Chinese dancers are inspirational.

This is the ‘awake’ picture I meant to post yesterday. I’m still pretty much asleep, though. I can’t seem to get good and awake with this weather so chilly. What a chilly spring it has been. I feel like curling up with a book, but the treadmill calls.

I got up at 7:30 today; about an hour after Don wished we would get up. Things have gone awry all day. Even the florist came to deliver flowers to someone on a whole other street. She must have gotten up too early, too! This getting up early is not working for me; it’ll take time for my body to adjust, I think. Actually lots of things are going right, but I can’t see them for the pictures of the things that are going wrong in front of my face. Isn’t it a shame to admit that, but it’s true. We have thunderstorms predicted for tonight, so I’m going to post to the blog early, hoping to beat the odds. We’ve had thunder rumbling all day, so I’ve had the computers shut down for several hours, already. Such is life in Oklahoma. Key word: LIFE! I am grateful for life. If you get a chance, watch the youtube clip described below. It inspires me!

In a Chinese modern dance competition on TV, one very unique couple won one of the top prizes. The lady, in her 30's, was a dancer who had trained since she was a little girl. Later in life, she lost her entire left arm in an accident and fell into a state of depression for a few years. Someone then asked her to coach a Children's dancing group. From that point on, she realized that she could not forget dancing. She still loved to dance and wanted to dance again. So, she started to do some of her old routines, but having lost her arm, she had also lost her balance. It took a while before she could even make simple turns and spins without falling. Then she heard of a man in his 20s who had lost a leg in an accident. He had also fallen into the usual denial, depression, and anger type of emotional roller coaster. But she determined to find him and persuade him to dance with her. He had never danced, and to "dance with one leg .... Are you joking with me? No way!" But, she didn't give up, and he reluctantly agreed thinking, "I have nothing else to do anyway." She started to teach him dancing 101. The two broke up a few times because he had no concept of using muscle, how to control his body, and knew none of the basic things about dancing. When she became frustrated and lost patience with him, he would walk out. Eventually, they came back together and started training seriously. They hired a choreographer to design routines for them. She would fly high (held by him) with both arms (a sleeve for an arm) flying in the air. He could bend horizontally supported by one leg with her leaning on him, etc. In the competition, as you will see, they dance beautifully and they legitimately won the competition."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnLVRQCjh8c