Recently, the Feb 9-12, 2023 Sweetheart Jamboree in Bellevue, Washington was announced (website at http://www.sweetheartjamboree.com/), which brought to mind the wonderful experience I had at the 2022 Jamboree and the beautiful experiences that my wife and I have had with ballroom dance through different phases of life. In the following poem (which was posted to the 2022 Sweetheart Jamboree website), I try to capture those feelings:

We Dance 

We dance—
we live, learn, and love
play and cry 

Life is a dance—a swirling of people and events
colors and feelings
creating beautiful togetherness 

We fall, we rise
sometimes rough, sometimes flair
life’s lessons learned 

The beat carries laughter and tears
the rhythm flows on, a river to the sea
we spill into eternity. 

Be on the floor when the band plays
as songs once sung forever disappear
melodies infusing life into souls. 

We journey
with streams of people
circling round the ballroom floor 

Till the night is finished
and the quiet forces us
to remove our felt-bottomed shoes 

The dance is over
but we were there
we danced—and so we are. 

MRM