Finding the New Rhythm

It was a you’ve got to be kidding me! moment.

There were six of us.
Six women who dreamed of tap dancing on Broadway. But knowing that was never going to happen, we had chosen a community dance class and were now gleefully tapping on a grade school stage. It was our recital. After nine weeks of stumbling, sweating, and fighting shin splints, this was our chance to show friends and family how quickly our feet could move.

Tap-dancer-recital1

We had practiced. Hard. We had this.
We wore snappy purple tails, purple top hats, purple cummerbunds, purple bowties, black leotards, and swung jazzy canes. Very cool.

But at our final run-through in the hour before the recital, the tempo of the music changed. KC & the Sunshine Band was singing Keep it Comin’ Love much faster than we had practiced. (How does that even happen?)

We could not get in synch with this new rhythm.

The music played, and we danced to the music in our heads—the tempo we had practiced to—several beats behind. It would have been hysterically funny if we weren’t so mortified.

No matter how hard we tried to stay with the music…
Our bodies could not move any faster. All six of us stayed in perfect synch with each other, several beats behind the music.

Good grief.

That same out of synch feeling is starting to creep up on me again. And I’m not even wearing my cute little tap shoes.

Moving from Summer to Fall. Things feels different.
Life’s rhythms change, don’t they? New routines. Different responsibilities. Probably not as much time to breathe deeply. Days are shorter. Twilight comes earlier.

I think this is a time when we need to show ourselves and each other a little more Grace.

We’re going to struggle as school starts, programs reconvene, and 4th quarter goals become a priority. We’ve got a Summer tempo playing in our head, and it’s not going to be fast enough to keep up.

How about if we give ourselves a little room to trip and miss a step?
Let’s slow the tempo down a bit for those we live with and work with.

We’ve got more than an hour this Fall to find our new rhythm. It will come.
Let’s keep breathing deeply, listening to the new tempo, and eventually we’ll start to appreciate the new routine. We’ll get there.

Back on the dance stage…
Our brave group of six didn’t have time to catch up to the new tempo that afternoon.
But we tapped our little hearts out in perfect rhythm with each other – confidently strutting our stuff, imagining Broadway lights.

Show yourself Grace.
You’ll find your new rhythm.

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