The Dance

Our greatest challenge is to DO today, what we have no surety we will or can do tomorrow. Why is it a challenge? Because we tend to become frozen in fear, worrying about what will BE tomorrow, and that makes us DO NOTHING today. One way to keep ourselves from becoming stimied in fear is to do ... the Dance.

If we make our list of what we will do today, we ask ourselves, "and then?" Next, we tell ourselves what we will do after that project is done and at that point we find ourselves asking once again, "...and then?" We go through the 'routine' of what some may call imagery, or others may call apprehensive plotting, or still others may call 'speculating in advance, but we are also looking to see if there may be pitfalls..." and while in every case, we keep plotting, we come to an imagined obstacle, or crossroads, and become stimied or fearful, and so we stop; we either put it aside (procrastination) put it on the back burner (distraction), or we find something else to work on (memory loss). Whatever we call it, it is still an imaginary future we see, good turned possibly bad, and we don't do anything with it at all. While all this is happening we have not been there in the present. So if we are looking at this 'future place,' having all these issues with our future thoughts, what is happening in the present?

The abovementioned scenario of our imaging or speculating is not meant to tell you that you should not do it: you should. It's a positive response to a negative present sense of loss of purpose. But it also must be moved forward along with the present. And what is the present? The practical part of the future, right? Aha!

As a writer, I find myself looking always for quotes or anecdotes to feed my inspiration and give me motivation to carry on; to plot my future path. This is what I call the "Dance."

Sometimes, I even go to funcions or cultural events, to ease my present mind of anxiety (some of us call boredom), and in some of those times, lightening will strike--not literally, but metaphorically.

At a Pow Wow, I watched this young boy dancing with all his regalia, and the props in his hand that represented various things throughout the dance, as did his steps, turns, regressions, and progressions. Yes, the Native Americans have their understanding of each part of the dance, but I came to a realization about the dance myself, which is so Native American of me, because I do have Native American (Apache) blood in me.

The Dance has stops and starts, turns, shudders, bows, and upward looks as simbolizes prayer. The Dance can be viewed as a human being on the path, or journey, of the road of life. In every person's walk through life we have obstacles of various orders and sorts: pitfalls, fences, people who are dangerous, heartaches in love or purpose, losses of people, hopes...just many different events that change our way, or at least delay us from the end result--in terms of the dance interpretation, into which is the journey of life we follow, to the spirit world. How we maneuver is how we will faire at the end of the journey, so we carefully dance in such a way that we make it passed those obstacles, whatever they may be, and keep moving forward. The goal is to finish the dance as the Great Spirit meant us to finish it, and if we do, we are successful, and we are where we should be.

Envisioning, speculating, and plotting is part of the dance. We are trying to move forward, but we get stimied by fear, so we dance our way through the journey, per se, by creating some type of movement forward--in the present. But make no confusion about the activity--we are dancing our way through the journey, to get to the finishing line: our own set beliefs in our end. BUT remember this: the Dance is the present moment. The Dance is beautiful with its regalia (health, happiness, beauty, youth, love, and so forth...) and it is coursed with perfect rhythm and style, as our present life should be. We don't stop, we Dance...We get up, we hug our families, we clean our homes, we work on our projects to completion, and then we eat dinner and love our loved ones, and so forth....the present Dance. The sidesteps, turns, etc. are the obstacles. Don't be afraid of them, Dance through.