I thought by the third week I'd surely be through choking up watching Maelynn in dance. After all, the new is pretty much off. Okay, she still begs for dance all week, but I'm a grown woman. Surely the new has worn off of seeing my baby girl dancing around in her little leotard-dress thingy, looking absolutely adorable.
Boy was I wrong.
We were late, for starters. Instead of putting her in flip flops and changing carefully once in the studio, I wrested them on as quickly as possible inthe driveway at home as we hurried. When we arrived, I carried her in, forgetting to tie one of her tiny ballet slippers. She didn't seem to notice, fluttering off to stand with the friend she made at sign ups.
As the tiny ballerinas began to joyfully copy their teacher's movements, Maelynn squatted to mess with the shoe I failed to tie. She couldn't enjoy herself because something wasn't right.
Soon the teacher led the little ballerinas to stand in a circle, all joining hands to start the next activity. Only one little ballerina stayed behind... The one whose mama forgot to tie her shoe.
She sat there fiddling with her shoe, trying with all her three year old might to tie it or tuck it somewhere. Just as I was about to jump up and help her, a tiny dancer left the line.
Leaving the circle, her friend came to try to help. She sat and twisted at the stretchy laces in an attempt to make sure Maelynn wasn't left out. When the teacher noticed this, she asked the girls in her usual chipper tone to go ahead and come to the circle, assuring that she'd help. The friend stood, reached her hand to Maelynn, and there came mommy's waterworks.
It's a seemingly small gesture on the face of it. But that small, 3 or 4 year old girl left something she likely looks forward to all week, just like Maelynn, to make sure her friend was able to participate.
A tiny little girl turned from something she loved to bridge the gap for a friend.
To notice that someone is outside, first is where this all-important love begins. Then to turn from the inside, go to them, learn what is needed to bring them to the inside... that is a friend. That is more than a friend, really. It's the love we're meant to show one another. It's how we should operate, because someone first did it for us.
Thanks be to God for bridging the gap, and for tiny ballerinas who remind us not only how to love one another, but how you first loved us.
It's a seemingly small gesture on the face of it. But that small, 3 or 4 year old girl left something she likely looks forward to all week, just like Maelynn, to make sure her friend was able to participate.
A tiny little girl turned from something she loved to bridge the gap for a friend.
To notice that someone is outside, first is where this all-important love begins. Then to turn from the inside, go to them, learn what is needed to bring them to the inside... that is a friend. That is more than a friend, really. It's the love we're meant to show one another. It's how we should operate, because someone first did it for us.
Thanks be to God for bridging the gap, and for tiny ballerinas who remind us not only how to love one another, but how you first loved us.
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