To Value Other’s Dance

“Though we see the same world, we see it through different eyes. Any help we can give you must be different from that you can give yourselves, and perhaps the value of that help may lie in the fact of that difference.”  ~Virginia Woolf, from Three Guineas; A woman’s a response to an educated gentleman who solicits her participation in war-prevention efforts (1938).

 

danzers-8 ~d nelson

So why has dancing with you
seemed like such an elusive dream
through most of this life
my dearest, accepting dance partner?

While others laughed at both
of my awkward left feet,
You gave them firm support
that we may twirl together,
light & stable.

As my breath gently catches up
to these racing thoughts
& pounding heart,
your solidity calms me.

I’ve heard that opposites attract
but your deep, tender compassion
embracing this misaligned figure
breaks my heart open with happiness.

Why others won’t accept me
for who I am, and hope to be;
why they taunt & bully;
why they shoot semi-automatic
bullets at my fragile body,
I may never understand,
yet, I must forgive.

This is the lesson you
offer me, dear mother:
To transform unknowing
by dancing and smiling
even though faced with peril,
contentedly accepting even this,
while swan songs audibly
play for us all.

postcard to mother earth