore the call of Spirit was even scarier. 

It is okay to question, to doubt, to entertain new ways of being and to search It is even okay to lose yourself because giving up what you thought you knew for sure increases the chances of reuniting with your authentic self. It is even okay to fall apart because in the  process you most likely will find the missing pieces that are so carefully hidden and guarded in your well put together life. When we are willing to lose who we think we are and who others say we are supposed to be, we find the pieces we left behind. 

Dancing the dance of life can be a magnificent, soul-affirming action or it can be a ho-hum never questioned circle dance. 

Will you take the chance? Will you dance the dance you are meant to dance? The dance you came here to do? It is up to each of us to choose which dance we want to do. 

We all matter and the dance steps we choose matter. You matter. Choose wisely and with your heart.

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