Monday, July 09, 2007

Dance with me?

Last Saturday, my mom and I got an unexpected invitation from Mommy E, to join them at the alumni night of USLS. They had paid for several tickets already and since they didn't want these tickets to go to waste, they decided to extend the invitation to us. Mama and I agreed and off we went. On the way, Mama and I were laughing to ourselves wondering what an LCC alumna and an Atenean doing in La Sallian territory?

The night went quite well. They had a good band, "Behind Closed Doors" who played all the crowd's favorites from cha-cha to boogie to rock and roll tunes. I had a few spins on the dance floor myself with my Mommy E, of course. Mama just opted to sit and watch the dancers. Mommy E was able to convince her hubby to join her in dancing too. If her shoe hadn't given out on her, we wouldn't have gone home before midnight. :)

During the course of the night, as I watched others dance and took a few turns on the dance floor myself, I realized its been a while since I went dancing. I used to dance a lot in Manila mostly in connection with presentations in our covenant community, Ligaya ng Panginoon. I like to dance (not that I'm very good at it, mind you) and at one point in my relationship with God, I came to see my relationship with him as a dance. There came a point in my life where I couldn't find the song in my heart that helped me to dance but that season has passed. I haven't thought about dancing in a long while but that night reminded me of the joy in just letting one's body move to the beat. I found a message from a friend lately that kind of speaks of how I think of dancing:

Dancing With God
a forwarded message...

When I meditated on the word Guidance, I kept seeing "dance" at the end of the word.

I remember reading that doing God's will is a lot like dancing.

When two people try to lead, nothing feels right.

The movement doesn't flow with the music,

and everything is quite uncomfortable and jerky.

When one person realizes that, and lets the other lead,

both bodies begin to flow with the music.

One gives gentle cues, perhaps with a nudge to the back

or by pressing Lightly in one direction or another.

It's as if two become one body, moving beautifully.

The dance takes surrender, willingness,

and attentiveness from one person

and gentle guidance and skill from the other.

My eyes drew back to the word Guidance.

When I saw "G: I thought of God, followed by "u" and "i".

"God, "u" and "i" dance."

God, you, and I dance.

As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust

that I would get guidance about my life.

Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

My prayer for you today is that God's blessings and mercies be upon you on this day and everyday. May you abide in God as God abides in you.

Dance together with God, trusting God to lead

and to guide you through each season of your life.

4 comments:

The Girl With A Curl said...

How apt. My favorite bible verse is Psalm 30:11-12: "You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever."

So I think you should take class with Kara now. :)

The Girl With A Curl said...

And I forgot to add that you can go into LaSallian territory PRECISELY because you're an Atenean. Tee hee.

Fr Seán Coyle said...

The late Filipino Jesuit Fr Vincent San Juan SJ, who spent most of his priestly life working with married couples, once told me that marriage was like ballrom dancing. Sometimes the husband leads, sometimes the wife.

I used to envy the ability of my parents, uncles and aunts and their generation whenever I saw them dancing. Rock 'n' Roll came in when I was coming into my teens. My parents had far more fun with ballroom dancing than we had with RnR.

May you and Junby dance in harmony together for many years!

MTFR said...

I just might take dance classes once everything is settled or so I think :P and yes fr. sean, may we dance in harmony for a good long time. :)