Encouraging One Another to Dance

At a recent BoDean's concert, a popular 90s band, my husband John and I ran into these lovely women who were complete strangers, yet soon after we began chatting I realized that, although we hadn't walked in each other's shoes, we had so much in common:

• We all found TRUE love later in our adult lives.

• We all crave acceptance just as much as we desire to accept all people (minus the mean, intolerant, yucky people in the world that make things unloving).

• We all have suffered deep pain, disappointment and betrayal. The "I can't believe this happened, what the #@*)?!" type.

• We all believe that people with special needs, trip our positive trigger. Or as my dad would say, "They blow your hair back in the wind."

• We all love music, beer, dancing and being with a great spouse, partner or friend.

What we do not have in common are the journeys that each of our shoes have walked in. Sure, it was a cute bonding moment when we discovered that we all wore Chuck Taylor shoes (that's us in the image above), but their shoes have walked down their own, unique paths as much as mine have. Is any path or any pair of shoes more worthy than another? That is a big, fat NO! I pose this question to everyone: If we have never walked in another's shoes we cannot fully appreciate where they have in been in their lives and what they have to offer from their experiences, so why not accept another's path and be glad that they accept ours?

If we could approach one another from a place of abundance as opposed to scarcity wouldn't we realize that there is enough love, joy and fulfillment to go around? We are truly one-of-a-kind beings and there will always be enough big hair, mullets and overarching 'coolness' for all of us. Keep dancing with each other, Kaari