Life of a Dancing Woodland Fairy

I love to dance. Nothing professional, just straight, downright dancing. It's a way to channel my thoughts and feelings. Sometimes I need to just get away from the world. Do you ever get that way?

 

Picture this. There's a teensy woodland fairy dragging a suitcase full of rocks through the forest's rough terrain to get to a river, where she can drown the suitcase in the magical water and watch it and all the ridiculously heavy rocks inside it disintegrate into a bazillion tiny pieces. That, metaphorically, is how I feel when I dance. I like to let go, because, just like Ann Landers said, "Hanging on to resentment is like letting someone you despise live rent-free in your head."

 

Grudges are stupid. So why do we hang on to them? Do we like to let the anger-gunk inside us build up and burble around until something a friend says lights a match inside us and all that anger-gunk explodes all over those beautiful brand new shoes that the friend just brought us? So, metaphorically speaking, if we don't forgive and forget, we ruin a person's day and a beautiful pair of brand-new shoes.

 

Ephesians 4:26 says, "Do not let the sun go down upon your anger," In the musical lyrics of one of my favorite songs, "Can't let the hurt have control, Gotta find the strength in my soul...Before the sun goes down...Before the world spins around...before a new day's found, I must forgive."

 

So come on, people. Forgiving someone really isn't that hard. Right? No. But...what about forgiving yourself? Many people I know, even myself, have a hard time grasping this concept. I think we like to tell ourselves that "Oh, it's okay. They forgave me, so we can just forget about the whole thing," sometimes we even go as far as, "I promised myself I wouldn't do it again, it's the same thing." But really. We all are familiar with the firefly buzzing around in your brain constantly reminding you of what you did, and yes, you feel guilty. No one can beat us up more than that little firefly.

 

People often think they need to forgive themselves for not living up to the standards of the world, whether that means being yourself, maybe the figurative "cover of a magazine" tells you that you're not good enough. Don't try to live up to the standards of the world. Just be yourself, and I can promise you this, there will come a day when someone comes along and loves you for you.

 

Of course, the first step in forgiving yourself is loving yourself. Now, I don't mean loving what you did. Loving yourself is simply not trying to hide anything, and showing the world who you really are, who you aim to be, and realizing that no one is perfect, and definitely not trying to be someone you aren't. Self-forgiveness is a journey, not a destination. Its a long and windy dirt road. Not a freeway. Maybe you want to start that journey today.

 

I can't make you join me on my dirt road, but if you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance. Carpe Diem. Seize the day. Stay happy. Don't listen to the world. Listen to your heart. You'll notice a difference. True story.

 

~The Crazy Dancing Woodland Fairy living next door~