Wednesday, August 15, 2012

A Rain Dance


There sits a decorative block on the dresser I share with Balthazar, that I picked up several years ago. It reads, Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass, it's learning to dance in the rain.

I don't usually buy home decor with inspirational quotes. It's not really my style. But we were going through a rough patch at the time. Balthazar was working in Vegas, coming home weekends only, and I suddenly found myself a single parent from Monday to Friday, in Des Moines--while we waited for the house to sell, so we could get on with things. Things being our new lives in the desert, where he had a new job. 

This went on for a long time, until the job wasn't new anymore, and our situation was just old.

It was hard. We began to lose faith in one another, and in ourselves.  Money was tight. Time was tighter.  And life was hectic as all hell.  Then, when finally we found buyers for the house, our basement flooded to chase them away.  In ten years, the basement had never seen water, but the Iowa rains were unusually heavy that spring.

Anyway, it was right about that time, on another cloudy day, when I'd been waiting for a full year for Balthazar's plane to land, and the house to sell, and our lives to continue, that I came across this inspirational knick knack, probably in a Hallmark store. 

I set it front and center in our bedroom, and I quoted it often to Balthazar when he'd hold his forehead in frustration, or hang it in misery. I said it to myself, sometimes my morning mirror mantra, other times while I cried myself to sleep, alone in our bed. It helped.

Then the storm passed. We finally sold the house and came together as a family in our new home in Vegas.  Balthazar and I have grown close again. (God, I love that man!) And life is a little easier for us. For now.

But I keep the Hallmark block around anyway, not so much as a source of inspiration anymore as a reminder of who we are and how we persevered. Of how hard it is to dance sometimes . And how important it is to cup your ear, listen for the beat in the thunder. Sway to the rhythm. Move your feet.

Anyway, there arrived a fantastic storm on our desert doorstep this afternoon. 

It made me smile to find Hollywood dancing in it.













Life is short. Drink it up!


And dance!

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