Defining who we are

It's been a crazy week.  

The excitement of one of the top belly dancers Mira Betz in our stratosphere coming for two days of workshops and a gala show - being home in my own bed for a whole week...  so happy - content with my world.  

Then a near miss in the car with a jolting swerve to miss the truck turning left into us before he heard our horn....  the doctor telling me to take muscle relaxants and not dance after a trip to check out the increasing pain in my neck and shoulder...  but it could have been so much worse.  I am alive.  My children are safe.  The person in the truck is safe.  I can still dance, sing, watch my children grow into the men I see them becoming....  I can still hold them in my arms.

Not so for a missing 18 year old girl up Island found today dead in her own local woods... Not so for the dearly loved mother of my friend at work who struggles with her own feelings, with the daily facade of work all the while knowing her father grieves dangerously alone on the other side of the country.  While my cousin in England grieves and struggles to change the manslaughter law in England after the man who murdered her love is sentenced to a pathetic amount of time.  While people continue to die in political protests or bombings or floods or any myriad of things around the globe....

What is it that defines a person? our ability to dance? to sing? to teach? would I be less of a person - less of my essence exist if I ceased to dance or perform?  less of a person if I ceased to exhibit my photography or write?  

Or is what defines our essence as people in how we interact with ourselves and others in the things we do? how we are kind to others as we work, shop, dance, sing, write? how we reach out to those in need? our capacity to show compassion?  our capacity to love? 

every day - every moment we have with those we love is a gift. yet how many of those precious moments slip away arguing about silly things - clothes, homework, what to eat for dinner, who does the dishes tonight.   Remember that ever moment is a gift.  hold your children, your lover, your friends close. cherish them. tell them how you feel. don't suffocate, nourish them and let them grow, watch and celebrate - and just cherish how incredibly lucky we are to have each moment...