Dizzily Spinning
“Dance!” says two-year old Emma, as she looks up into my face. Her invitation is also a command and I obey. I leave the dishes in the sink and we dance. Sometimes I hold her little hands and we hop and slide around in a circle together. Other times she reaches up to be held. I scoop her into my arms and we waltz around the room. When the song is fast we start to spin. I look at her, her face beaming while the room blurs behind her little head. All too soon I am dizzy and I have to put her down. She begs for more, but I need to steady my head before I can go on.
I learned years ago how to spin without getting dizzy. I’m just so intent on watching Emma that I forget to do it. It is called spotting and very simply it is focusing on one spot over and over again. With any kind of turn a dancer focuses on a spot in front of her that doesn’t move. Every time she turns she flips her head around and looks at it again. If the turns move across the floor she looks in the direction she is going. Her eyes aren’t watching the room spin, they are returning to some fixed point. Over and over she focuses on her spot or her direction of movement. In this way, not only does she stay or move according to the choreography of the dance, but she also keeps her head clear and steady.
A clear and steady head is something I would love to have. Most days I feel like I am dizzily spinning. I love my life full of husband, children, home, service and friends, but sometimes it leaves me holding my head in my hands wondering if somehow I can simplify it all. What could I possibly get rid of? I am certain that with careful introspection I could find ways to whittle down some of the distractions. However, given my circumstances, there isn’t much I could do. With my multitude of blessings have come a multitude of responsibilities.
The trick now is to learn, like a skillful dancer, to keep my head while I spin. “It is more basically; how to remain whole in the midst of the distractions of life; how to remain balanced, no matter what centrifugal forces tend to pull one off center, how to remain strong, no matter what shocks come in at the periphery.[i]” And like that dancer it is all about focus, looking again and again at a single fixed point or the direction I want to go.
A Fixed Point
You don’t have to look far to find a fixed point. Long ago that point was prepared so that if we will look we may live forever.[ii] When the world is spinning around us there is One we can look to again and again for peace, strength and reassurance. He tells us himself to look to him in every thought.[iii]
Looking to Christ in every thought is a simple command, but one that takes diligence. It begins with prayer to the Father in His name. In those moments of sincere prayer we quiet our minds and our hearts. In those moments it is as if the spinning stops altogether and we can see clearly. This happens again when we engage in temple worship, study the scriptures or worship at church.
I love the peace that comes to me when I take part in these simple acts of worship. When I am consistent with them a steadiness comes to my daily round that is missing when I neglect them. It is in the looking again and again; no matter how briefly, that keeps me moving gracefully through the dance of my life.
Watch Where You are Going
Besides looking to our fixed point it is important to have a direction in our lives. When the choreography of a dance requires that a dancer move from one position to another while turning she must look where she is going again and again in order to arrive with a clear head where she needs to be. It is the same for us.
It is easy to get caught up in all that must be done, letting the loudest and most immediate things take over our lives. But for our lives to have the purpose and direction we want we must refocus often on where we want to be. The New Year is the perfect time to reassess our position and decide where to focus our efforts.
Too many times we take the time to sit down, pen in hand, and write out a list of goals. Then we close the book and go back to our lives without ever coming back to them until the next year rolls around. Sometimes we tear into them with fervor for a day or two and then slip back into the comfort of old routines. A wise friend once told me that it isn’t so much about doing big things to change our lives, but about doing little things every day. In this way change comes, almost imperceptively, but it comes. It is in looking again and again, each day, in little ways that keeps us headed in the direction we want to go.
Invitation to Dance
“Dance!” life invites us. The invitation is also a command and we obey. For women the dance is often frenetic, frantic and dizzying. Like the little girl with the red shoes we can’t seem to slow down or stop. But the dance of our lives can be a joyous one, filled with quiet, contemplative steps as well as busy ones. The key is where we keep our eyes during the dance. The Choreographer of our lives would have us look to Him for how to do the dance. He would have us remember that we had our first lessons before we were born.[iv] He invites us, “If thou art merry, praise the Lord with . . . dancing.[v] So, come on, let’s dance!
Kimberli Pelo Robison loves to dance with her husband and their six children. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Family and Human Development from Utah State University.
