I’ve always admired people who love to dance. Yesterday afternoon I attended a dance recital which featured my daughter and other dancers. As I watched her, I smiled with a wide grin, cheering her on in my seat. She twirled her hands in a circular motion and her feet moved back and forth in rhythm. Her arms reached up and the expression on her face exuded happiness. Although over seventy people sat in the audience, my daughter didn’t hesitate in her movements. She enjoyed every single movement: the twirls, the arms twisting, and her torso leading the way to the next move.
I caught myself admiring her new-found discovery of dancing. With the music in the background, I observed her connecting with the song and embracing an unstructured world. There was a certain careless freedom that accompanied her movements. She immersed herself in performing and later confessed that she loved dancing and wasn’t nervous about the people in the audience. As I admired her freedom, I wondered the last time when I felt completely free. I really can’t remember a time where I wasn’t constantly thinking of deadlines, responsibilities, and moving toward the next item on my to do list.
Often times, my daughter reminds me what is important. To stop and relish in the freedom. Perhaps even move my limbs in the middle of the day, learning to piece together a dance move or just losing myself in the music. I know the feeling. It is universal. The experience of driving your car with your favorite song on the radio. You don’t care who is listening to you. You sing loud, while the windows are down. A special kind of freedom exists and no explanation is really required. As we get older, we forget. Or perhaps we take it for granted.
It is a feeling I had forgotten, but yesterday a six-year-old reminded me what really matters. The sweet essence of freedom.
Welcome! I am a lawyer turned freelance writer, essayist, and editor. On staff at Literary Mama and the co-founder and co-editor of the literary journal, The Sunlight Press, my essays and reported work have appeared in The Washington Post, The Lily, Saveur, Civil Eats, Brain, Child, ESPN and elsewhere. I am currently at work on a memoir on grief and culture and how it provides perspective on life’s ordinary graces. I invite you to appreciate the ordinary with me. I hope my daily practice of seeing the magic in the mundane helps you celebrate and find more of these moments in your life too.
It is nice to have freedom because we all know that when we are young, we always want it and as we grow old, we are having it.. I love this post actually..
It’s a wonderful thing in life to have something to call our own; an outlet where we’re totally free to express ourselves. It’s wonderful your daughter has found hers.
This is why we should always take cues from our kids! I danced from 3 – 18, and it was a great way to build my confidence and explore my creativity. Every now and then, when I get stressed, I blast the radio and dance. It feels good to let loose sometimes!
It’s a lovely thing to watch children dance, isn’t it! Or to watch them play and carry on without a care in the world as to who thinks they’re silly for expressing themselves… why don’t we do this as adults? What are we afraid of?
I think rediscovering that freedom by learning from my kids is one of my favorite parts of being a parent.
I don’t know when it is that we lose that ‘freedom’, but what a beautiful reminder!
Kids are so wonderfuly un-self-conscious…but eventually, for some or many, they become more and more inhibited the older they get…perhaps because they start experiencing too much criticism and/or pressure. I definitely grew up too worried about mistakes and appearances, and that restricted my sense of freedom significantly. I think that your daughter’s freedom to enjoy herself dancing and performing speaks volumes about the support and encouragement you have given to her as a mother!
There is a kind of jubilation in dancing that is glorious to experience – and just as wonderful when we see the joy in our children engaging in it.
Freedom – yes. And the feel of your body’s strength and flexibility, and a most beautiful channel for all that energy!
It is glorious and so beautiful to find it. Thank you for the reminder, Rudri. xo
They really do teach us so much, don’t they?
Ahh, she looks like she’s made to dance.