The Dance of Life!
Whom The Gods Cannot Lead, They Drag
Carl Jung said that. My response to this is, when we remember the dance of life, we will no longer be dragged. We need to remember the dance to be able to truly celebrate life. We need to celebrate life to live life. We must live life to create life.
Too many people go through life just plodding along without really thinking about what they are doing. They do not realize that every thought and action is creating their life in spite of their awareness or lack there of. All of our choices make our life, every one. We choose or decide not to choose but each action sets in motion another reaction and an opportunity to choose once again. I have talked about choice before but this time I show how by choosing wisely, by being aware of our choices, we are dancing with God.
In Carl Jung’s quote, I suggest that God leads us in the Dance of life. It is like a great dancer who knows how to bring out the best in His partner in order to make them both look graceful and empowered on the dance floor. As we allow God to lead us, all our movements are graceful, empowered and full of life. If He has to drag us across the floor then we look clumsy and have no control over anything.
The myth is thinking that we are in control and to allow someone else to “lead” us is losing that control. This is the “Great Myth.” We are less in control of life when we try to do it on our own. A good partner will know everything that is going on around them, always moving in such a way as to never bump into another couple. A good partner will always help the other look good and graceful no matter their level of experience.
When it comes to doing a lift the partners always work together to accomplish the move gracefully. The one being lifted gives a little hop to assist in the lift. Just like we must allow God to lift us up when necessary, always there to help us accomplish our dance.
My wife who passed away a number of years ago was a massage therapist. She ran into one of her teachers who was surprised that she was still doing massage at the time. He told her that most people burn out after a few years. She told him that it was easy as long as you remember the dance. We can do so much more if we remember the dance. Whatever our dance might be, as long as we remember to connect, we will be able to remember the dance.
How do we connect? Some people will sit and meditate to connect to source and realize what they need to do but some will just dance to make that happen. Perhaps the most famous are the ones who will dance as part of the spiritual connection. The Sufis are noted for their dancing to connect with God. Native Americans dance to do the same thing. The Tibetans dance as well. Could it be that all of these faiths are connecting to the same
God?
Do you think you can do the same? Who are you to think that you can connect with God through dance? Who are you NOT to connect? It does not matter how one connects. It is important that one does connect. There are many ways to do this. Dance is one, many people meditate, and some go into deep prayer; while some like to return to nature with a walk in the woods or be near water. However one connects is fine. Remembering that we can in so many ways and that we do connect is the important part.
God is everywhere. If we don’t see this source as “God” then we can look at it as the energy that is in everything. God is in everything. There is a great story about three elders of a village coming to a young avatar offering him an orange if would tell them where God was. (You could not get oranges in this village.) The young avatar’s response was, “I’ll give you three oranges if you tell me where God is not.”
If you look at all of this through the eyes of science then you will see that this energy is in all things. It is the glue of the galaxy. There is more energy than matter. The more I study the more excited I get because I see how this all ties together. All of it. This is the stuff the mystics of four thousand years ago were talking about and people said it was all just myths until the astro-physicists and quantum mechanics started “discovering” all of the same stuff. This energy is Love. Call it what you want but it is Love and the source of it all is God.
The omnipotence is complete so whatever we call it is less than it is. That is why so many religions call God, “That which can not be named.” It is not that we will somehow get punished for naming God but the energy that some of us call God is so great that any name is no where near what it is. It is all, in all – sound familiar?
It does not matter what we call God. It really doesn’t, that is why there are so many views and it is very sad that there are those who feel justified to attack others because they don’t think the same. If I recall correctly, one of the big ten has something to do with not killing.
Jesus came to the group and said that it all boils down to two. We must Love God with all our heart and soul. And we must Love our neighbors as we Love ourselves. If you think about it, these are all anyone needs to live a good and holy life. There would be no way that we would do harm to another if we accepted these two commandments.
The converse of the second would be if we don’t Love our neighbors then it would follow that we don’t Love ourselves. It gives one pause for thought, yes? Jesus talked about no one can serve two masters. You cannot Love God and bring hate into your life. You can have one or the other but never at the same time. We all waiver back and forth through life depending what is happening to us and this is okay. We need to be gentle on ourselves. This is the Loving ourselves part. Remember, this is real life and we are all learning how to do this.
But we need to remember who we would rather be dancing with and step out in faith. Choose to Love the Dance of Life and celebrate!
Peace, Love and Coconuts!
Rev. Don
s/v Margaret Elizabeth
The Dance of Life!