Monday, March 21, 2011

The Dance

This is something I wrote a few months back... I have a collection of writings that I usually do not share on my blog, but I feel that maybe this will speak to someone today... There are times and seasons in life that all of us have gone through pain or will go through pain. This story reflects in my own words and thoughts, what I believe is a process of healing.  "The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, but it did not collapse because its foundation was on the rock." Matthew 7:25

This world is a dance. The music is ever changing. Sometimes slow and beautiful, other times intense and loud, and at times… dark and slow.  And even still, we dance.  Can you feel it? The music that pulls you, captures you, moves you.    My body moves, it spins, it twirls.  It runs, it rocks, and it hides.  The music never stops, only changes from song to song. 
The ground is damp; the grass teases my toes and dances around my ankles.  The rain starts. Slowly first, one drop, then two, then three, then four, then six, then ten… before I know it it is pouring down, like a steady rhythm.  I twirl, my feet moving in perfect symmetrical circles.  I feel my feet touch the earth; I feel the dirt and mud close in around my toes.  I spin, I dance, I move.  The rain making soft pounding noises on my shoulder, on my head. The darkness is closing in, but I feel you.  I feel your presence.  You are dancing around me Your shadow is covering mine.  With each movement and each turn I feel healing wash over my body.  You are smiling at me, encouraging me not to stop. I start out slow, like the rain, and then I get faster and faster with each turn, each movement each stomp into the earth.  My hair is hanging damp around my face now; my eyelids are getting blurry as the rain washes over my body. I turn my eyes up to the heavens, I stretch my arms out as far as I can, and I dance.  My knees bend up and then down, I turn, I stomp, I move.  The rain now turns to tears and I can’t tell which is which streaming down my face… all I feel is healing wash over me.  I don’t want to stop… keep the music playing!  The rhythm of the song starts to synchronize with the rhythm of the rain, and then the rhythm of my tears… together they become a symphony.  The music is like nothing you have ever heard.  It is not of this world, but another, the world that reflects the shadow, Your shadow.  As I continue to dance, I feel your arms around me.  You reach for my hand, and I willingly, desperately take it.  Together, we dance. You spin me, you twirl me, You dance beside me.  The rain slows… Ten drops, then five drops, then four…. Three then two then one… I feel the warmth around my shoulders, as my eyes are closed tight still facing the heavens; I begin to feel the light on my face, the warmth that washes over me. The clouds are parting, the sun is lifting the rain has stopped.  I never stopped dancing.  My tears turn to smiles, my pain to joy, my night to day.  Before I know what has taken over me, I begin to laugh.  Not the small tiny laugh you hear off in a distance, but the deep, from your soul, healing kind of laugh…The un-reserved, uninhibited kind of laugh.  I open my eyes and I see You.   You are more than my heart can bear.  You are beautiful and perfect and one look into your eyes heals my heart of every fear, every pain, every crack and every wound.  Your arms around me feel like a healing balm that no man has ever discovered or invented.  You reach for me.  You place Your hand upon my heart; my hands close in around Yours.  We sway.  The dance has slowed, and the rain has stopped and the earth has begun to dry.  Like a sunrise at daybreak, I feel the shadows disappear.  I feel whole, alive, and new. 
Somewhere in the back of my mind I am convinced the dancing will never stop, and the rain will come again.  The music will shift and change, the seasons will come and go and the sun will rise and fall. 
But one thing will always remain… You.


“Guard me as you would guard your own eyes…Hide me beneath the shadow of your Wings”… Psalm 17:8
“Weeping may endure for a night…but JOY comes in the morning”… Psalm 30:5

4 comments:

~Kelley~ said...

Beautiful...you have just told a story that so many of us may never have been able to articulate but would say we dance this same dance, just the same.

Unknown said...

Wow...Beth, you are an unbelievable writer.....you should be doing this for a living! That, and raising beautiful kids!

Doris said...

Amazing....

Kristin said...

SOOOO glad you blogged this! Thank you for it. What a great writing.