Everyday Canvas

Dancing

Prompt: “Dancing in all its forms cannot be excluded from the curriculum of all noble education; dancing with the feet, with ideas, with words, and, need I add that one must also be able to dance with the pen?”― Friedrich Nietzsche
In how many ways do you dance?

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I am always dancing, at times with others, at times alone. The music I dance to no one can hear but me. The way I dance, you’d think I am not sober, but sobriety--with or without a drink--was never my intention ever since the day I was born, and if dance is the language of the soul, then my soul dances all the time.

Ballet, moonwalk, cha-cha, pasa doble, tango, snake-dance, or minuet or something else that I invent--even if no one wants to watch my floundering, my strange dreamy moves, my steps in dark turmoil--I always look for something to give in the effort to save myself, to dance in my imagination, even when the freedom to dance is too expensive, too risky.

No matter what, I dance, not holding a red rose in my teeth, but an olive branch, for when I dance, I don’t want anyone’s head on a dish, like Salome, though I dance whirlwind through all that matters to me, while I read, write, paint, take photos, walk, talk, sing, cook, or go about minding my business.

I may dance on the dance floor or inside myself, smiling, caring, sharing, learning, forgiving, laughing, hugging, helping, accepting, wondering, marveling, healing, loving, and still more loving. I practice my moves over and over again in the face of all obstacles that I may gain a few acts of vision, of faith, of passion or that I may discover some buried treasure within me. I try not to leave any area empty, any path not taken.

On a lucky break, sometimes, I glimpse others’ dances, too. I see people dance with joy or through tears. I see them whirling and twirling to kind words, or when harsh words or cruel deeds seep into their insides, I might witness them holding their chests to keep their hearts intact, while they rise and dip in circles and waltz away.

Everyone is dancing a cosmic dance together with the planets, suns, galaxies, universes into space time, and all expressions of our dances are unique and magical. Facing toward Heaven, we dance to the spirit within, through creative ways and choreography, unparalleled, in style, and divine.