After The Work

The music plays over the television for everyone in the home. Sounds of “Sweet Caroline” as performed adequately by someone other than Neil Diamond, discounted canned content to play on a loop. The residents sit in their cushioned chairs around the room seem to gaze out into eternity, not looking at anything in particular. Life seems to come to a soft conclusion in elder homes like this, no pressures beyond physical decline and memory issues. All seem to be in stasis awaiting eternity, except one.

There in the middle of them is a woman who cannot recall which room might be hers, but she can walk pretty good, braids her own white hair, blue eyes peer out of black framed glasses. Not only can she walk, but she can dance. Whenever music plays Dee Dee dances wherever she is. She’s not leaping around, twirling, or moving fast. She has her own style where she moves her arms and hips a little like the twist, or she will bounce one foot in front of another.

Dee Dee dances around like a sunflower on a breezy summer day, standing tall above the other flowers in the garden that remain still and watch on. She smiles and hums along to the music, sometimes she closes her eyes and almost backs into a random walker. Other times people are trying to get around her and staff has to wait a second for her to move. She hasn’t fallen so far as I’ve heard, but she looks so happy and pretty darn steady on her feet!

There is a great lesson to be learned, I think, a lesson regarding joy. We may not be what we were in years past, not as quick on our wits. We may reflect upon the past and weep or long for days long past. There are times we are confused, lost and bewildered. Times when our pain is a constant unwanted companion to remind us that our days are numbered. The struggle brings us back to the past, or forward anxiously looking towards the future. What becomes elusive is the moment where life and His presence exist.

Dee Dee dances when she could despair. She dances because it feeds her soul. She dances because sometimes she cannot remember and sometimes cannot forget. Yet in the moment the music plays and she moves as her heart calls her. It speaks to the power music has on our souls, but also the lesson to embrace it. It is a choice we all have, to stop and live in the moment or die in the past or future.

The Moment is where we find God’s presence. He exists in all times and places, but we meet him tangibly in the Moment. We can see his hand in the past and trust our futures to the God of the Universe, but the dance to the life He calls us to exists Today. The music of the universe exists Now, even in silence or perhaps especially in silence. We can be as a lamb calling for the Shepherd, but then do we ever sit and wait for Him to come? To we pause enough in this world to hear the Music?

One of the amazing things to watch is at times other residents will see Dottie dance and will tap their foot or stand and move a little. It’s contagious, a beautiful stirring takes place where others say “I want that too” or even enjoy the dance through others. One person just being authentic and choosing joy shines like a beacon to others in the dark. Eyes light up, smiles emerge. You don’t need a memory to know what joy is.

The world seems to be noisier and more frantic in its attempts to drown out the Music. It is so hard to live in the moment, to hear His rhythm on our hearts. Our phones ding, TikTock will always have another video. Games, news, apps… noise. It’s as if something doesn’t want you to be Still and Know He is God. Pause. Rest. Dance like Dee Dee.