Standing in front of the dimly lit fountain, late that night, I held a smooth rock with my own words written on it. I prayed while holding the rock tightly and watched the water from the fountain splash into the bed of rocks at its base. Teens wandered in and around me, as they engaged with multiple prayer stations around the camp for their annual Night of Silence. Tears began to form as I envisioned God reaching a hand out – come dance with Me, I heard. I answered, “yes!” internally, placed my rock in the bed, closed my eyes and imagined God and I jitterbugging – my favorite partner dance.
Perhaps I had been learning and practicing the steps and movements to a jitterbug since I was little. While growing up with a Petrine approach to God, I was learning the dance steps, yet I was not really dancing. Celtic Christian spirituality has both provided a balance to a Roman church framework (the step work) and a…show more content… Interestingly, the catalyst of imagining God within and around me came at the fountain when I visualized God’s hand open to me to enter the dance floor of life. Usually, my imagination must be prodded – a movie, a quote, a book, a song – and it is limited by the framework of the catalyst. Imagining myself jitterbugging with God comes into my mind in unexpected place and times; after a chaplain visit, while sitting in the chancel listening to an elder’s communion meditation, stretching before karate class, or while on the phone procuring next year’s health care plan. Even after a rough or long day, the image of me taking a seat to catch my breath while God waits for me comes to mind unbidden. Earlier this week, after a full day of CPE opening me up to the point of rawness, I sensed God’s hands and mine clasping each other as I begged for God to hold me close on the floor. There is no longer a catalyst – there is only the dance, revealing God within and around
