Because we all need to smile today
26 Saturday Jan 2008
Posted in Dancing
Category Archives: Dancing
Speaking of Moving to the Music
02 Friday Nov 2007
Posted in Dancing
Don’t Grow up!
28 Sunday Oct 2007
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From Finding Neverland:
J.M. Barrie: [watching George react to the knowledge that his mother is seriously ill] Magnificent. The boy is gone. In the last 30 seconds… you became a grown-up.
Oh, if we could pin point that moment! That moment when the seriousness of life becomes heavier than the helium of childhood dreams. Suddenly, we are grounded to the earth destined to be grown up now, with grown up decisions, grown up work, grown up behaviors.
This being the week that my oldest child has become a mother, I could wax eloquent about how this may be her moment. Seeing her with that baby in her arms has solidified the realization that she is an adult now, beginning her journey into motherhood. However, I suspect the moment came long ago.
But the beautiful picture of her with her son is not what has stirred this thought process in my mind. This is about the movement of music. A few months ago, I attended a Lollipops concert with my children, even the adult and teenagers were in company. The auditorium was mostly full of young children, preschool, kindergarten and some elementary aged children. I was mesmerized with the reaction of the children. As soon as the music would start, they would start moving. Rocking their bodies, clapping their hands, waving their arms. They were immersed in the music, fulling engaged with the melody, the harmony, the rhythm. Looking at my own children, who are mostly older, I realized, they had grown up. It is no longer acceptable to move to the music. At what point, do we lose the freedom of joyous spontaneous reaction.
I want to capture that moment. Or more correctly, I would like to capture the moment before that moment and hit the pause button.
I am beginning to recapture that permission. Just this week, I realize that I move to music constantly. If there is no audible music, it is playing in my head and I am usually joining in the motion. As I have begun to participate in songs of worship at Engage, I find myself moving. I am not talking about dancing really and it is not all driven by a hard beat. I will move and sway to anything. I love the way the music feels in my body.
But, I notice that most other people don’t do this. I am not talking about some type of restraint that Christans might have to contain themselves at a church service. Even at concerts. We attended Fall for Greenville festival a few weeks ago, enjoying the music of a band we love and are acquainted with, Civil Twilight. The crowd just stood in stony silence or chatted with their friends. Rosie Thomas and Over the Rhine concert audience at The Handlebar was more respectful and more appreciative but still, still as statues.
Am I the only one that can’t resist the urge to tap my feet, nod my head, sway my body when the first notes kiss the air? Am I breaking some grown up rule by allowing myself the freedom to express the way that music moves me? Am I just foolish enough to believe that some things of childhood need not be cast aside?
So, fine. Categorize it as dancing … really, now that I am reading back over my post, it is dancing, is it not? Moving in a graceful and rhythmic way. Whether by subtle tapping of the feet or leaps across a stage, it is our own appreciation of the music that flows through our bodies. I am more than ok with that.
Since God, our Creator, gave us music and gave us the ability to enjoy music, then I do believe God would agree with Morgan Freeman‘s portrayal in Evan Almighty saying,
God: I now issue a new commandment: Thou shalt do the dance.
This week, find the music that inspires you. Play it loud, play it soft … most importantly, just move. Let the notes lead you back to your childhood. Cross back into the moment before the moment that you grew up. Move with reckless abandon! Do the Dance.
I suspect God might be dancing with you.
Dancing with my Father God in Fields of Grace . . .
Related tags: music, dance, growing up, Turbo Tagger
Dance
03 Monday Jan 2005
Posted in Dancing
April, 2003 . . . went to Charlotte, NC to hear Brennan Manning speak. Worship surrounded me . . .not just song but the hearts and attitudes of those in attendance were so focused on God. We weren’t there for Brennan; we were there for God. The first night as Brennan spoke about the love of the Father, Abba’s love and my place as Abba’s child, I began to weep. I had never known the acceptance and affection of a father and it came to me that night, rolling over me like a wave, pushing me down and I couldn’t breath but I was at peace because God breathed for me. Immediately I saw myself in a white dress, loose and guazy like a fairy dress. I had a flower wreath in my hair with ribbons trailing down the back. I was in a field of daisies and I was dancing. I kept saying, “Do you see me Daddy? Am I pretty? Do you like my dancing?” My Daddy God said, “Yes! I see you! You are beautiful! Keep dancing! I LOVE it! I love YOU! Keep dancing!”
October 2003 . . . worship conference at our church. I was praying and another vision. This time something much more intimate. It almost embarrasses me to write it. It was an elegant bedroom, dark, intricate wood, deep red velvet linens and curtains, The walls were the same rich red. There was my groom but it was my Bridegroom, Jesus. I entered the room and He said, “Dance for me. You are beautiful and You are my bride. Dance for me the dance of a wife.” I began to dance for Him and I knew He was pleased.
I have held these treasures in my heart, wondering what could it mean. I have never danced . . . as a child, as a woman, alone or in public. I have no training and I don’t even play with dancing. What is significance Lord? What are you saying to me? What could dancing symbolize in my life?
December 2004 . . . After rejoining the worship team in March 2004 and adamantly stating that I am a flagger not a dance, I find myself on stage, dancing for the Lord. Many Sundays, I am on the side, dancing for the Lord. I have very limited skills as I have just started training but I am dancing for the Lord. It turns out that there was no great secret, no hidden symbolism. God just wanted me to dance. I believe there is a work of freedom that is happening through the dancing. Each step that I make releases one more chain. They are rattling at my feet and I am rejoicing in the Lord.
Sometimes we don’t need to complicate things. We don’t need to search so deeply for the meanings. We can just take what God gives us at face value and the next thing we know, we are doing something we have never done before . . . all in the name of the Lord.
Immersed in the Mystery,
a
