September 2007

Playing the Hula Hoop

Have you ever wondered what life would be like in tap shoes? How it would sound every time your feet smacked the floor? Would you dance down the supermarket aisles? Would you wear sequins on your pajamas? Would you wear a sparkling cowboy hat and pretend to dance with a lasso when you needed to improvise on stage? (Wait, that's another story...) Would you notice new rhythms in your life if you lived it wearing tap shoes? How would you move differently? Would you?

None of these questions were on my mind the other night as I was waiting outside our studio with my journal for our teacher to arrive for class. My mind was still on a conversation I had just had that had left me disturbed, excited, and not a little left in wonder of what I was stepping into and what that would mean in my life. Things were changing, God was on the move, and if you have any experience with his unpredictability, you know he loves to surprise us- with ourselves. Evan after Stacey arrived and I was tying my sparkling red shoe-laces in their double knots, I was still searching my heart and processing. I over process a lot. That is, until Stacey remarked she had forgotten the hula hoops in her car and was going to get them. Reality then hit very quickly like a tree branch crashing onto my head. Tonight was Sheri's and Joshua's birthday celebration and Stacey had asked us all to bring hula hoops if we had them. I didn't have one.

At our house when I was a child, hula hoops were something you used as a circle to toss toys into with your sisters or to roll down the sidewalk to see how far it could go. I know we tried to master the hula hooping "thing" but I confess, I could never do it. It always fell down around my ankles before I could get it going around my hips. I believe at one point I just gave up on it and went back to seeing how many toys I could toss through it instead of putting myself through that humiliation one more time. The prospect of being embarrassed in front of my tap class was not a picture I wanted to enter into. (I'm also still working my self-consciousness.)

It only took me a second to create that embarrassing picture of myself trying to hula hoop, pathetically and without rhythm as a "mature" adult. It was not pretty. But, tapping had already gotten me into plenty of other interesting situations and what was one more? I had already tapped down the supermarket aisle, (Okay, I still do), tapped around a campfire, worn sparkles from head to toe, danced in front of hundreds of people with a smile on my face, and even substitute taught the class when Stacey was out of town. I had just stopped short of wearing sequins on my pajamas, though that can be fixed. Besides, everyone was doing it...

So, in the belief that life truly is too short not to live it, I picked up a blue and white hula hoop, watched the experts, and tried. It didn't fall off right away. Okay, the first couple of times, it did fall off right away. But I tried again and again and shocked the socks off myself by actually doing it! I felt exhilaration, I felt joy, I felt vindicated! One of my childhood skeletons, that I couldn't hula, had now been fully redeemed! Yahoo! It was an incredible time, we had such fun hulaing together to an old song, "Everyone Plays the Hula Hoop!" that Stacey had recorded from an record. We laughed A LOT. We dropped our hoops A LOT, but we all soon had them spinning again. Deborah could hula it straight to town- around her arm, neck, whatever! She was amazing!

However, the shocks were not over for the evening. After getting our attention over the music and rolling hula hoops, Stacey challenged us to see how many tap steps we could get in while swinging the hula hoop around our waist. Flabbergasted, I protested, "I've just learned how to hula hoop and you want me to tap dance at the same time?" Stacey smiled at me and said, "It's the next step up. You can do it!" I must tell you, this is a familiar exchange between us. She will challenge me to do a variation of something we've learned and say it's the next technical step up. In truth, I like it. I like it a lot. She challenges me to do new things and believes in my ability to accomplish them. Even hula hooping. And she is usually right, I can do it. And I did! I got several tap steps while keeping the hoop airborne. Quite an accomplishment!

I have thought about that night since and have gleaned two truths from it. One, when you have a lot on your mind, when you are thinking about many things, sometimes you just need to "tap it out" and play! This is especially true for those of us who tend to think too much, we can dig ourselves into impressive holes and end up hitting ourselves a lot with the shovel. Tap has been great for me to learn to play, to loosen up, and have fun. It requires taking my thinking cap off and putting my tap shoes on. After a good hour playing and making rhythmic noise, my problems always seem a little easier to handle, easier to think through. If they seem important at all. Sometimes I just chalk them up to my tendency to make something bigger than it is. I just tell myself it's a little thing, not a big deal, go out and play!

The second lesson I took from our hula hooping night is we need to be open to challenge, even at times when we don't think we're ready. At those times, you have to listen to the people who think you are, to trust those who believe in you. One of these, is God, and he deserves our trust above all else for he knows everything about us and everything we can do. Sometimes he will give us a new level to reach for, but like Stacey, he knows we can reach it with practice, and he will encourage us all the way there. Even when the hula hoops of life keep falling around our feet, he will cheer us on, telling us to go for it, and when we do it, when we have that hoop spinning in the air, he will be the one you hear clapping the loudest, laughing for the one he loves, the one he is proud of. With that, we can do anything!

Today the hula hoop, tomorrow the pogo stick!

Anyone have one?

News

I will be at Wings of the Soul in Salem, Oregon, on October 5th or 6th for a book signing.

Details and a specific time are coming soon.

Last Updated: 12/30/2011