No 45. Changing Lives through Dancing
By David Earl Woodbury
Friday, November 6, 2015
Finding that Bit of Magic
“I have always been delighted at the prospect of a new day, a fresh try, one more start, with perhaps a bit of magic waiting somewhere behind the morning.”
– J.B. Priestley (1894-1984) English Author
What happens when you wake up in the morning? Where does your mind go? What thoughts fill your consciousness and soul? For me, many things happen. I awaken with excited hope sometimes. Some mornings have been filled with a horrible dread. Having to bury a loved one, and then awakening the day after that burial with the knowledge of what just happened.
Many mornings I awaken with my mantra “I am filled with light and love”. I imagine that light is flowing through my body. My spiritual vision shows me taking my heart out of my body and giving it a good wash, sometimes a shake, sometimes pulling out pieces of black glass out that have cut into my heart. Some days, I pound my heart against the rocks and let the stream from the waters of life wash my heart. I give is a good shimmy shake and then put my healed and clean heart back into my body.
There are some mornings I awaken with a headache and have to flood my head with light and I focus on healing water flowing through me. I have also taken my brain and given it a good scrub as well and put back a clean mind into my body before awakening. Generally, I just let bright energy flow through me, sometimes for an hour, then I get up and greet the morning in peace and with joy.
There are going to be mornings when we need a bit of that magic. There will be the morning when you are going to get married. The day you will be on national television and millions of people will see you dancing. You may have that day you have to put down a beloved pet who has been your companion for many, many years. The horrible day you have to run a funeral as you say goodbye to your other half. The day when you sign a new lease and start a business, buy a new house, purchase a car, go to court, have major surgery, fly to Paris, take a week in Hawaii.
No matter what, we awaken and greet the day knowing that as night follows day, as darkness leads to light, time will march on and we will live though that day to see another. Sometimes when I am so busy, and have so much happening, I see people walking around who are obviously on vacation or on their day off. They are so relaxed, happy, without a care and I have to remember when I am on vacation, I see others who are working as I am, and I think, for everyone there is a season and we all live to see another day together.
Find that bit of magic in your life. Hold on to it. Water it. Prune it. Tell others about it. Share it. Take out a loan on it. Invest it. But no matter what you do, don’t ignore that magic. Some people never find it. Some people kill it. Some people take that magic and build Disneyland from it. No matter what amount of magic you have, cherish it.
When I am teaching an Arthur Murray Dance Lesson, I always say to my student how much I love teaching them. Then I say to them that teaching and dancing with them is by far the best part of my day. I believe that when you dance time stops. You stop aging. Nothing on your body hurts and you are young, happy and healthy. When you continue to dance the clock turns back and you start getting younger again. I truly believe this. Perhaps that’s the bit of magic in my own Arthur Murray life!
David Woodbury
Keep on Dancing!