This I Believe

This I believe:

We are meant to dance.

It is an outward sign of living in the moment.

It is how my friends and I collectively make community.

Dancing in a group, I have a part to play, a part in this small universe we will create together. We will make the choreography of this dance visible and real.

I will turn, tracing my orbit through this dance. I am not alone. This dance has put me in happy relationship with my fellow travelers, and I have a partner.

As a couple, up and down the dance hall, we will move in time with the music and rhythm of the dance. Caught in the pull of others, my partner and I whirl through our parts; connecting, departing, returning, repeating. Flowing with and gliding past other couples, all in a whirl.

The music repeats, my partner and I move on, repeating our pattern with the next couple. They appear at just the right moment.

On with the dance! A few times through the choreography and figures, which at first kept me thinking, now flow naturally. Things are as they should be.

There is a moment in the dance. There! In the music! Hands reach out and the music tells us what to do. Lost in the moment, I am in the moment! For now, here, all is right with the world. I feel connected, well and whole.

My partner smiles at me. I cradle her in my arm as we twirl. We are as twin stars pivoting around an unseen point between us. Our swing ends, on to another couple.

Ultimately the music ends, we are smiling, thanking each other. Applaud the band, thank the caller. Turning away from one another, each seeks another partner. “May I have this dance?” I ask. She says “Yes”.

We line up among friends and strangers. Exchanging names; we may have never met, or danced together before. Yet we trust and hope as we listen to the caller. We trace new steps, believing these next few minutes of dance will bring us the same feeling of connectedness, wellness and joy as the previous dance did.

A new universe being made.