May we be blessed every now and then to dance
like we danced when we were kids….
to dance in a perfect circle…
like our indigenous ancestors did…
To them…the circle dance was not a dance they happened to dance by chance…
To them…dancing in a circle is what gave meaning to the dance
For they believed
dancing is a way pray
that prayer helps people heal
when people heal they can give
and when giving is how they live…
the circle is complete…
the whole world is enhanced…
because when people give to live
It makes them want to dance.
I believe we’re created to be discoverers…from the moment of our birth!
meant to discover all the things we love…while here upon the Earth.
I think that’s why so often on a chid’s face a smile finds its way…
because they are discovering new things to love…new things in each and every day,
I’m not sure when I started loving Celtic music…
when the sound of the fiddle first made me grin…
I imagine it happened years ago…when heard my first violin.
I’n not sure when I started loving an Irish accent
I imagine it was when I saw a woman from Ireland…
had the chance to meet her.
and I heard the same words that I speak…
Lout of her mouth…sound much sweeter.
I’m not sure when I started loving Celtic songs…
I imagine it was when I heard an Irish woman sing
In a voice as clear and beautiful as the mountain dew…in Spring.
I’m not sure when I started loving Irish dancing…
I imagine it was when I first was mesmerized by those flying feet…
and realized how so much grace and beauty could be paired with a rhythm and a beat.
I’m not sure when these loves began…I imagine each at a certain age
but yesterday we were treated to all these…together on one stage.
Opportunities to discover new things we love become harder to find
the older that we grow
So it’s nice when we rediscover things we learned to love…a long long time ago…
Which is why sitting in the theater…everything felt so comfortable…so right
as I watched and listened to the music and the dancing of a Celtic Summer’s Night.
And why as I sat mesmerized…to the beauty…the power…the grace
the same smile I smiled when I discovered these loves as a child…
found its way across my face.
Today I’m thankful for the ability to dance
and for having read the words of people like Vicki Baum…a gifted Austrian writer
Who through her writing helped to make our world a little brighter
Like the day in her life when she penned this little gem
There are shortcuts to happiness she wrote
and dancing is one of them
The other night at work I had mellow ’60’s music playing in the store
when a couple carrying their young son entered through the door.
Guessing someone’s age the more I age is harder and harder for me
but by the way he toddled through the store I’d say he was two or maybe three.
When he toddled up to the speaker where the music was playing
he stopped…he listened and when he finally felt the beat….
faster than you can say Richie Havens…he began to move his feet.
He toddle-danced left…he toddle-danced right then he began to bounce up and down
and the more the music moved him…he started spinning round and round.
But a toddler can only spin so much…three times…maybe four…
before dizziness and gravity directed him to the floor.
He’d sit there for a moment staring…smiling at me…and then
moved once more by the music…he’d begin to dance again.
It was fun to watch this little boy move to the beat and toddle-dance to the rhythm…
and fun to watch all the customers who couldn’t walk by
without stopping to toddle-dance with him.
If you don’t think music is universal…that it can’t bring people together…
that it doesn’t our world enhance…
I invite you into our bookstore where you can listen to the music
and where, if you’re lucky, you can watch toddlers and people dance.
Oh yea! As Boe the owner of the bookstore likes to remind me…
I also have a job to do…
So while you’re listening to the music…
and watching toddlers and people dance…
It’d be great if…you would buy a book or two.