And As We Dance . . .

. . . we realize that we don't have to stay
on the little spot of our grief,
but we can step beyond it.

We stop centering our lives on ourselves.
We pull others along with us
and invite them into the larger dance.
We learn to make room for others
– and the Gracious Other in our midst.

And when we become present
to God and God's people,
we find our lives richer.
We come to know that all the world
is our dance floor.
Our step grows lighter
because God has called out others
to dance as well.

. . . Prayer puts us in touch
with the God of the Dance.

– ‎Henri Nouwen
Excerpted from Turn My Mourning Into Dancing
(Thomas Nelson Publishing Company, 2004).

For more of Henri Nouwen at The Wild Reed, see:
• To Be Held and to Hold
• Active Waiting: A Radical Attitude Toward Life
• A Guidepost on the Journey
• Lent with Henri
• In the Garden of Spirituality – Henri Nouwen

See also: the previous posts:
• The Soul of a Dancer
• The Dancer and the Dance
• The Art of Dancing as the Supreme Symbol of the Spiritual Life
• The Premise of All Forms of Dance
• The Church and Dance
• The Naked Truth . . . in Dance and in Life
• We All Dance
• A Kind of Dancing Divinity
• Memet Bilgin and the Art of Restoring Balance
• In the Dance of Light, Eyes of Fiery Passion
• Unique . . . Yes, You!
• Divine Connection
• "Then I Shall Leap Into Love"
• Shall We Dance?

Image: Lloyd Knight and Abdiel Cedric Jacobsen of the Martha Graham Dance Company. (Photo: Ken Browar and Deborah Ory of the NYC Dance Project)