Never Stop Dancing

Two years ago I put tap shoes on again.  The studio where Ella and Mattie dance offers an adult tap class.  The girls encouraged me to take the class and I couldn’t resist the “mommy” pressure, so I agreed to give it a try.  It had been about 20 years since I had last tapped.  Amazingly, those skills came right back, and I once again fell in love with dance. 

In my first tap dance, my classmates and I wore purple and white tutu costumes and danced to a song about cotton candy and toy balloon.  Over the years, I tapped to Big Fun and my favorite solo was to Do You Love Me?.   I will never forget the day when I was in about 5^th grade and our parents were invited to watch all we had learned.  I was doing the buffalo step across the floor when my tap shoe when flying into the audience.  I was so embarrassed, but I never stopped dancing.  Our teacher had always told us that regardless of what happens, you keep dancing. 

Adding tap back into my life has been so refreshing for my soul.  It is part of my weekly routine that is restorative and life-giving.  My life happens at such a fast pace and is filled with many tasks and to-dos that I long for Thursday nights.  I know the importance of self-care and keeping Sabbath and I have struggled to maintain this in my daily life.  Pastoral ministry is often a 24-7 responsibility.  As a person driven by tasks and meeting the needs of others, I had to learn about maintaining boundaries of self care.  Early in my ministry, the senior pastor I was working with gave me a book entitled Sabbath:  Finding Rest, Renewal and Delight in Our Busy Lives by Wayne Muller.  This book challenged me to think of Sabbath in creative ways.   Muller did not limit Sabbath practice to a seven-day pattern where one spends an entire day of rest.  Instead, he encourages readers to create their own uniquely suitable Sabbath practices--daily, weekly or according to some other pattern.  Tap has become a Sabbath practice for me.  Muller’s book opened up the possibility for me that a whole day of rest might not be possible every week, yet practices of Sabbath each week were essential for surviving life.  This year my adult class is dancing to I Will Survive.   Sabbath and tap are essential for my survival and for that reason, I will never stop dancing.