This morning I walked into the school where our foundation had been in residency to attend a meeting.  As I rounded the corner, I saw a group of students who began waving and smiling at me.  Several broke from their line and came up to hug me and say hello.  What a truly nice surprise, especially because these students and I hadn’t seen each other in a year.  They remembered me and apparently it was a positive memory!  Well, that alone was enough to make my morning.

I’ll be teaching some old and some new students in about eight weeks.  Introducing each of them to something new.  We’ve added basic tap dance to our program of instruction for our Summer Musical Theatre Workshop and I’m excited about it.  I hope they are, too.  It’s so good for the development of rhythm skills and to learn different timings.  Not to mention the sheer joy and what it does for you physically.

There was a time several years ago when I was taking about 8 dance classes per week in New York.  Man! was I in shape!  There’s no room for any extra fat when you’re working like that, especially when the studio may or may not be air conditioned in the middle of a steamy NYC summer.  If nothing else, I sweated off any extra pounds!

But that’s been a while.  And since I will be teaching others to tap this summer, I thought I’d better start getting in shape again.  So that necessitated finding a couple of old friends.  A little worn, a little dusty, but a couple of nice old friends.  My tap shoes.

It was soooooo good to see them again.  And although our reacquainting started off a little creaky at times, before long we were clicking along as if no time had passed at all.  Okay, some time.  I’m older.  That’s the way it goes.  But I remembered.  I’ve got to say that it may take new info a while to get in there but once it’s there for me, it usually is pretty much there to stay.  (Part of this must be what they call “muscle memory”, where you don’t think you just “do”.)

So this week, I’ll be in Manhattan and I’ve checked the schedules at the studios where I used to take classes.  Hey! whaddya know!  One of my old teachers is still there, still hoofing after all these years.  I wonder if he’ll remember me when I walk in, put my bag down on the floor, lace up my shoes and begin to warm up at the barre?  Like old times with a couple of good old friends.

What are some of the old joys that you’d like to rekindle in your life? 

Who — or what — are your old friends that you’d like to get reacquainted with?

What’s stopping you?

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