Are We Human, or Are We Dancers?

Yesterday was a special day for me. When I woke up, I had plans to hang out with my good friend Michelle for a while but I didn't know what the plans were. She had emailed me the week before asking if I could get away by myself for a while for a surprise. Normally I'm not a huge fan of surprises, but my curiosity was piqued and I was excited to spend time with her sans kids and husbands.

She picked me up at 10:30 a.m. and started driving. We hadn't had a chance to talk in a while and I proceeded to verbally unload. At about 11:10 a.m. we arrived at Massage Heights in Gilbert (Val Vista and Baseline roads). She told me she was treating me to a one-hour massage followed by lunch. I was shocked, delighted and humbled. Without words, emails, texts or tweets, she received a "call" from the universe that I needed this. I needed the retreat, the rest, the love.

She then gave me instructions for my massage. No talking. No thinking. No worrying. No stress. Relax, rejuvenate, find my center. Allow the therapist to go deep and help me work through all of the challenges I've been facing. At this point I was ready to burst. It was as if someone was filling my proverbial blessings cup to the point of overflowing.

We each enjoyed our massages and to my surprise I didn't cry through the experience. I simply enjoyed the time, the attention and the space to just be. I quieted my mind with a meditation, breathing in "Sat" and exhaling "Nam." Kundaliniyoga.org gives this explanation of the mantra: Sat means the Truth; Nam means to call upon, name or identify with. Sat Nam means Truth is my identity and I call upon the eternal Truth that resides in all of us." How appropriate. The therapist (Tiffany) was wonderful. She not only massaged my muscles, but she also soothed my psyche, helped bring me back to my center, and restored me to my Truth.

Afterwards, we sat down to lunch on the patio at Pei Wei and talked together for a while. Again my cup was filled to overflowing through a friend's unconditional love, sage advice and rock-solid support. When she dropped me off around 1:30 p.m., she handed me a cd with my final instructions for the day: Listen to songs 2, 6 and 9 of The Killers' Day & Age album. And really listen to the lyrics. Let the music fill me up and take me to the next level.

I did just that this morning after dropping Delaney off at school. Driving with the windows down, music blasting, I bathed in the wind, the notes, the lyrics and Michelle's intentions for me. I cried again and felt the supreme energy that love and goodness affords us. How blessed I truly am.

I feel like a completely new person today. I am renewed, revitalized, filled again with hope and determination. I cannot thank you enough Michelle. Thank you for sharing your love, light and friendship with me. I'm a better person today because of you!

P.S. - About the title of this post: The title refers to song 2 of my playlist from Michelle - "Human" by The Killers (actually an LDS band from Las Vegas). I found some sites quote the lyrics as, "Are we human, or are we dancers?" and others saying the lyrics are, "Are we human, or are we denser?" I personally prefer to think of humans as dancers, spending our lives following our passions and expressing our souls freely. In Paramahamsa Nithyananda's book Living Enlightenment, he relates the story of a Zen master talking to one of his students. And I paraphrase - The student asks if an enlightened person speaks and the Zen master says "no." The student then asks if an enlightened person stays quiet. The Zen master replies "no" again. Confused, the student asks how this is possible and the master replies that an enlightened person sings! His words, his actions, his essence sings. I believe that song and dance are related, interchangeable and equal expressions of our inner state. Today, I am a dancer.