11-17-01, Sunday Journal, 537 words

Dance
By Dalton Roberts
IPS Features

From journal notes of 1989

In one of the Gnostic gospels, Jesus said, "Dance. He who does not dance does not know what happens."

If you can't dance, dance anyway. If you're too self-conscious to dance with someone, dance with yourself. Just put on some rock and roll and make it your exercise. Then ease your body back by dancing a couple of waltzes.

Just this morning over coffee my sister and I confided to each other that we dance alone. Who ever said you had to dance good to have the right to dance? You ever said you had to walk good to have the right to walk? What does it mean to walk or dance good? It means only one thing worth knowing -- that you walk and dance like you walk and dance.

Why would someone say you don't know what happens if you don't dance? One reason is that when you are in a state of extreme self-consciousness, you are unaware of anything around you. You are self-focused. Locked into your own tiny little world. And locking out the rest of the world.

On my computer I taped up this saying: Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. Dance like nobody's watching.

TRANSFORMING A NUISANCE

From journal notes of 1993

David Walker said, "Error is always changeable. It can be transformed from a lack and a nuisance to a solution and a joy."

It's too personal for me to tell but there was an item that had lost its significance to me because of circumstances. It became a curse and a nuisance to me. Every time I'd look at it, bad old memories would flood over me.

One day I sat down and made friends with it. I asked it what was the higher spiritual meaning it held for me, rather than the meaning I had been attaching to it. It took a while but finally it revealed this higher meaning to me. It told me several things it had meant to me and several new things it could mean to me. From that moment, it has held a deep significance to me.

We invest people and things with layers of meaning. All is a projecting out of our own inner values. Nothing nor nobody has a single meaning to us. Everything and everyone means different things to  us. All we need to do is to explore those deeper and higher meanings.

Would you want someone to only see one facet of you and ignore all the many aspects of you that go into making you who you are? No one would wish to be seen in such a tiny light. No one wants to be just a sliver in someone's mind.

To see the many meaningful textures of someone's mind, body and soul requires nothing more than  sitting quietly with them in your mind and simply opening to them. Each time you see something new and different, you deepen and expand their beauty as well as your own.

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