Gifts My Parent's Gave Me

With a title like that I could go a million directions.  What didn't my parent's give me?  They gave me life, the abundant life.  They showed me how to work hard and how to enjoy the beauty in the world.  They taught me the gospel and showed me how to live it.  They gave me physical necessities, patience beyond imagination from colic to speeding tickets, and love.  What I am grateful for tonight, as I have been for so many nights since I was ten years old, are my dance lessons.


My parents gave me dance lessons for ten years and, after getting my heart broken one too many times, some professional counseling.  I can tell you, the dance was much more valuable.  I still get lost in dance no matter where I am.  My kitchen, a garage, the car.  The bigger the space the better, but turn on some music and I can move.  My current favorites are "Vogue" "Viva La Vida" and Jim Brickman's Disney Songbook album.  I enjoy the challenge of classical ballet but the lyrical and modern dance are the ones that allow the emotions to flow - out - where they belong instead of bottled up inside my tense neck muscles.  It's just like the little girls I teach.  They wait 35 minutes of class for the 10 minutes of the end when they can get up and twirl and jump and get those endorphins coming!

When I dance my mood instantly lifts and the sun is shining on whatever problem I thought I had.  After those broken hearts the thing that got the final tears out and summoned the resolve to move on was dancing violently to the Miss Saigon soundtrack on the stage of the vacant stake center.  But, dance can also be an expression of joy and it is more and more often that I turn to dance as an expression of gratitude and joy for the blessings that have come into my life. 

That's why it hurts so badly when I cannot dance. Being pregnant, recovering from pregnancy, six months of physical therapy for my sprained ankle.  All of these things restrict my dancing and it's so hard to regain strength in those tiny muscles in all the hidden places that only dancers know about.  It has been such a blessing to be teaching dance theses last few months.  We are thinking of buying a house.  All these years we've been renting and it's time to settle into a nice school district somewhere.  All I keep thinking about is whether there will be enough room in the garages to teach dance.  If we live somewhere where the parents would rather send their girls to a professional studio, I might only use it myself, but I know that I want dance to be a part of my life.  I just bought a portable barre because I have so many girls in my class now we needed the extra space, but it's also a kind of promise to myself that no matter where I live, I will be able to dance.  And that, is a happy thought indeed.

I love that so many in my family love dance.  On my side and Josh's.  I love that Anna calls my porcelain Ballerina music box "Nina."  I wonder if that's how I named myself  "Nina" when I was her age.  Anna can plie and turn in a circle with her arms up in 5th position.  She grabs my hand and says Dance! when music comes on.  I think I've got another soul mate in her.  Is it possible to have four soul mates?  All three of my children and my husband feel like soul mates, in different ways.  I guess that's just family.  We're made to be together and to love being together.  That's why I hate, HATE all the disintegration of families today.  It's like ripping people's souls apart.  I creeps into our minds and homes and works its poison.  If we don't realize it for what it is and where it comes from, it can poison our relationships.

Families that dance together stay together! 

My parents also gave me the love of dance.  I think it probably began as a toddler in Sweden dancing to ABBA.  Then I clearly remember dancing my heart out in the living room and entry hall to Rogers and Hammerstein.  My dad taught me the box step, swing, and watched Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movies with me when I should have been in bed.  After I started dancing my mom would sit on the basement stairs and watch me show her what I had learned that night.  They always came to watch me perform from the most sparsely attended performance of the pom squad at JV soccer games on Tuesday afternoons to the three performances of my dance studio with hundreds of dollars in costume changes.  They rented a dance floor to cover the patio at my wedding reception.

My sister-in-law in Seattle, see previous post, and I were talking about dance during our visit.  We were watching a Swan Lake DVD, of course, and wondered why girls are so drawn to ballet.  Men hate it.  She wisely said she thinks it's because it's the perfect expression of elegance and beauty, yet it takes incredible strength and discipline.  It is symbolic of womanhood, the understated determination that makes a life appear calm and beautiful amid the storms and trials that strengthen us.  I thought she was profound.

So I will keep on dancing and teaching others to dance, if they'll keep an amateur like me, and I'll say thank you to my parents a million times over for supporting my dancing.

A Little R&R

Aloha! Listen to this video to hear the sound of paradise.  I filmed it on the North Shore of Oahu three weeks ago. 

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

You are now in the frame of mind to enjoy the rest of the pictures.

Josh got to go to Hawaii for a conference and I met him there when his work was done.  We spent one night on busy Waikiki Beach and had dinner with his coworkers at a nice surf and turf restaurant, then we rented a red Mustang convertible and headed up to a condo with a private beach on the North Shore near Laie.  It was quiet and calm and so relaxing!   We even saw Becky and Brent in Waikiki for pineapple smoothies!  They were on their own vacation on Oahu! 

 Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head mountain/peak

  

The view from our condo.  We were so tired we got a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store for dinner and stayed in watching "Sleepless in Seattle" on t.v.  It was raining anyway.

 

Here's our ride.  We had to buy sunscreen and sunglasses!  The fun really began when we headed out in this baby for the day, driving all along the coast.  We were literally just feet away from the ocean. 

 
Here's the view the other direction from the condo.  It's near where they filmed LOST and we were so excited about that, being the fanatics that we are.

Waimea Bay Beach  They wouldn 't let us in the water the waves were so big.  The sand was not dusty or rough, it was like tiny pearls.  All polished stones.  It was clean and soft and luxurious!  We sat here for an hour or so, talking to the kids on the phone!

Then we hiked up to this waterfall in the Waimea Canyon Nature Preserve.  They actually filmed a scene from LOST here but we cared more that we were swimming in the cold, refreshing tropical water than that Kate and Hurley woke up here after they woke up from the crash returning to the island in the final season of LOST.    A little bit more, anyway.

I thought the break from home would fill me with resolve and analysis about my life, but it turns out that on a real vacation you don't think about those things.  You just rest and see the beautiful world around you!


MEANWHILE . . .

The kids were cozy in the snow in Seattle!  With Josh's sister and her husband and their DARLING girls!

We went up the Space Needle and I think the boys loved it.  They talk about how we could see everything we'd never seen before from up there.  We even splurged and ate on the rotating restaurant, with seven kids.  There were plenty of fries and pancakes, so everyone was happy. 

 

The cousins had so much fun together.  We can't wait to visit them again, but we'll give them a few months to recover first.  

 The boys felt at home after only a short time.  Good thing, we stayed nine nights!  They had their own bedroom with their names on the door and space sheets on the beds.  Every morning Josh and I were away, Aunt Sarah put a surprise in a treasure chest for them to discover.  Army men, glow in the dark dinosaurs, they hardly had time to miss us.

I make cupcakes with the girls Sunday afternoon.  Here are three of them in the aprons I made them.

The boys are threatening to go back there if I am mean.  Hum.  Maybe we can work out a deal on the weekends?  Just kidding .  They do have fun cousins, snow, AND a basement so I know it's a strong pull.

 Anna missed us the most but had a great time with Aunt Sarah and the cousin nearest her age.  She keeps pretending to talk to her on the phone now that we're home.

We are so thankful they would watch our kids and let us have that fun trip to Hawaii!