Monday, January 12, 2015

The Dance of 2014

Join in the dance...

The Type A Lady has a bit of theater in her past.  
Musicals - singing - dancing - I love! 
I'm old now and have little time for theater
....but I still dance 
(and sing...in my basement!)  

Here's a reflection on 2014....and a look at my dance. 

I love to dance.  Ask my kids.  It’s embarrassing.  When their friends were visiting this Christmas, I slipped on my tap shoes.   I couldn’t help myself.  Public television was doing a special on movie musicals.  The kids were watching movies in the basement.  Surely one little time step wouldn’t hurt?

   
“Mom….were you TAP dancing?” Taylor asked when I walked downstairs with food for the crew.    
   
“Ummmmm…yeh,”  I answered, tucking the toe of my tap shoe behind my sweatpants.  My adult kids eyed each other knowingly.  Even the friends were not surprised.  Laurie lives her life like a musical. 
   
I dance.   Tap.  Clumsy ballet.  Energetic jazz and scary modern .  I believe, in many ways, life is a bit of a dance, a rhythmic sway - back and forth.  Sometimes the music is lively and full of joy.  At other times, the song is sad.  
  
Let’s talk about the dance of 2014.   
  
The Winter dance of 2014 took my daughters Brynn and Taylor back to New York City where university and work pulled them away.  Enid flew off to Texas to teach her teen students while her husband, Taylor, pursued his graduate degree at Baylor University .  
  
In March I was able to join Enid for a Texas visit.  That was a precious time.
  
“On the Road Again” - I danced the country-western  clog when I took my mom and dad on a journey to their newlywed home in Florida.  I had a feeling it was our last road trip together.  I took a lot of photos.  That dance was bitter-sweet. 
   
“April in Paris” was the romantic melody that  brought the engagement of  fashion stylist Brynn Elliott Watkins to film maker Aaron Craig.  I sang that song and tapped my toes as I viewed the photos of  the proposal  in the garden of  Notre Dame Cathedral.
   
May brought a campfire dance by the marshmallow fire of our sacred cabin retreat.  Dad and mom joined all us kids in that dance.  It was a rare moment for my father to make his way to the fireside.  Cancer and difficulty walking had made the cabin paths inaccessible.  But, one precious night, dad joined us by the fire for one last time.
   
July brought a dramatic dance of rescue when my husband had emergency surgery far from home.  I had to leave at 3 a.m. to fly to Georgia and rent a car to find him in his hospital room.  That was a bit of a frantic dance….but God held my hand.
   
By September we again danced for joy as Brynn and Aaron were married by a waterfall in Iceland.  -What a refreshing and intimate dance  of love that was!   
   
I danced with a reindeer in October.  I bought my dad a singing and dancing reindeer for his birthday.  “Christmas makes me wanta shout. Kick my heals up and shout,”  the reindeer sang the 1950s song.   I shuffled next to the bouncing  deer to make my father laugh. 

My father laughed. The music of his laughter made me want to dance all the more. 
   
With my husband's cancer diagnosis, November brought more drama. Like a waltz, I found myself moving backwards.  I followed the lead of my Heavenly Father, but often wondered why the dance seemed so difficult.
   
We took up the rug in my momma’s living room so the dancing floor ran the span of the lovely room.  The hospital bed fit better that way.  One Sunday we cranked up the worship music and I danced and sang  our church service.  Dad sang with me:  “Amazing Grace….How sweet the sound!”
   
Daddy sang and I danced til he slipped away November 17, 2014.  
   
2014 is a memory now, but the music still plays….and I still dance.  Tonight the dance  is a gentle sway…eyes closed…thanking  God.  
  
 Thank you for the dance, God.  
I’ll try to follow your lead in 2015. 


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