Welcome to Living a Life of Gratitude.
I'm Sarah Wiseman.
Swing Step When I first began to write seriously,
I rented a tiny writing office in a dance studio.
Once used as a coat room or changing room for dancers,
The office was adjacent to the big room,
Its expanse of gleaming wood floor and bar along one wall.
Now rented as facility space for a variety of programs,
The former studio didn't need it.
On Mondays,
There was Pilates in the day,
Ballet in the afternoon,
Irish dancing at night.
On Tuesdays,
There was Pilates in the day,
Tap in the afternoon,
And ecstatic dance at night.
And so it went during the week.
I used the tiny space,
Coat hooks still installed,
In the times when the room would be quiet.
On Fridays,
The schedule was clear.
The studio was invitingly empty,
And I began to come to the space with great anticipation of a writing day undisturbed.
I also loved the feeling of having the dance floor to myself,
And would often bring my own music to dance uninhibited and alone in the enormous high-ceilinged room.
In fact,
I began to count on coming in early on Fridays so I could have that delicious time to dance by myself.
One Friday,
I was in the room dancing when to my surprise,
There was a great banging at the locked front door.
I stopped mid-whirl and went to open it.
There stood an older couple carrying a boombox,
Demanding to let,
Demanding to be let in.
Let me clarify,
When I say older couple,
I'm not using the age range that my kids might consider older of the 40s and 50s.
When I say older couple,
I'm not talking about an age range that I might consider being older,
Starting at age 80.
This couple was older,
Elderly.
In fact,
I was to learn in the next few minutes the man,
The tall,
Stooped,
String bean of a man with ears so big they looked like another kind of appendage,
Was 103.
The woman,
A tiny slim lady covered in makeup and actually wearing a dancing dress,
Was much younger.
I'm 15 years his junior,
She confided to me with great pride,
And then to my surprise,
We're not actually married.
It took them a long time to put on their dancing shoes.
They sat on the stage and she got her dancing shoes out of a small felt bag and with great care put them on.
Capizios I saw with a low heel,
A pair she might have had for years.
He had a more difficult time of it,
Changing from the pair of sneakers he was wearing into what looked like a nearly identical pair of sneakers,
But she was insistent hovering over him.
It was hard for him to cross his leg up over his other leg to untie one shoe,
And even harder to put on the other shoe and then tie it.
At one point I thought about going over to help,
But that I hung back.
It was clear they'd done this many times.
I sat silent in my office with the door open into the studio and observed.
When they were ready,
They turned on the boombox and began to dance.
It was String of Pearls,
And it was quite possibly the slowest,
Most beautiful swing step I've ever seen.
His arms barely raised over her head as she stepped carefully into her turn,
And he twirled her with gingerly caution,
Every step as fragile as if only their bones were dancing.
They danced to three more songs,
Her face fierce with concentration.
As the color rose into his face,
I began to worry if it was all too much,
But when they were done,
They walked carefully back to the stage and began the slow process of putting their shoes back on.
They laughed a little,
And at one point he slowly,
Carefully kissed her on the cheek.
We're here every week,
The woman confided in me as they walked out through the front door.
We've been doing this for years.
I was confused as they left,
Knowing that they had never been here before on any Friday.
They were not on any schedule,
And in fact,
I never saw them again.
When I asked the studio director about them,
She had no idea who they were.
And in this way,
I began to wonder if perhaps they were real,
If they were spirits,
Or perhaps in some time continuum,
If they were both.
To dance with your partner at any age is a way to remind yourself of the longer dance of your lifetime together.
Love does not end when we die.
We continue the dance from the other realms.
If you have not danced with your beloved for a long time,
I invite you to dance with him or her today.
Move slowly.
Don't worry about the steps.
Let the color rise in your cheeks.
