Are You Dancing?

While out shopping this weekend, I was in a store where they have all these earthy, creative signs, jewellery, and meditative CDs. On one of the framed plaques was the quote from William Purkey that read:

“Dance like no one is watching, love like you'll never be hurt, sing like no one is listening, and live like it's heaven on earth."

It made me smile.

A short while later I was provided with a real-life example. We had to return something at a children's store and my wife decided to let our son pick out a new shirt (Jonah is 4). Not two minutes later he had picked out this rather gaudy bright blue muscle shirt with the number 33 emblazoned on the chest. We looked at each other as if to say, "He's not really going to wear that, is he?"  

Allowing our children certain choices, I think, is important for their development. You guessed it: we are now the proud parents of number 33. He was so proud, in fact, that he insisted on stripping off his sweater right there in the mall and donning this muscle shirt, sans the muscles. For the rest of the mall tour, so proud of his new shirt, he skipped and danced and stared at his own reflection in the store glass fronts as he danced along.

Here is what he was: insanely happy.

Here is what he was not: caring what the world thought.

What great lessons there are to learn from children. Those unaffected by the dictates of a society that would have you stop dancing in spite of the joy it would bring. Make a point of it sometime this week to go out and kick up your heels and dance. Not for what the world will think but for how it will make you feel.

Have an excellent day.