Tag: music

NPM 17

NPM 17

by TheSecretLifeOfPandas ♥ 4 Comments

My body remembers the movement to old music.

Dancing by the big window on the third floor at lunch.

I loaned you one of my skirts.

Turns and turns.

I taught you steps.

It feels so long ago those Friday evenings when it was just you and me.

Or those nighttime walks with the pups that turned into dance sessions and impromptu choreography.

I hear old songs and I’m taken back to rehearsals with the girls.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Not a one, two, three, four.

It’s a kick, ball-change, followed by a turn clap clap.

We made notes on the paper table cloth as we ate crepes and drank coffee.

A group will enter here, she’ll have a solo there, everyone will come together in the chorus.

Do you remember the one where we jumped off the stage?

Or how about the one where we moved like skeletons?

I loved the one where I made you tutus and I can’t forget the one where I made you wings.

Sometimes I remember the one where we all cried. Oh, there were a few of those.

And sometimes the songs and movements just blend into a dance that has spanned decades.

It never ends, just goes on and on, song after song.

Your Name is Love

Your Name is Love

by TheSecretLifeOfPandas ♥ 2 Comments

“Hate begets hate; violence begets violence; toughness begets a greater toughness. We must meet the forces of hate with the power of love.”  – Martin Luther King Jr.

Every weekend, Friday night and Sunday morning, I sing in the choir at my church.

There is a song by Christian artists, Evan Craft and Banda Horizonte, called Su Nombre es Amor, and I love when it comes up on our song list. My favorite part being the pre-chourus and chorus:

“Mis ojos fijaré en aquel que ya venció 
Me asombraré, mis cadenas Él rompió 

Su nombre es amor, 
Su nombre es amor, 
Jesús 
Su nombre es amor, 
Su nombre es amor, 
Jesús”

“I will fix my eyes on He who already triumphed.  I am in awe, He has broken my chains.

His name is love, His name is love,  Jesus. His name is love, His name is love, Jesus.”

We are proclaiming He is love. Because this is what we believe and this is what we know.

I’ve had love on my mind a lot lately. All kinds of love. The divine love I sing about, the familial love I feel for my family and friends, the romantic love I feel towards my boyfriend, the fraternal love for my fellow man– my neighbor.

Because I spend so much time reading about the pain and suffering my neighbors are going through, hunger, poverty, violence, homelessness, murder, depression, suicide– a laundry list of heart-wrenching pain. And I feel hopeless in my inability to help these strangers who are so far from me.

These people are in dire need of a demonstration of love. And I’m not trying to be cheesy or cliched. I’m not talking about sitting in a circle, holding hands, singing all you need is love with our eyes closed, and an acoustic guitar. I don’t mean going around saying “I love you” to everyone you see. You see words mean nothing if there isn’t any action to back it up.

Love isn’t just an abstract noun, an idea we spend a lifetime searching for. It is concrete, an action verb. We need to love. It is something we do. Love is a weapon we can bear to combat the hopelessness we feel in the world around us.

Instead of doing nothing but scrolling through headlines and feeling sad I can take a look around at the people that are within the reach of my love. Being love for them with a kind word, with an open ear, with my money, with food, with supplying a need that needs to be met. I want to be love for the people around me.

Because when everything feels like chaos, there is always one thing you can control, the way you react and the action that you take.

So choose to love.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”- Martin Luther King Jr.