The Year I Went Dancing (and more)

Okay, finally I admit to liking Jon Kortajarena as much as I do the others

Personal tradition (one I picked up from one of my best friends, Jerich and had gladly done since then with one of my favorite people in the world, my sister Joanne) has gotten me excited, always hopeful and in the end of the year, I forget what I'd done. 

The thing is, if you don't know how we do it, it's all about burning paper with all your goals/wishes on it. When the clock strikes 12, no matter what, you should be by some fire, burning your paper of the future and along with it, I pray to God that he gives me the will to do everything and have everything on the list. 

This year, still 2010, I had done more than just burn wishes...I had actually realized the more important ones halfway through the year, had lifted everything up to dizzyingly glorious heights by the last leg of the year and thankfully, had exceeded my expectations...

So, the year I went dancing, I didn't just move along to whatever music was playing, I played DJ too, setting the tune to what I wanted it to be and by the end of an exhausting dance, I had been able to put a genuine smile across my face and that of others. The year I went dancing, I had also made my dreams come true. It's not that I've literally danced my way to writing for some of the best publications of the country (and I humbly thank the people behind this first step into the future), but in figurative, more literary ways, I have indeed shimmied it  to actualizing the future for me. The year I went dancing, I danced with people so beautiful, so deeply real it'll pain me to ever stop jumping, moving and singing to Teenage Dream with them...The year I went dancing, I found forgiveness, humility (above all), new perspectives and had learned that in the weakest points of man, one becomes quite the fighter when one surrenders to being broken down...The year I went dancing, I had proven myself a person ten years older, wiser in steps, sleeker in execution but just as crazy and loose as a young, ten year old kid grooving to 90s pop. Most of all, the year I went dancing, I had realized that life is in fact the beauty books and art say it is...

For me, there is nothing more valuable than stepping unto the Earth and seeing all of it and hearing Louis Armstrong singing What A Wonderful World not because I am wonderful and the world spins for me, but the exact opposite...That the reason why it's all worth the dance is because there are so much bigger, brighter and more beautiful things and people to dance to and with...And then you do realize that even when it's all hate and loss and wars we ever talk about, on the sunset of time, what we actually celebrate isn't so much the darkness, but the almost blinding bliss of life's greatest things...

And for 2011, I wouldn't know what it'd bring me and all of us...but what's most certain is that to whatever music the times and we set it to, we have people and the world to dance with...

Here's to dancing to more music and to more of life...

Happy New Year kids and to 2010, you were the finest year to have ever kissed me on the lips in ages....Thank you to everyone who made the year one worth remembering, writing a novel of, painting a picture of and most of all, one worth the dance...

-Gerard