Cheerful Disarray

After a good, sweaty dance class, endorphins are always running rampant.  In this state, it’s like being a little high or cheerfully disarrayed.  You can just blurt stuff that maybe you might think twice about saying at another time.  

We have to get messy sometimes and remember to give up what we believe something should look like.   A little disorder, I think, is often good.  I like to refer to the state of my home as “cheerful disarray.”  No, I am not a hoarder, but I am not averse to a little randomness in the placement of objects.  I am not a firm believer that “everything has its place.”

After class one day as I was kissing a friend goodbye, she said, “Ugh, watch it!  I am so sweaty!”  I blurted, “Good! If you’re not sweaty and a little messy, it probably wasn’t a good class – just like sex!”  And it occurred to me that after a dance class or at the end of a sexual encounter, if every hair is in place and you have not broken a sweat, if your heart isn’t beating a little faster, if the world doesn’t look a little brighter, it probably was not such a great experience. 

If you don’t approach dance (or sex) with abandon, being truly yourself, at the end of it all there may be something lacking.  It may be fun, but not completely and wholly satisfying.

A good dance class is like good sex – it makes you a little messy.  In a positive sense, you can get lost in it, expressing yourself without words.  Your body is saying it all, in your own unique way.  And that is a beautiful thing.

When we move from within, even though the result can be messy, it is authentic and life-affirming.  

Let’s embrace our cheerful disarray and remember that when we are expressing our authenticity, we are at our most powerful. 

Photo by MaryEllen Hendricks