Soaring and Stillness: Life with the Chickadees

I've been mostly offline this summer, save for instagram and a bit of twitter. We've been full out living. With two dance studios and eight total recitals in the month of May plus standardized testing, finishing up curriculum and a piano recital on top of all of it...sigh. I needed another me. June held more of the same. Solo prepping for NYC Nationals, tweaking, changing, storytelling. Daily Zumba classes for the eldest rounded out the weeks so that she would stay in top physical condition. In our home? We DANCE. We don't just twirl. It is not a hobby but a passion. One chased with sweat, tears, and full hearts. We're currently in NYC, where the Grace Girl Was accepted to dance at the Joffrey Ballet School. From eight to six she's worked on a perfection only found in the discipline of ballet. After hours? We've "cleaned" her solo for The Dance Awards, which begins the 4th and go through the 11th. She will compete for a Best Dancer title on the 5t...

Today I'm joining my friend The Gypsy Mama for five minutes where I'll write without editing, backtracking, or second guessing.  Because in the writing? We see the blessings. Today's topic?   Opportunity. Ready, Set, Go....               .   .   .   .   . "Learn everything you can, anytime you can, from anyone you can - there will always come a time when you will be grateful you did." -Sarah Caldwell July 2010 She taught me many things, that sweet sister who best described our relationship as familyship ... Listen far more than you speak Hear with your heart Cherish Dream big dreams What is frustrating in the moment may serve one well in the long haul See everything in life as an opportunity When you live your life as though everything is an opportunity, nothing becomes a true disappointment. I don't mean that disappointment does not occur...I just mean that it won't shatter...

My Little Joy feels music deeply. As a baby she would often sing what she was saying instead of actually speaking it. When we purchased a piano for the chicks and began lessons two years ago, little did we know where music would transport her. Our Grace Girl plays because it is required. She enjoys the keys and fingering and sound. But ...she would rather be twirling. For Little Bit, it's an entirely different ball game. Yes, she adores and chases in her leaping sister's footsteps, but her heart is equally attached to the ivories. Two weeks ago she picked up "Fur Elise" and played it perfectly in her first sitting. No joke . I recorded it for posterity and for her teacher. She's since memorized it and has added some of her own flair.

Today I'm joining my friend The Gypsy Mama for five minutes where I'll write without editing, backtracking, or second guessing.  Because in the writing? We work to find and see with the heart and not the mind. Ready, Set, Go..... IDENTITY I watch you, standing there in the midst of girls  women-children that you consider your peers. Their ages eclipse yours, most by half a decade. These are your friends . Their height and weight make you appear waif-like, but you keep up with them all the same. Some even come to learn from you; you teach willingly and with a ready heart. Acceptance is what you seek in this place of yours that you've fought to create for yourself. Your passion lies here, in the leaping and twirling and rhythm of eight counts.  Here you feel at home I whisper to you as you sleep and repeat again and again while you are in the waking moments that this is not who you are ... it's what you are gifted at. Yes, you use your body and spiri...

Confession: I started this post on Thursday. It us now Tuesday eve and i am sitting here in the car at dance (with a pup on my lap) attempting to finish it from the iPad. It's how most of the last few weeks has gone...so I'm rolling with it. . . . . . My voice has been silent for the better part of the last few hours. (Insert wide eyes and gaping mouth expression here) In the whirlwind of the drop offs and pick ups and more drop offs and pick ups I've chosen silence. It has been glorious The chicks have been busy with end-of the-year rehearsals and performances and even a competition for the Grace Girl. I've been sewing costumes and pointe shoes and putting hundreds of miles on the vehicle. The professor? He's been illin' with pneumonia. A quarantine was issued and much cleaning done. After eleven days and an antibiotic he's finally at 50%. We've missed him. With a compromised immune system and two lives who depend on my cape-wearing anti...

Today I'm joining my friend The Gypsy Mama for five minutes where I'll write without editing, backtracking, or second guessing.  Because in the writing? We find pieces of ourselves that have gone missing, that we're looking to unearth...even if only for five minutes. We find the REAL. Ready, Set, Go..... REAL It's what we are sometimes  when no one is looking. No one but the One who created us. He's always looking. He knew what He was doing when He made you...an echo I plant for myself in my head and my heart. It's hard. It's messy. It's full of tear stains...of "you're better than me" moments...of awkward, uncomfortable silences. It is a place where we generally run from, breathless, hoping that no one has actually seen us. Real can hurt. But... It is only in the real that we can find each other , find ourselves , find Him . In the acceptance of what we are and what we were and what we might never be, or in, perhap...

An unknown author once wrote, "You can't wrap a hug in a box, but you can wrap a person in your arms." A statement which was proven false just a few weeks ago. A package arrived, ferried over seas, over islands, thousands of miles from it's origin. Destination? A southern front porch.  Sender? One sweet friend and her adorable daughter. In favorite hues it came, with love exploding...delicate practice embroidery done by a hand that not long ago learned to form letters. Pastels abounded. Gifts fit for princesses. The chicks were floored, in awe. As was I, working to control the tears that this box brought to my throat; whelmed with the pure generosity of it all. As it always goes, the Mama was last into the box. There, I found nestled gently, a beautiful note, tied with ribbon and specific instructions... Always one to obey, I promptly did as instructed by my heart-filled friend. Handing the camera to the eldest,  I un...