DANCE IS STILL A CHOICE!

Dance can be a divisive topic. Physically. Socially. Spiritually  

Dance has certainly changed physically and socially through the years. 

Some folks can be dismissive of dance as one ages and choose to sit out.

When people think you're too old to learn new tricks (steps)....take a "tap" class or Zumba Gold and show 'em! ) or not!

What about spiritual? Again, choices vary.

Certain congregation participants refuse to clap or raise hands within their sanctuary, regardless of the music that plays---hymns or praise songs. Others dance in the aisles. Not wrong, just different. 

Dancing is mentioned in the Bible and used in the OT as a means of worship. 

Read a few Bible verses and decide for yourself.

In 2 Samuel 6:14, "David dances before the Lord with all his might," an example of surrender to his Maker

"Let them praise his name with dancing..."(Psalm 149:3)

Psalm 150 includes ways of praising the Lord with trumpet, harp, lyre and dance, along with other instruments.

"...there is a time to dance." (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

Lamentations 5:15 illustrates, joy leaving our hearts when dancing has turned to mourning.

When you get the choice to sit it out or dance....DANCE! 

That would be my choice. What's yours?

 

Dance is still a choice....no answer is right or wrong, just different. 

TUESDAY'S TICKLES

We've all heard the old adage, laughter is good for the soul. Even in Scripture there is a time for laughter. 

Ecclesiastes 8:15 commends mirth. After weeks of both mourning and celebrating eternal rest of friends, I needed not only a smile to be a curve that sets things aright, but outright laughter. 

Much laughter was delivered right to my home on a previous Tuesday.

HA!.....ha....haaah

Hope you are able to make a "right' turn onto this road until I return from Mississippi to finish writing this entry. I know.....it's so me! I keep forgetting to make the "right" turn myself!

For dear friends, Aubrey and Gayle, its' just a right turn and a left turn to the right turn onto Laughter! (Though in MS the word rhymes with slaughter---but not for me!) 

Laughter is contagious. Unlike many COVID19 strains and Omicron BA.5 variants and subvariants that are floating around these days, laughter is worth "catching."

I wish joy and laughter were as easy as a drive down a road. Folks dealing with chronic pain would have this address in their GPS. More often than not....they wear "guilt" over their inability to choose joy as they live with said pain, day in and day out. Pain is no laughing matter!

Old wives tales say it takes more muscles (53) to frown than to smile (12) David H. Song, Chicago plastic surgeon, gives the numbers smile (12)  frown (11). Regardless of the core numbers it takes more effort to frown.

Most folks in ongoing physical pain are not worried about numbers of wrinkles at this chronic stage. Sufferers are grateful for every laugh line that appears!

Relief is at the top of the list. Plus, for Christians, acceptance is key.

Choose joy. We're trying.

Learn life lessons. Okay will try today & ask my prayer warriors to pray. (Psalm 30:2)

Trust God. We're still trusting. (Psalm 62:8)

Share what you are learning as a way to encourage others. (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

Today for my suffering friends I prayed that "joy came with your morning"....despite the pain. (Psalm 30:5) and your "mourning was turned to dancing as our Lord clothed you with gladness for your day." (Psalm 30:

FAREWELL TO A FRIEND.....

Farewell.....for now. Too many tears to type at the moment....but I will return when I can fully honor her!! 

I feel as If I have lost a part of myself. 

Tuesday Truths. 24 hours since I heard the news. A roller coaster of emotions. A "walking in fog" of sorts. "Sadness and joy all mixed together" as one of her sons recounted. 

May I not forget truth and become overwhelmed by my sorrow. Sorrow is not the only reality there is. 

God's word in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 reminds us that there is a time and a season for everything. Grief is one of those seasons. This time yesterday I began such a season when I learned of Ann's passing.

"A time to keep silent." (Ecclesiastes 3:7) I knew my inner spring would come from solitude. Time with the Lord and in His word. Time to drink it in. 

Joy is hidden in sorrow. (Henri Nouwen, my Bible marginalia) I need to remember truth and not be overwhelmed by my own sorrow. May my sadness be fertile ground for truth of God's ever presence. His strength. His consolation. 

