“Keep smiling, because life is a beautiful thing, and there’s so much to smile about.”
-Marilyn Monroe
This month, our challenge at Liberty Dance Center is to focus on gratitude each day. We all know that Thanksgiving and the holidays are a time to reflect on the blessings in our life. But how often do we stop daily to acknowledge what we are thankful for?
If you asked me a year ago what I was most thankful for, it would be my family. To this day, that answer still rings truer than ever. My two-year-old son just spent the last seven months of his life fighting a battle with cancer and winning it. It was a harrowing time for our family but we have come out stronger because of it, more appreciative than ever of the simple joys in life.
I never would have dreamed that my life could be turned so completely on its head, living in the hospital with my son for months on end while someone else raised my infant daughter at home. But it was, and I survived. I now count my time under one roof with my husband and our two children as my biggest blessing every day.
The chance to dance has always been something I am thankful for. A friend of mine from dance recently shared some wisdom of Brene Brown, a noted social research professor:
“Joy is the most vulnerable emotion we experience. And if you cannot tolerate the vulnerability of being truly joyful, you dress rehearse tragedy. ‘What could go wrong to ruin the joy of what I’m experiencing right now?’ Instead of using joy as a warning to practice disaster, use it as a reminder to practice gratitude.”
I am thankful for dance because it is a tool at my disposal that I can use to feel truly joyful. I am thankful for my life despite the challenges it has held because it showed me who my true friends are, and I have so many of them in all of you at Liberty Dance Center.
I am grateful to be a part of something bigger than myself, a community of families who support and encourage each other. If any one of our studio families were in my position, we would rally around them just as you have all done for me. I am thankful to have my son home and increasingly healthy.
A woman by the name of Vicki Baum was a Jewish writer who escaped Europe and moved to the U.S. when her books were banned in the Third Reich. She wrote, “There are shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them!” Her experiences and my own just go to show that no matter what life has put you through, there is always joy to be found and there is always, always something to be thankful for.
We at Liberty Dance Center challenge you to practice gratitude every day. We are grateful to have you here dancing with us!
