It’s interesting the way life works and even more interesting the perspective that we can put on how life works and what life hands us. Almost as soon as we got home from our AMAZING journey to China where I had the time of my life – seriously, I was SO BESIDE myself the entire time – we got hit with very bad news. Several years ago La-Mama-de-Carboy had a traumatic illness and has never fully recovered. She’s had to be in a convalescent home because she required round the clock care from that point on. Well, things have taken a sudden turn for the worse and she was placed on end-of-life hospice care. So, you know, these are the days when everything else just isn’t as important. And it’s easy to raise a fist to the universe and cry out “why?why?” But on those days when things start to get overwhelming and stressful at the hospice care, Carboy and I go for a walk or a drive and invariably talk about Shanghai, we share memories and laughter. Perhaps the world does give us peaks and valleys and sometimes we are also given great gifts to help us through the challenges that are part of life – a really good life, worth all the troubles. So I can be grateful for the gift or I can be angry at the valley. Rallying against the valley doesn’t seem to make much sense, after all, the valleys are part of the journey and in my culture, death is just a short walk to eternity.

Maybe dance isn’t the answer to all of life’s problems but all those things that surround a life with dance in it can surely make things so much better – friendships, adventures, laughter, music, magic.

As always, thanks for being a part of my journey. All will be well. Enjoy the dance.