List 28 . . . Ten Reasons We Should All Be Square Dancing on a Regular Basis

Yep, you read that correctly.  I bet that's a post title you were not expecting, but I'm a fan.

Each summer when my family is at KANUGA we have a ball at the square dance.  After this summer's soirée, I've decided that I must set myself about figuring out a way to square dance more than once a year.  I'm going to require that of my life.  I'm not sure if I'll have to travel for this event or if I'll have to get schooled in square dance calling; but, alas, I need more square dancing in our lives.  You do, too.

I wish you could all learn to square dance from Uncle Ted White of THE WHITEWATER BLUEGRASS BAND.  They're fabulous musicians, and Uncle Ted can magically teach the dance to a couple hundred people, give the history and folklore behind it and actually have folks from 2 to 102 dancing at the same time.  He does all of that without ever raising his voice - it's a miracle.

Here are the ten reasons that we should all be square dancing on a regular basis:

1. Square dancing makes you smile, and that is always a good thing.
2. It works up a sweat; but it's okay, because everyone else is sweating, too.  No one is glistening.  
3. People who are square dancing together make eye contact.  Do we do that enough in everyday life?
4. When you are busy learning and participating in square dancing, you are RIGHT THERE,  in the moment.  There is no place for worrying or fretting.
5. Everybody can do it.  It doesn't matter how talented you are or how old you are or what language you speak.
6. Square dancing is a fun way to teach our children about days long gone.  In a dance, we are actually doing what our ancestors did, and even doing it to the same song!
7. Square dancing throws us out of our comfort zones, and that's when the good stuff happens in life.
8. At a square dance, every single person in the room touches every other person in the room . . . and they smile at each other!  
9. You don't sit in a chair, staring at a lecturer, to learn a new square dance.  You learn on the job.
10. Square dancing involves lots of hand-holding.  You might be connecting with your grandmother or a new friend or your soul-mate . . . but, rest assured, you'll have someone's hand to hold.  

Come on, friends DO SI DO . . . it's good for us all.

It was the best of times; It was the worst of times . . .

and it all happened in the den.

So the other night, we had one of those family nights I was really digging.  It all felt good.  The offspring were forced to unplug from their various spots and assemble in the den for a 'family movie night.'  (We didn't necessarily have a family movie in hand, but it just seemed like time to gather together.)  Summer is awesome, with no bed times and no worries about what's due tomorrow; but often it seems that everyone quietly spreads out when night falls.  It's fun to have nights with all of us home and hanging out, busying around doing this and that.  I'm noticing, though, that everyone being home doesn't necessarily mean that we are all doing the same thing.  I miss that.

If you spend days and nights looking at your twelve year old hooked up to earphones plugged into the large screen computer with her mouth hanging somewhat agape as she mouth breathes, you begin to wish for a bit of forced family time.  And so we called for that the other night.  "Everybody come in the den - we're going to watch a movie."  (I even got in the floor with no photographs to edit, showing my adherence to the family time.  Of that the kids took notice.)  Then we remembered we didn't exactly have a movie.

Luckily, I spent twenty dollars at a 'going out of business sale' in Toccoa, Georgia a few years ago.  Luckily, also, the movies that seemed most interesting to me were not the least bit interesting to anyone else in the Toccoa area.  And maybe best of all, each of my movie choices was a dollar!  In keeping with how things go in this busy world of ours, we've never even glanced at the large stack of movies - but the other night we did.

We settled on Emmanuel's Gift.  It's the amazing story of a Emmanuel, born in Ghana to a world that didn't understand him.  He was born with a physical disorder which left him without the bottom portion of one leg.  Where he is from, folks born 'different' are considered unworthy of anything at all.  They are destined to a life on the streets, a life of begging and being shunned from the rest of society.  His mother saw it differently.  His father left immediately after seeing his son.  Emmanuel tells his story, the story of how he set out to show others that he was as 'whole' as anyone else and that his brothers and sisters with similar stories were to be valued.  You must see this movie and you must have your children see it.  After you watch the movie, you'll find yourself out of excuses for just about anything and everything.  It is heart-warming, up-lifting and amazing.  See it.

http://youtu.be/usN6nu_nuKg

That was the 'best of times' part of the post.  It was one of those moments - you know, when you're surrounded by those you love and you have experienced something meaningful together.  Ahhhhhhh.













