Life’s Little Dance

There are far too many dance styles to mention, but a few that come to mind are the Twist, the Waltz, and the sexy Salsa dance…but I think the most important dance we can learn is Life’s Little Dance. It carries the most steps and is the hardest to figure out. As I write my autobiography (no release date at this time) I find my steps were a combination of missteps, trying new steps, easy steps, and clumsy steps. Some of them actually landed me on my bum…but if I’ve learned anything it is how to get back up and try again.

Raising kids, definitely, has a tune all its own I like to call Crazy Train…it holds the fast movement of the Swing with the grace of a ballet as we kiss their sweet faces at the end of a long day. Add full-time jobs as most parents have (insert: single moms get a special shout out) and you’ve got yourself a combo of many steps…likely adding the “two left feet” theory to a lot of those days.

And let’s not forget the Dance of Marriage. I’ve had my share of missteps in this dance routine, but age and experience paid off…finally. Sure we have a misstep here and there…in fact, some days we are so out of sync we need a break from the music altogether. But we start over the next morning by pushing the reset button to the music…and suddenly we could be on Dancing with the Stars. Except when we can’t hear each other…then the Dance of Miscommunication starts playing in the background. Here is an example, and one we laugh about often. We were driving on I-70 in Colorado. It’s a four lane highway but is split so the west bound is higher than the east bound in this particular spot. We are east bound. Construction was in full swing taking advantage of the dry and sunny days. I asked Dan, “Do you think rock slides cause the damage?” – dead silence filled the truck for a few minutes. I waited…and waited…and waited for an answer, but the one I received still makes me laugh. He said, “I suppose peroxide could cause damage.” I responded with a “What?!?!” and then the laughing started…but not for him until I told him I said “ROCK SLIDE, NOT PEROXIDE” loud enough for him to hear me clearly. He had been picturing a truck hauling peroxide tipping over and was analyzing what damage it could possibly cause, and thinking hey, anything is possible. Not every miscommunication is as funny as we have found this one to be over the years, but they still happen. Getting older has its advantages to knowing dance steps better since we’ve had plenty of time to learn them, but we still misstep, too.

To sum it up…no matter what your abilities to dance are, even if you fall flat on your face, remember ‘Life’s Little Dance’ is a dance you can continue to learn, so, turn up the music my friends and dance.