Post Sixty-One

Dancing In The Dark 

Jim Rule is a friend and colleague who also lost his wife of 38 years to cancer.  The experience moved Jim to write a book entitled, Letting Go of Forever.  I did not understand that title for quite some time. Now I get it.  Jim knows, and I am learning, that death means letting go and finding out who you are in a life without the one with whom you have shared an identity.  

I have a friend.  Her name is Jane.  I am making room in my healing heart for her.  We come together having both experienced loss and finding ourselves in a life situation we never expected and never wanted.  We are each discovering who we are as individuals without the identity we once had. We have made a pledge to each other that we will be kind, honest, and tender as we make our way through this unfamiliar lifescape.  We have kept our promise to each other.  As a result we have experienced joy and found a lightness of heart we thought was lost forever.  It is a kind of turning, a redirection of focus from what was to what may yet be.

Dancing in the Dark is an old song that expresses this moment well.  This is Dancing in the Dark from 1931 by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz rather than the song recorded by Lady Gaga or Bruce Springsteen.  Jane and I have come together in the darkest of moments and have joined in a new dance.  We are determined to appreciate the moment and to find happiness in the here and now.  Consider these lyrics:

Dancing in the dark till the tune ends
We're dancing in the dark and it soon ends
We're waltzing in the wonder of why we're here
Time hurries by, we're here and gone

Looking for the light of a new love
To brighten up the night, I have you, love
And we can face the music together
Dancing in the dark

This is a new dance with a new partner in an altered circumstance.  What I know is this - Life is shorter than one might expect.  There is wonder yet to be revealed. Facing the music is best done together with one you love.

We're waltzing in the wonder of why we're here
Time hurries by, we're here and gone
And we can face the music together
Dancing in the dark

Dave Gladstone

 Click here and listen to Bing Crosby sing the song. 

Dancing in the Dark

Comments

[N Gorinac]

Happy for both of you!