Saturday, October 3, 2009

Shall We Dance?

Bob installed our stereo system today. It is so awesome to have music in the house again. Of course, one of the first things he did after completing the install was to put Glenn Miller on. There is nothing like Big Band music. Well, except for Mariachi music, or Swiss music, or Jazz or Country, or Classical or ....... ok, so we like music.

Bob and I are definately not great dancers. We are not even good enough to be called bad dancers. Have you ever seen the Seinfeld episode where Elaine dances? It really looks more like she is having a seizure. That's us. Do we care? Not even an ounce. We love to dance with each other. We dance in the kitchen, in the living room, in the backyard and in the barn. You name it, we have probably danced there. When I heard Glenn Miller, I literally ran into the living room to dance with Bob. Naturally, Miranda and her neighborhood friends were mortified and ran screaming out the back door. However, as we twirled through the room, I did notice about five little faces plastered to the window giggling.

My dad has had a tough few days with his dementia knocking him out of reality further than I have ever seen before. As I danced unashamedly this afternoon with my husband, I thought of how much my parents loved Glenn Miller. Then the idea hit me. Bob and I ran to Dad's room and got him to come into the living room with us. Once settled on the couch, Bob cranked up the music .....In The Mood, to be exact ..... and away we went with our own rendition of 1940's swing. As I glanced at my dad, I saw a slight grin creeping onto his face. By the time the song ended, Bob and I stood huffing and puffing as old, fat people do after making fools of themselves. When I looked at my dad, he had the biggest snaggle-toothed smile on his face. He was literally giddy. Bob put another song on and sat down to sing with the old man while I went into the kitchen under the guise of making lunch.

The truth is, I had to leave the room and have a good, long awaited cry. I remembered how much I loved watching my parents dance. Man, could they ever dance. Nevermind that they might not have spoken for days over who knows what. When the tension in the house would build as tensions do, I in my childish, unknowing way, would put on In The Mood and run to beg my parents to dance. You know what? They always would. Speaking or not, they danced. Happy or sad, they danced. Hopeful or desperate, they danced. It was amazing. I am not sure why, but as a kid, I would always cry when I watched them dancing together. Maybe because it was so beautiful, so perfect. They knew exactly what to do and when to do it, and they always ended up smiling. Even if they wouldn't or couldn't look at one another, they smiled.

As I stood at the kitchen sink, sobbing, missing my mother, wishing desperately she was here, wishing I could see her and my dad dance just one more time, I did the only thing I knew to do. I went back into the living room and I danced. I danced with my husband and I danced with my father ....... and I smiled.



9 comments:

Diane said...

Perichoresis

O elegant and gentle Leader of the dance,
we do not know the meaning of each step
nor how to rightly turn this way or hold this pose.
Each spinning step or angled movement's twist
does sometimes give us vertigo here where we stand;
this mystery of how the rhythm's pulse
and how the music's lilt are tuned to only You
has caught us up, and we are overwhelmed.

O grace-filled, grace-bestowing Leader of the dance,
please teach me how to twirl and how to move;
please teach me how the song pervades each dancer's form,
these dancers who have learned to dance with You
throughout the ages of the song, the holy song
You sang in ages past to Abraham,
to Isaac and to Jacob and his Hebrew seed:
Now sing to me and give me, too, this life.

O Leader of the dance, this perfect partnership
of Leader and of led, of God and man,
this Incarnation's holy dance we see in You,
You now invite us to accompany.
This awesome dance, a truly cosmic synergy,
the interpenetration of us men
with Deity -- with Trinity! -- the universe
beholds and stands amazed and bows its head.

O holy Leader of this cosmic circling dance,
the union of both man and God is here
and imaged in the holy mystery of life
conjoined, a woman and a man conjoined.
He takes Your role as gentle leader, she as Church,
she follows him, and he must die for her;
their dance together joins the dance eternal now,
and in that human dance we see our God.

O Holy Trinity, Your dance eternal now
descends on us and consecrates our own,
the revelation here as Body and as Blood;
herein we taste the God become a man,
and men become as gods as David prophesied.
The Trinitarian rhythm has become
our own, to guide our dance, to grasp our hands and lead
us in the dance of stillness perfectly.

Copyright © 2004 by Andrew Stephen Damick

Marla said...

Beautiful, Diane. Thank you!

MamaGreenLeaf said...

This is great...keep it up :) There's a dance party going on in Heaven!

Marla said...

Thanks, Amy, I will. I agree with the heavenly dance party. Hopefully, I will be better there than I am here.

Bel said...

I don't think Jesus ever said we'll have full perfection of any lack of talent we have here on earth in heaven.I'm sure once you get there you won't be the only one dancing your soul out & no one will care at that point:) love you!

Marla said...

Good point, Belly. Love you more!

Cher said...

Glen Miller In the mood is in the CD player for the trips to PT...I am imagining the threesome in the living room in Ok....I am sure my mom would be in on the heaven dance party. ya think. yeah

Diane Love the poem so beautiful.

Jana said...

This one brought tears. You know me, I am very visual and could picture the smile on your Dad's face. He does love music and dancing and watching other people have a good time. Another memory for your mental scrapbook. Precious! Love Ya Bunches!

Amarja said...

Hi dearest mom, I have to catch up with your blog. I just red this one and I started crying allready when you wrote about Bob and you were dancing on Miller! I miss you guys, by the thought you guys in the livingroom -for ever- in love I started crying.. You guys are the best! When I red the rest you wrote about your father and his big smile I had to get up ans blow my nose :)
Love you! Great story of your mom and dad in memory!