Dancing to Dancer
Rachel's annual dance recital was on Saturday, and as I watched the many, many dancers from her studio twist and turn and move their bodies in rhythm to the music (and in ways I can only dream about moving my body), I couldn't help but think back ten years, to when she first started dancing.
It began at a park in Maryland, of all places. We were on the swings and such when Rachel needed to visit the facilities. Cathy took her into the community center, where there was a dance recital going on. Rachel, I'm told, stood in awe...and when she came out of the building, she (at the tender age of three) ran up to me and said, "I'm going to be a dancer!" We honestly thought by the time we got home she would be over that, but something had awakened in her that day because when we got home, she kept bugging me about it until I called the local dance studio and signed her up.
And so began a ten-year journey to where we are today. I couldn't help but think how she has grown into the art of dancing. In fact, I can clearly remember those early ballet classes, when she went to dance. I remember her very first recital, when she did little more than move in a circle back and forth. (I also remember thinking, "This is what we're paying for?") At that point, though, she was just happy going to classes, learning the basics, being with friends.
Somewhere along the way, something changed.
At some point, I'm not sure when, Rachel went from dancing to being a dancer. There's a world of difference, even if the activity looks the same. Certainly you dance when you are a dancer...only you dance all the time. Rachel doesn't walk across the room, she dances. In every unguarded moment, I catch her dancing, twirling, spinning, listening to music and thinking about how she would dance to that piece, moving her head and arms, legs often unable to stay still. The dance is so much a part of her she doesn't even have to think about it. The dance is who she is.
Something changed. And she is more whole because of it.
Do I need to make the application? Or is it obvious?
There are a lot of folks who like to go to church, to see friends, to learn the basics. And then something changes. Or it can. At some point, the spirit of Jesus so invades over our lives that in everything we do we're thinking, living, behaving...dancing...like him.
Do you go to church? Or are you a Christian?
It began at a park in Maryland, of all places. We were on the swings and such when Rachel needed to visit the facilities. Cathy took her into the community center, where there was a dance recital going on. Rachel, I'm told, stood in awe...and when she came out of the building, she (at the tender age of three) ran up to me and said, "I'm going to be a dancer!" We honestly thought by the time we got home she would be over that, but something had awakened in her that day because when we got home, she kept bugging me about it until I called the local dance studio and signed her up.
And so began a ten-year journey to where we are today. I couldn't help but think how she has grown into the art of dancing. In fact, I can clearly remember those early ballet classes, when she went to dance. I remember her very first recital, when she did little more than move in a circle back and forth. (I also remember thinking, "This is what we're paying for?") At that point, though, she was just happy going to classes, learning the basics, being with friends.
Somewhere along the way, something changed.
At some point, I'm not sure when, Rachel went from dancing to being a dancer. There's a world of difference, even if the activity looks the same. Certainly you dance when you are a dancer...only you dance all the time. Rachel doesn't walk across the room, she dances. In every unguarded moment, I catch her dancing, twirling, spinning, listening to music and thinking about how she would dance to that piece, moving her head and arms, legs often unable to stay still. The dance is so much a part of her she doesn't even have to think about it. The dance is who she is.
Something changed. And she is more whole because of it.
Do I need to make the application? Or is it obvious?
There are a lot of folks who like to go to church, to see friends, to learn the basics. And then something changes. Or it can. At some point, the spirit of Jesus so invades over our lives that in everything we do we're thinking, living, behaving...dancing...like him.
Do you go to church? Or are you a Christian?
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| Early Dance Recital |
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