
If anyone asks you what you’re doing, tell them – you’re prolonging your life!
~ Joi (“Joy”)
Christian Book Reviews, Self Improvement, Positivity
If anyone asks you what you’re doing, tell them – you’re prolonging your life!
~ Joi (“Joy”)
Dance… as long as the music plays.
When it comes to the subjects of aging well or coping with illnesses, one of my favorite sayings is this: “Dance as long as the music plays.” Tragically, yet understandably, most people – when they either reach a certain age or a certain point in their illness when their fight begins to leave them – turn their attention from living to dying. They stop enjoying the world and begin missing the world…. long before they even have to leave it!
Short story: My father, Larry Joe (how perfectly southern is that name?), battled horrific illnesses most of his adult life. The things this man had to deal with would make the rest of us shake with embarrassment over the things we complain about. A doctor at Vanderbilt once told my mom that my dad’s level of pain was almost unheard of – and that it was relentless. He likened it to pouring salt water in an open wound. Over and over and over again.
Each morning brought waves of nausea that he would joke about being his “morning sickness without a baby to show for it.” One by one, things that he loved to do (working – he loved his job!, gardening, umpiring softball games, walking with his granddaughters..) had to give way to sitting in his recliner watching reruns of Matlock, Rockford Files and Perry Mason.
He wasn’t even 60.
Here’s the thing, though. The man never complained. Not once did he ask or even come close to asking, “Why me?” When he could no longer tend to his rose beds, he read rose magazines and browsed rose bush catalogs – talking about “next year’s garden” when he’d be “stronger.”
His body robbed him of health and it robbed him of many, many years but it never robbed him of his love of life. During his last hospital stay, he made jokes about the food and teased my mom by saying their food even made him anxious to get home to her’s!
Such a character.
What can we learn from this character?
Finally… what can we learn from this jokester? He danced…. for as long as the music played. And he didn’t sit one song out.
He lived out one of my favorite sayings, “Dance as long as the music plays.”
As we grow older, we have to be on guard for dark clouds that come swooping in. Dark clouds that remind us of things we no longer are able to do. Clouds that whisper that time isn’t on our side. Clouds that remind us of health issues, aches, pains, and what have you. Is there a lot of truth to what they have to say? Sure. Those morning aches aren’t exactly fictional, are they?!
But here’s the thing – you can’t focus on any of that nonsense. Where’s the joy in that?
Whether age or illness (or if you’re really showing off and are up against both) has brought a few visiting dark clouds into your world, here’s what I want you to do.
Don’t ever focus on the end of the song. Focus on the music and let the end work itself out. Focus on living and focus on the beauty in life. By all means, focus on laughter. The more, the better. Someone I once knew taught me that every now and then, if life isn’t funny enough, you have to create your own. Just warn everyone first, okay?
“Dance as long as the music plays.” – Larry Joe’s Daughter
by Joi 2 Comments
Some people are so infatuated with quotes that they can pull one out of their hat for any given situation. How do I know?
Because I”m the guiltiest of the guilty.
Sure, I often spout my favorite quotations to anyone who’ll listen, but I spout them off even more frequently to myself.
Some quotes resonate with me so thoroughly that I don’t just spout them off, I live them out. This particular quote by one of the greatest minds we’ve ever known is one that pretty much defines me. Along with, “All I’m after is a world full of laughter,” this quote about life flies over my own life like a flag.
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” – Albert Einstein
What I love most about it is that it’s a reminder to stop. Look. Listen. We are surrounded by miracles every single moment of every single day. Sadly (I think you could even say tragically), many people become apathetic at best, and cynical at worst. They either fail to recognize or refuse to acknowledge the beauty and the miracles that surround them.
Boy are they missing out!
Don’t let cynicism or apathy rob you of living the sort of life we should all want: One filled with miracles everywhere we look.
Make no mistake about it, they are there.
I hope you discover a couple of miracles today,
~ Joi
More quotes about life.
~ Joi
Expecting things to be perfectly agreeable all the time’s like expecting the sun to shine every day of the year.
The trick is to learn to accept the bad days as well as the good – and to not only accept them, but delight in them.
I’m not perfect (far from it). If you ever saw me try to budget money (or calories), drive in the dark, or carry a tune you’d give me a hearty amen right about now. However, this dancing in the rain thing? I own it. I’m an expert at finding “my happy place,” so much so that most of the time people around me don’t even know when I’m burdened with something. “Well, she’s smiling, dancing and chit-chatting – all must be perfect in her world.”
Once (about 459 years ago), when I was in my twenties – my mom asked me how I kept from allowing a certain family (health) situation to “get to” me. I told her that it had definitely gotten to me, I just wasn’t letting my face know about it. After all, I had three little girls – and everyone knows how perceptive these little creatures are. So the heart was heavy but the feet did all they could to stay light.
When the world seems unreasonable and even ridiculous, do all you can to rise above it. Think of these storms as your mortal enemies, then catch them off guard and DANCE. They certainly won’t be expecting that.
Advantage: YOU.
The GORGEOUS Dr. Tony Evans Study Bible (Amazon affiliate link) is exactly what you need if you want to get more from your Bible reading. He makes the Bible come even more alive and, in a way uniquely his own, makes each chapter easy to understand… even Revelations!