There are shortcuts to happiness.. and dancing is one of them!

My Sister and I just got done watching Dirty Dancing and I wanted to share something with yall...I LOVE DANCE PARTIES! Now I am not talking about the kind of dance parties where there are tons of folks grinding all up on each other.. which now that I think about it I've only seen that on tv.. I am talking about the spontaneous dance parties  that happen in every day households. Hmm.. but now that I think about that too there is a good chance that dance parties do not happen in every day households either (in fact I know it doesn't but I will share that story later). So whether we are talking about large dance parties or small scale ones..they may not happen somewhere else but they happen in my life and some of them have turned in to moments I will never forget. Tonight's dance party with my sister made me think of one of my fondest memories of my Mother...one Saturday we were watching Dirty Dancing  and I remember the two of us dancing like we just did not care to "Now I've had the time of my life...." we kept rewinding it and rewinding it ( I believe this is where my love of spontaneously dancing like a fool started)...there was a lot going on in our house but for that moment when we were having our own little dance party it all really just did not matter because we were having the time of our lives.. and we owed it all to the dance party..and Patrick Swayze's back muscles of course! So obviously if that movie is played in the Fede household there is a good chance that a dance party will break out at the end. Tonight's party included dancing on the spiral staircase and couch jumping  see... we do it up right. But anywho.. I brought this love of impromptu fun to college with me and we had them regularly. When we lived in Athens we use to open up the front door on a nice night and dance our rear ends off.. it did not matter to us that we lived on Milledge Ave. and everyone and their brother went by on this street. I remember one night we had all gotten ready for bed and had our pj's on and our retainers in (yeah we wear retainers.. can't waste all that money our parents spent on braces) and this might by TMI but since we were ready for bed we might not have had a certain undergarment on..but I have to share this information for the sake of the story.. which is.. one of us was in borderline breakdown mode and so the only possible cure was of course.. a dance party! So we jammed out to some American Bang minus this certain undergarment so needless to say this particular dance party turned out to be one of the most hilarious things I have ever witnessed..by the end of the song we were all rolling on the floor laughing and I'm pretty sure whatever it was that had caused the almost breakdown had been all but forgotten about. I have a lot of fun times with my two best friends that I lived with in college that I will remember and this is ultimately one of my favorites! But back to how I know dance parties do not happen in every day households.. a close friend of mine was at our house the other day and we were talking about a trip we have planned to go to Athens and he asked if my sister was going to go dance it up with us that night.. I of course being the loving sister that I am had to do a little poking at her let's just call them.. umm creative dance moves...which then in turn led to a dance off of course. He was playing dj and picked "get low" when I said oh good choice this is a Fede favorite my Dad loves it...he was a little baffled. Now this friend comes from a very Southern Baptist family.. and don't get me wrong I'm not saying they don't have fun.. I'm just saying it is pretty safe to say they do not break it down around the island in their kitchen to Lil Jon.. and he confirmed this.. he could not think of a time he has ever seen his parents dance.. so after he left..probably thinking WOW..my sister and I asked each other how are we suppose to ever bring a boy in to this crazy house? And I think we both decided that it did not really matter.. we like that there are attempts to do the gator across the kitchen floor by a 50 year old man and broken toes because someone got a little crazy with their moves and kicked a stool... it's what makes us "us." So not only have I shared with you that I love dance parties.. and a few stories to let you know why.. I hope I have shared some wisdom and you have gained a valuable lesson .. JUST DANCE..IT'LL BE OK! Seriously.. go grab your friends and family and let loose.. it may turn out to be a lasting memory!! :)

And how does that make you feel?

I got to thinking today.. What are feelings and where do they come from? This just spiraled in to a lot of deep thoughts and raised more questions about these things that we all have. What makes our mind decide that we are embarrassed and not happy when you finally realize that the reason the guy at the counter had a huge smile on his face and almost laughing was not because he was dazzled with your smile and charm but because your dress was indeed tucked in to your underwear? What is it that makes us feel something for one person but not the other? What connects them to what we hear, see, smell? Think about it.. Matthew McConaughey is famous because just the mear sight of him makes women feel all hot and bothered.. and they don't play MmmBop during a funeral scene in a movie..music makes you feel too. Who named feelings or emotions.. (whatever you want to call them)? How did sad and excited get to be sad and excited? I had an emotion the other day when eating the most delicious donut that was filled with fresh strawberries and cream cheese that was frankly indescribable. If I want to name that emotion who do I need to notify? Do turtles feel emotions?  How can something that is just a feeling make you do crazy things and how do some of them just take over you? I mean you have to admit.. we are talking about things that are really really powerful. Everyone has them.. not everyone shows them as much as some people but they have them.. it’s how we express them that makes us unique.  

I have always been a curious person.. if I want to know something I am usually set on finding the answer. I knew I had to start with the brain. I remembered in one of my college classes having to memorize parts of the brain and in order to remember anything I had to make up funny little ways to remember it… and this popped in to my head.. amygdale.. amy has feelings for dale.. I couldn’t remember what the amygdale did I just knew it had to do with feelings so I looked it up. Amygdale- a pair of neuron groups located deep within the medial temporal lobes—when strong emotions are triggered this area becomes especially active when we have intense emotions and such as passion, anger, fear etc. Ok.. cool this is triggered when experience emotions.. but where the heck did they come from in the first place?? Obviously this triggered an emotion.. aggravation!  I decided that I didn’t have time to ponder on such things as this so I got back to work.

Wouldn’t you know though that someone else had an answer for me not even ten minutes later. Do yall know that old song “Turn, turn, turn, for every season…” well it came on my Pandora and it made me think of the Bible verse Ecclesiastes 3:4 there is.. “a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance” Jesus Himself Wept as well. After I thought about this verse some more  I think I got my answer for these powerful things that I had no logical explanation of where they came from.. they are a gift from God. That is a lot to take in if you ask me… not all of them are hunky dory feelings..I mean there are several feelings and emotions that make us uncomfortable. But I’m pretty sure He gave us these emotions as guides. There are things that we do that make us feel guilty, anxious, angry, sad etc and when we feel this way it teaches us to do the right thing. I think He uses feelings to guide us to understand His purpose in our lives and His plans. How could we ever even begin to understand what Jesus did for us  and how much love and selflessness it required if we were not our selves able to feel these things? If you think about emotions in this way it kind of makes you appreciate them a little more and not hide them.  But I’m pretty sure that it would take someone a little more.. we will just call it well-adjusted.. than me to really wrap their head around this. It did not answer all my questions because frankly I started to feel overwhelmed.. but there it is.. just sharing some thoughts… And how does that make you feel? J