We all try so hard. We try to be liked. We try to be funny. We try to put into words what’s on our minds … yet still be acceptable. We try not to worry, but we still do. We try to find happiness. We try.

But what if … what if, she said, we just stopped in our tracks.

What if we danced?

What if I bought you a latte and you drew me a picture in the sand?

What if we sang a song together and laughed until we cried …

… and never told anyone?

What if life wasn’t a series of pictures and status updates that we had to share (or flaunt) on Facebook?

What if life was lived the old-fashioned way … where you did things for the simple, pure enjoyment of them and when you wanted to talk to someone – you did so, face to face, no technological masks?

What if you whispered secrets to each other instead of hinting about them on Facebook and leading people to draw conclusions … that you may or may not want them to …

What if you threw your desperate soul before a heavenly Father who cares instead of the deep void of the Internet which so falsely promises acceptance, but fails to satisfy?

What if today, you felt the real, woody pages of a book between your fingers … spread ink across paper in a letter to someone far away … took a walk in the woods … paused to take in the sunset – not so that you could tell someone about it later, but so that you could be deeply and intensely satisfied in that secret place inside that no one else knows about?

What if your soul needed to remember who it truly was, and you just took a day off … forgot about obligations and deadlines and practicalities and expectations, and just breathed in the moment? One day … where you were spontaneous and joy-giving and joy-taking and beauty-breathing?

What if you stopped thinking too much, and simply said the words? Stopped worrying and just reminded someone of how much you loved them … what if the path of reconciliation began with just a few honest words that you weren’t afraid to speak?

What if the dreams that came true in our lives weren’t the ones we were expecting? Would we be ready to accept them? Open our minds and prepare for a new adventure that we didn’t anticipate?

Life is a beautiful war. A paradox. And I’m still trying to figure it out. But it sure helps if we dance along the way. 🙂