Last night, in that very same square room of preciousness where we cuddled together to watch the story of an amazing human, I decided that Tim and I should participate in the nightly 'Just Dance' on the WII.  The kids were excited - they enjoy laughing at us.  They loudly discussed which songs we should do.  They fought over who would dance with each of us, how they could 'get the most stars' and aided us in the favored way to hold the controller.

I did my first dance.  It was lovely, I am sure.  I'm happy for those who got to watch the flailing from behind.  Tim took his turn and I enjoyed my time to hoot and holler from behind.  Then the un-lovely part ensued.  The eldest child screamed to the middle child, "Why do you keep choosing those old slow songs for Mama and Daddy?"  (I had not been aware of their slowness, and I was dripping sweat.)

And then the real special words came . . . the words that make you know that you've made the right decision to stop and play with the little precious people -

The song-chooser yelled out forcefully, "because we're trying to keep them both from dying of a heart attack!  You got a problem with that?"

Ahhhhhhhhhhh.

The best of times.  The worst of times.  All of it right there in the very same space.  I love a varied life.

. . . what comes naturally.

It's raining today where I am - it's yucky and gray and foggy.  The morning was dark, and it was hard to leave the comfy bed.  You know that kind of morning, the kind where you need to see something in your mind's eye that encourages you to 'take the first step' down off the bed?  I quickly got that picture in my head this morning; I remembered what I was to do later today.

In just a bit, I'm off to work on an art project with sixteen four year olds.  Some of you may hear that and feel a little sick in the pit of your stomach.  Don't feel that way, though.  Read on.  I encourage you to try something similar.  (You can even try it with adults if you can find some willing and daring enough!)

I'm convinced - and there is nothing you can say or show me to change my mind - that we all arrive on this earth loving certain things.  I believe we all begin our life loving a few things artful - dancing and singing and painting and creating.  I can almost feel a few of you getting a bit nervous; you're thinking I'm about to suggest something crazy, something like how creative we all are, something outlandish.  You're right!

Check out the nearest tiny person.  Watch them.  Listen to them.  Ask them to dance and they will, regardless of the music choice.  Ask them to sing, and they will sing out without worry about pitch or volume or tune.  Give them some objects, anything really, and ask them to create something.  They will and it will probably blow your mind.  There will be a story with all sorts of detail and the child will probably have entered a new world by the time they begin to tell you about it all.  Give the same child a stick and a patch of dirt and she will draw the most magnificent mansion.  Give him a paintbrush, and you don't even have to give him any paints - he can create without it.  He might use water on the side of the swimming pool and paint on the cement.  It doesn't matter to a child; it's just fun to 'make something.'

You see, that's what is so refreshing about working with children.   They don't have all of the crazy boundaries that we have built around our selves that tell us not to try.  If he wants to sing, he does!  If she wants to dance, she does!  If they want to paint, they do and it doesn't matter what they paint.  The process is fun, and they aren't painting for anyone else.  They are painting because it feels good, because it makes them feel alive, because it is beautiful.

I'm looking forward to my art time with the kids.  I bet when I give them the paintbrushes and show them the empty canvas, there won't be any hesitation.  The only question will probably be, "where do you want me to start?"  One of them will giggle while she's painting because she feels happy inside.  One of them will probably sing because that's what he does when he feels excited and alive.  A couple of them will probably just talk and talk, without any regard to whether or not anyone is listening.  I'll probably be smiling most of the time.

Take a second and imagine all that we could do - you and I - if we didn't stop ourselves before we even began.  Imagine how much fun it would be if we sang when we wanted to or danced around, without regard to what others thought.  I know some of you may be bristling now.  Don't though.  Just take a second and think about trying something.  Try something out of your ordinary - outside of your box.  Try doing something that your three year old self did whenever she wanted.  Try it!

Just imagine . . .