Dance, though Mountains loom in the distance...

In 2013, I heard Gladys Knight sing this song for the first time. I googled the title and Lee Ann Womack's version popped up. I listened to it...it was wonderful, as Lee sang beautifully, and her daughters danced.

But the version by Glady's sparked something primal, primitive, familiar, soulful and sisterly...a recognition of a kindred soul who had seen troubles and overcame them.

My younger self awoke far in the past, when my people were fighting for survival. From Africa to the Atlantic, to the places where they were imprisoned and died. Long before the first seed of myself was formed, before I became years older than my younger persona.

My struggles were a reflection of those who had gone before. Who had paved the way for me. They never said it would be easy...but they bade me lift my head up and endure.

When Gladys Knight sang the words: It made my heart ache. The kind of pain that only those who had passed through floods and fires could understand.

The times when you had endured and still stood tall, your head held high.

Song

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance

Never settle for the path of least resistance

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I HOPE YOU DANCE

For....

Time is a wheel in constant motion

Always rolling us along

Tell me, who wants to look back on their youth and wonder

Where the years have gone?

I looked back at being born financially poor, not family poor...not in poverty...Just the kind of yearning which tells you that there was more to be had. I saw it in the lives of people far away from where I lived, where we shared our 'less' with each other...content, never hungry. Clean, never wanting for the basic necessities which made our lives comfortable and liveable.

I remembered when my brother died...a wandering spirit who never felt like he belonged much...I was too young to know why at the time...I wonder now if it was all in his head...his spirit craving freedom.

My parents died years later, the family fractured, some stayed close, others drifted as family always will.

There have been many songs along the way. But this particular one spoke of the mountains in the distance, feeling small when standing by the ocean...reminding us to never be proud, selfish, egotistical and vain. In comparison to the universe, we are but an ant or smaller yet...we are finite, determinate, delicate and fragile.

It tells me that I should live, love and chase whatever lies beyond those mountains, while maintaining strength, humility and kindness.

~~~~~~~~Dance

Don't let it slip away

Reach out, touch

If you want it so much

Just remember to dance!

.....................

The prompt.