May I not lose sight of the joy of the Lord because I have lost her. God Himself used Ann so many times in my own life to see His goodness. (Psalm 27:13) Today may the LORD loose my sackcloth and clothe me with gladness. Turn my mourning into dancing once again. (Psalm 30:11, paraphrased) 

There is a time to dance. (Ecclesiastes 3:4) This is such a time. 

Lord, I ask You to be my choreographer once again as this unique dance of loss has me stumbling. (Psalm 37:24) I know you hold me because you now hold Ann. She has been a friend who has loved me well at all times. So....I must sing your praise (even if off key) and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to You forever (Psalm 30:12).........for my deep and abiding friendship with Ann.

Annabelle, Mamaw, Mommabelle, Mrs. Martin. 

Ann----my mentor, my Proffitt's shopping guide for funeral attire, my grandson's school supporter, my water aerobics pal, my scrabble hero, my New Year's Eve game winner, my favorite cook, my tea brewer, my sidekick, my travel chum and my dear, dear dog-loving friend for 20+ years!

Thx Ethel, an angel of a caregiver, for this pic!

Oct. 2,  I was with Ann as she had her lunch. (It would be the last "real" conversation I had with her as COVID complications sent her to the hospital in the wee hours the next morning.) 

As she ate her dessert, her fave part of any meal, I told her it was "her" Dotsy behind the mask and when I pulled it back for her peek, she said, "No it's not! It's an angel." I'll take that. 

We all need to be angels for each other. She certainly has been there for me.

A fond farewell to Ann today. Farewell filled with sweet memories knowing she is with the LORD!

SHARED FUNNIES

Inside jokes for the family = a feel good dopamine.

I've needed some feel-good dopamine lately. 

My go-to in such times is a cuppa and a cozy mystery. Light reading, not Eliot's Middlemarch, Dostoevsky's, Crime and Punishment or Wilkie Collin's, The Woman in White, though these are some of my old faves.

The enervating quality of humid days of "Dog-ust" has me drawn to a "lighter" sweet tea (iced) & a book whose title brings back a family memory. It also helps that a murder has taken place in an English hamlet graveyard. Miss Davenport, (a family name proudly selected for two of my grand boys) the protagonist is shocked at her own "mercenary bent." To this day my children have a variety of frugal, cheap adjectives for me in the area of finance. I would much prefer economical or prudent.....I'm certainly glad "mercenary bent" is not one of them. 

So....what's the funny?

This book was chosen just for the title.      *

Our shared funny occurred in the balcony of Highland Heights Presbyterian Church in the early eighties. Hubby and I and our 2 boys were sitting in the balcony. Their baby sister was in the nursery. In the sermon message Rev. Thad Grimstead used the idiom, "cut the mustard" and our 4 year old lost it!

His ticklebone had been engaged and was out of control. We all knew why!

Being a nursing baby, his sister's poops looked similar to runny mustard. Anytime a brother acknowledged, usually by holding their nose, that she needed changing it was announced loud and clear.

"Molly cut the mustard." To say that laughter ensued in our balcony pew is putting it mildly. Even the pastor raised his eyebrows and looked in our direction. 

A private family joke. A shared funny. To this day it makes me smile whether I hear the term or read it in a "light" book......a time for laughter which I need. (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

*Garden bouquet of flowers from sweet Jerrie was a real spirit lifter as well.

CHOOSE: FLEXIBILITY

"Nora's Day" is Thursday---at least it has been for the last 6 years!

For many years it was every Monday-Friday. Once Molly started kindergarten we only had her once a month and it was always on Thursday. She would spoil us on those days with the BEST fried chicken and pound cake or carrot cake for Larry. 

But....when I retired, those Thursdays became Elnora's Day. A "treat" day for her after 30+ years of her "treating" us! 

Then, this week a schedule snafu had us changing to Monday. What a laughing, eating, (Freddy's w/ Nancy) hugging (w/Margie) visiting, (at KDS nursing home) more laughing time----with laughter that even followed us from the movie, "Going in Style," all the way back home!!

