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| Christmas 1972. |
I'm not a big country music fan, nor do I like music videos with lots of egregious shots of the performer's assets (if ya get my drift).
But this song has such an inspirational message and I hope that you listen to the music and words of the video below. If need be, press play and walk away from your computer just so you won't get distracted by the visuals. I promise that the song is worth it.
There are days when, feeling a little numb, I go through the motions of my daily routine with the hope that the familiar will bring me back to life. I can usually snap out of it, but waiting for that moment to arrive in my head can feel like forever. So I have this song to keep me motivated, especially because it reminds me of my Mom.
She wasn't one to give advice in eloquent phrases. Her words, however heartfelt, were always terse and awkward. But my Mom and I knew her shortcoming was just a matter of language. On my birthdays, she always felt the need to give some motherly advice and sought out the perfect greeting card with poetry that contained stanza after stanza of wisdom, quotations from serious-minded individuals, or passages from the bible. She would hand me the card, tell me that she wished she could write the words herself, and laugh her funny laugh. I would place the card on our mantle for a week or so, until the dust gathered and the edges curled. Sometimes I would remember to put them in my drawer for safe keeping. Other times I would throw it away, knowing that there would always be another one next year.
There is no next year for my birthday cards, but I have this song in my head. And I know if she were alive today, she would probably find some silly card that had these lyrics in them. And knowing how much hurt still occupies the varied spaces of my day, she would hand me this card and laugh her funny laugh. These lyrics would be her words to me.
"And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance...
I hope you dance."
Lee Ann Womack/I Hope You Dance