To my surprise, I saw that in place of my worn and broken armor I was wearing brightly colored skirts that swirled around me, reflecting the light that held me. Filled with love and laughter, the dance was like nothing I had ever known. Pausing to take it all in, to try to understand how this being, this person of light, would want to dance with ME, I found it incomprehensible that I could be his lady, and that I would be dancing with him. He watched me as my face reflected my thoughts and doubts. “Believe me,” he said. Slowly something new crept into my understanding. I did believe him. I was his beautiful lady. Reaching out my hand toward him with trust, with love and a heart that finally believed, I asked the question. “Daddy, will you dance with me?” And he did.
Parley 2012
Deborah LaPorta
armor was simply too heavy—she was unable to do anything but fight. He reached out to the little girl whose warrior heart he had made, one that was as strong as steel and resilient as flint. What he knew that she could not see in herself was that she was also soft and gentle, pure and beautiful. “You are a lady created to dance with me.” The little girl, an unexpected glimmer of hope lighting in her heart, tried to quench it and sighed instead. Certain he had the wrong girl, she knew she was no lady. She didn’t know the dance. She couldn’t do it. Then the being smiled and reached out a nail-scarred hand. “Dance with me, Deborah. Be my lady and dance with me for a while.” Unable to stop myself, I reached up my hands and laid them timidly on his arms. Life flowed into them. Love poured over me. Beauty and light surrounded me. Slowly, delicately, he lifted me to my feet and began to dance with me. The steps were intricate, yet somehow my bare feet knew the pattern as they glided through each movement, interweaving with his in complex yet beautiful, rhythmic steps. Washing away the pain and anguish of everything that had come before, this dance was tender, expressing the joy of my freedom with every lift and turn. The movements flowed effortlessly, gently, as he spun and twirled me around, hands guiding me as I learned to follow his graceful lead. He lifted me as if I was a delicate ballerina and skillfully led me in an elegant waltz of pure beauty and joy.
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