No 42. Changing Lives through Dancing
By David Earl Woodbury
Friday, October 16, 2015
Breaking the Rules!
Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.
– Mary Lou Cook
It’s easy to get into a comfort zone. Building up a wall of security and routine that no one and nothing can break through. Setting a pattern that stifles the creative spirit. As I grow older, I find that my “comfort zone” becomes more of a fence around me making me feel that I cannot stretch and take risks any more. “Oh, you’re too old to jeopardize so much now. That’s only for younger people”. The cold hard facts are this, if we don’t use it, we will lose it! We can live the more careful, healthy life only to have it snatched away from us by accident or illness. We must live life to the fullest every day and keep on dreaming!
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live a life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.- Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862) American Philosopher and Writer
It is easy to think, “My big day is coming in my life”. The truth is that TODAY is your big day. You’re living your Big Day. Every little thing we do day in and day out is a part of our total impact in life. “I’m waiting for my big break”. It was said that Beverly Sills, great American Soprano, was an overnight sensation at the Metropolitan Opera after her debut there. No one mentioned that she was the reigning star of City Opera across the street 20 years before her big MET opening night. She had become an “overnight sensation” after decades of paying her dues and working her way up to the top.
The dreamer inside of me does always thing my big “debut” is just ahead for me, yet I have many opening night all the time. So many opportunities come my way. But these are also peppered with the many days of working hard and doing my daily tasks with my whole heart. If there is yet that great opening night ahead for me, I will be ready for it and I’ll welcome it with many, many years of diligent preparation and practice. Any time someone needs and emcee, I throw my hand up. Any time someone needs an organizer, planner, speaker, trainer, I jump to the occasion. The experience is invaluable and when I am needed, I can fill any shoes with joy and happiness and confidence.
The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. – Bishop W.C. Magee (1821-1891)
We take a risk always running forward in life. I have many opportunities and I try to take them all. On top of my schedule, I keep my laptop waiting working on my two books as much as I can. I just have a lot to share about life and I want to get my thoughts in print. As for mistakes, yep, I make them. I’m not a good proof reader, not just on paper, but in life in general. Sometimes I go in the out door and out the in door. I have the tendency to cross my “i’s” and dot my “t’s”. It’s just who I am. I depend on mentors who are my life proof readers and they help keep me on track.
To love what you do and feel that it matters — how could anything be more fun? – Katharine Graham (1917 – 2001) American, Chairman of Washington Post
Today, 10-15-15, starts my 40th year of dancing with Arthur Murray. I was a student in early 1975. I then turned pro in October of that year. I always tell anyone who will listed that I have not worked a day in these past 40 years. I love what I do. I love typing this blog. I love meeting new students, working with staff, being a franchisee, and just dancing period! My life has been a very lucky one for I do what I love every day of my life. Happy Anniversary to my Arthur Murray years of dancing!
David Woodbury
Keep on Dancing!