This autumn I began a new passion. For all you fellow “Trekkies,” you might say I am “boldly going where no man has gone before.” I am working with young children in a preschool, and it does not involve dance at all. It’s actually quite a departure from what I have done my entire life. It had become second nature for me to teach children and adults how to train for ballet, how to incorporate drama into their dancing, how they should point their feet, how they should represent their art to an audience, how to communicate to an audience through their art – all of that has been my focus for decades. I was consumed with what I should teach others, how to impart that information, and how to use my experiences to educate the next generation of dancers and teachers. But now, these tiny four and five-year-old children are teaching me lessons that are far more profound and valuable, such as:
*Everything is manageable when you can do it next to your best friend
*Having rules and boundaries keep us safe
*We need to stop and help someone who has fallen down and is crying before moving on with the rest of our friends
*It really is more fun sometimes to just play the game and laugh rather than keep score to see who won.
*It’s very important to finish our work before going out to play…most of the time
And the most important one:
*It’s nice sitting next to someone you like, even when you’re not going to talk.
Last week, the class was sitting in a circle getting ready to hear a story. I like to sit in different places each day to help with different children. We have one little boy in class who always loves to play “Shark!” outside or put me in “lava jail”. During class time he consistently, quietly, and conscientiously gets his work done, and although I’m sure he has his moments at home, he’s not particularly emotional at school. On this one day, I sat down next to him, and he leaned over to me and whispered, “I like it when you sit next to me.” Then he showed me his dinosaur socks, and turned his attention to the story. He didn’t say another word the whole time. He just needed reassurance that he wasn’t alone, and I now know that I have a new little friend. Win Win.
We were not created to be comfortable existing alone. The Bible says, “Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you” – James 4:8. It doesn’t mean we can’t be comfortable living alone; however, we can’t exist alone. It means that in order to relate to each other, we must lean in and instigate contact. God says that all we need to do to be closer to Him is to take a step in His direction. But for some reason, with each other we put up walls, we set expectations, we make comparisons, we set rules, we practically audition people before we allow them to enter our bubble. All of those self-imposed conditions will hardly foster comfort and trust in each other, because we will always fail at something and eventually disappoint each other. It’s wonderful to know that God expects nothing from us other than our desire to get close, but we think we’re better at controlling who we know. Actually, that doesn’t seem to be working very well. Some might say that it’s…gulp…discrimination.
I love thinking about this little boy in my class who simply said, “I like it when you sit near me.” He didn’t check off a list of acceptable attributes or try to audition my suitability. He just liked being near. Oh, and he liked showing me his dinosaur socks. He liked being near, and he hoped I’d like his socks.
Dance on.
Grace Notes 