God's Word says "there is a time for everything"---so grateful that our choice of flexibility allowed us a time to LAUGH! (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

CHOOSE: SADNESS

Sometimes one cannot help but to choose sadness. Sometimes sadness chooses you.

That's what happened with me when the "New Yorkers" had to leave Disney World a day early.

            

Impending SNOW in New York---a real nor'easter. It even has a name. Winter snow storm "Reggie."

"....a time to weep, a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance" (Ecclesiastes 3:4)

That's life---"unto everything there is a season." (Ecclesiastes 3:1)

All week we have had laughter and dancing and I need to focus on that. Great family memories.

But.....I also don't need to repress the sadness. I didn't.

The tears flowed as last year we only saw them once. Even this time "Mommy" had to stay home and teach. So, I cried for all of that. I don't even know when we'll see them again so I added that to the tears as well.

But God and other family members reminded me the importance of remembering the recent "season" of family celebrations.

What a "privilege" to be with Lucy as she met her favorite Elsa and Anna....... 

and had dinner in Cinderella's palace with her 6 male cousins and met lots of other princesses.

That helps me to smile through the sadness, though my heart still aches. 

TEA-ditions

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; (Ecclesiastes 3:4, ESV)

In the fall we Liles have lots of "fall" traditions. Tonight we're having chili because it's Halloween---even son Josh in Brooklyn has his pot cooking as I type. It must be an innate thing.

In the garden, cool temps bring out the pansies for my garden. This tradition was started as my two nieces, Polly and Allyson, became Tri-Delts at the University of Kentucky and the pansy was their sorority's  flower. A flower of friendship thru membership. A flower of loving thoughts. After Allyson's death in 1995, the gentle flower took on the horticultural symbolism of remembrance.
Tonight we warm ourselves as we share that warm pot of chili with friends and sweet memories of her.

Thus, the two traditions meld as the pansies in my garden remember Allyson and the ones on my table celebrate a belated birthday dinner with dear friend, Diane.

Blending loving thoughts of both remembrance and celebration in my cuppa of tea-dition today!

"Felici-TEA"

 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:.....a time to laugh; (Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 4, KJV)

Laughter lightens your load and lifts your heart.....(Jesus Calling 6/17)
Laughter is a powerful antidote for stress, anxiety, pain, and sadness.
Sometimes getting away with friends can provide that by-product of felicity known as laughter.

Laughter, an over flow of a close friendship, is good for the soul and blesses even the on-lookers, because laughter is contagious!

Pleasing and well chosen....cuppa of felici-TEA, poured out to friends.

Smells like home!

9/5/12 The smell that wafted (in BIG wafts) from the toaster oven was all too familiar. At least there was no smoke this time! I’m famous for burning toast. This morning it was my muffin.

Chatting with JoLynn recently, we discussed looking for life lessons from the Lord in the middle of all our circumstances. I wondered. Are there life lessons in burnt toast? If there are, I’m a slow learner---one with an acquired taste for burnt toast. 

20+ years ago, son Buddy’s (a freshman in college) suitcase held a sign for our kitchen. “Dinner will be ready when the smoke alarm goes off!” Molly and Josh became schooled in waving a dishtowel in front of that blaring smoke alarm. 

Various remedies have been tried through the years, including a brief stint with no smoke alarm in the kitchen. New toasters. Low settings, only. No toasters. But toast, even if well scraped toast, is a staple at our house. Now, most recent acquisition, an above the counter toaster oven, has begun to turn on me. 

Life lessons: palate adaptation, shared jokes---those only family members truly “get” are important, (I bet my kids are smiling if they are reading this.)

I think Ecclesiastes 3:4 has my spiritual life lesson. No more weeping over spilt milk or burnt toast, acceptance and laughter can go hand in hand. No mourning over insignificant happenings---let them go and just DANCE!

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

Grandson, Owen, told his mommy that she smelled delicious. Daddy said, “She does always smell good, doesn’t she?” Owen said, “Yep, she smells like, “turkey and pancakes.” Mmm- mmm, I could eat her up.

As for me, I smell like burnt toast.

Ah-h-h the smells of home.