Dancing Lessons

 

            In her book, Many Winters, Nancy Wood records the wisdom of the old Indians of Taos Pueblo, New Mexico:

 

All of my life is a dance

            When I was young and feeling the earth

My steps were quick and easy.

The beat of the earth was so loud

That my drum was silent beside it.

All of my life rolled out from my feet

Like my land which had no end

            as far as I could see.

The rhythm of my life was pure and free.

As I grew older my feet kept dancing

            so hard that I wore a spot in the earth.

At the same time I made a hole in the sky.

I danced to the sun and the rain

And the moon lifted me up

So that I could dance to the stars.

My head touched the clouds sometimes

And my feet danced deep in the earth

So that I became the music

I danced to everywhere.

It was the music of life. 

Now my steps are slow and hard

And my body fails my spirit.

Yet my dance is still within me and

My song is the air I breathe.

My song insists I keep dancing forever.

My song insists I keep rhythm

With all of the earth and sky.

My song insists that I will never die.

 

            In the community I have chosen to live there are more of us who rely on scooters, walkers, wheelchairs and walking sticks than there are those who walk upright without help.  All the more reason to reimagine dancing as keeping rhythm with the creative Spirit.  We can all tune our spirit to sing of grace, if we so choose. The music of Life will keep us dancing. It will keep us open to the joys of the present and the hope of the future.