Shall We Dance?

"There is a bit of insanity in dancing that does everybody a great deal of good."
~ 

Edwin Denby

It doesn't always take alcohol to get you high. Spirit, of a different nature, can do it just as well. Loud music and dim lights work in my case. A current passes through the nerves, and I unknowingly begin to jig. The crowd going crazy, the music getting louder and the disco lights blinking wildly is the perfect concoction for losing it completely! You can dance like no one's watching, quite literally. Who said you must learn to dance? We are born with an innate ability to react to the rhythm of music.

Hours pass away in a jiffy. Before you know, you've been on the dance floor all night long. If not for the sunrise, you wouldn't really notice.Your clothes are drenched. Your hair is mangled. But who cares! It's only when you stop that you realise your feet are sore. Your neck is stiffer than a ramrod, thanks to all that head banging. The back hurts no less, and not to forget the legs! But it's totally worth it. It's your feet that move, it's your soul they lift. It is a liberation from inhibitions, a shedding of reservations. And as Lord George Gordon Byron aptly put it,

"On with the dance! Let joy be unconfined; 

No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet, 

To chase the glowing hours with flying feet."

The bed seldom looks as welcoming and the quilt as cozy as it does after a frenetic dance session. You are bound to fall asleep in a matter of minutes. For sleep comes easy to a content and happy mind, no matter how tired the body is. Next morning you will wake up with a rigid body, and a mind that awaits the next opportunity to let your hair down.

Shopping Diaries: That Compulsive Impulse

You go out for lunch or perhaps a movie; and spot some random store on the way, or perhaps one that was not even in the way of your destination. You realise there is still some time before you are due to meet your friends. So you slip into the random store and look around. Most of the things do not interest you. Having scanned the place in about 35 seconds, you decide to leave. Just then, with no prior indication whatsoever of its mischievous intentions, it leaps on you. You don’t know where it came from, and more importantly why. It just felt like, so it did. Now all you can do is comply. A huge round of applause for that impulse to shop!

You spot a pair of cute lavender coloured socks. What's the harm in checking them out, right? Turn them over twice and they appear cuter. That's what you've always wanted! Sold. You turn and you are eye to eye with a beautiful handbag. How on earth did your initial scan miss that? So glad you stayed for a second look. You pick that bag and examine it. You look around for an alternative, for want of choice. Lo and behold, there are four! The storekeeper is summoned. She is the makeshift hook bar now, with three bags on display. One on self. Comparing and contrasting the choices in the mirror. You tell yourself to pick one. You like three. We agree on two.

Out of the random store in a matter of 12 minutes. Perfectly in time for the date, with the shopping neatly stashed away. It's a secret best kept to you. For it's euphoric only for you. Drat that impulse I say!

~