Dancing With My Children

Not unlike many parents I sometimes get caught in reverie about my children and wonder who they will grow up to be. I watch them as they sleep and try to remember when I could sleep like that. It is a slumber that is not disturbed by adult nightmares and worries. Their sleep reminds me a bit of their dancing, it is done without a care in the world.

Sometimes I try to remember what it was like to be so carefree. Sometimes I think that if I just work hard enough I can get back to that place where life is simple. There are moments when it feels close enough I can taste it. There are little moments in time when the impossible becomes possible. Dancing with the children is one of those moments.

The kids love to dance. They're not old enough to be self-conscious about it. They're still young enough not to feel silly so they just get up and do whatever they feel like doing. My son kind of flails around a bit like Mick Jagger and my daughter just jumps.

More often than not she grabs my hand so that I can pick her up. I look down and see these twinkly eyes and a mop of curly hair and I melt. Click here. If you close your eyes you can see my princess and I waltzing around the room. Just hearing the music makes me smile. I can hear her giggle as we spin. I can hear her shriek with laughter. And sometimes, just sometimes you might even catch me with a little tear in my eye.

My son has all sorts of requests for songs to dance to. Sometimes it is for The Bright Sunny South or Above by The Blue Man Group. He has ridden his horse to the theme from The Magnificent Seven and Ghostriders in The Sky by Johnny Cash. He loves Mud on the Tires by Brad Paisley but the night almost never ends without a request to sing along to Mr. Brightside by The Killers.

I do the best I can to soak it all up and imprint these moments permanently upon my brain because I know the day will come when they won't want to dance with their old man any longer. Although I can't really say that I am all that worried about forgetting because all I have to do is put on a few of their favorites and the memories will come flooding back.

And for those who are interested here is short list of what I have listened to this morning/afternoon.

What I have Done
Linkin Park
Throw It Away
Toby Rand
Pictures of You
The Cure
I will Find You
Clannad
She's a Butterfly
Martina McBride
Blue Monday
Orgy
Hotel California
The Eagles
More Than This
Roxy Music
Born To Hand Jive
Sha-Na-Na
You're a Mean One Mr. Grinch
Thurl Ravenscroft
Wild Sex
Oingo Boingo
Just Another Day
Oingo Boingo