The Dance of Life

Life is a party in chaos, sandwiched between periods of quiet contemplation. Think about it. You come into this world alone, incubated, with 9 months to think about what’s to come. You leave this world alone as you go through the death, review, rebirth phases, thinking about what you’ve done. But in between…in between is where the action happens.

We bound, crash, and sometimes even fall into the arms of other people. We love them, we hate them, we disrespect them, we save their lives, we kick them while they’re down, we help, we hinder, we laugh, we cry, we kiss, we spit, all the while using each other as mirrors for learning, teaching, growing, expanding.

And it’s fun, even the bad stuff. Especially the bad stuff. Some of us get addicted to it. To feeling, something. Sometimes we take too much from others. Sometimes we give more than we should. Sometimes it’s a perfect harmony, but whichever way we do it, we just love bouncing into each other. That’s why we came here, and keep on coming back for more.

But while the dance of life is alluring, it can also be distracting. Sometimes those people we use as mirrors can reflect a desire to hide from ourselves. We might find ourselves using people as a buffer between our egos and our higher selves, our thoughts and our emotions, our mask and our true self. When we’re surrounded by people there’s enough distraction to keep our minds occupied so we don’t have to go inwards.

Periods of alone time are crucial. It’s in these quiet periods within the chaos that we return to ourselves. We remember why we’re on the dance floor in the first place. We have to find a way to ground our energy and anchor it into Earth, or else get swept away by the energy of others, our mirrors. Sometimes you just have to hit the sidelines to grab some punch and catch our breath.

There’s plenty more dancing, don’t worry. The party don’t stop around here, well, until that day that the music fades, the lights turn on, and you don’t have to go home, but you gotta get the hell outta here; back to quiet contemplation mode.

It feels like a good balance. Rest bookmarked on either end of chaos, with some breaks along the way. What a party. In the end there’s no wrong way to do it. You could pace yourself and have a relaxing time of it.

Or, you could rage as hard as you can go. But your future holds soreness, a hang over, and a blanket of shame that envelops your whole being for a day or two. Trust me. I’ve done that one enough times to know.