Wednesday, July 16, 2008

ARMS WIDE OPEN, and Matt, The Dancing Guy





I've had the blues lately, over my upcoming exile. Another sister is having knee replacement surgery next week, so I will be away from Wimberley for about 10 days, and away from John for three weeks. Then yesterday I saw something that cheered me right up. My friend Debi sent me a link to a video clip (http://ca.video.yahoo.com/watch/2977277/8534761) that one of her Earth Tribe buddies had sent her. I wasn't expecting anything earth-shaking, so it really caught me by surprise. There's this guy named Matt, who does an odd little dance. It reminds me of the pirate jig that my son Austin occasionally bursts out with, whenever he's especially happy. This guy Matt quit his job one day and used all the money he had saved to travel around Asia. His friend took a video of him doing his silly dance in front of some landmark. It ended up on YouTube. The people at Stride Gum saw it, and offered to pay for Matt to travel around the world, doing his little jig. They made a video of it. This is not that video.

This one was made a couple of years later, after Matt started getting tons of email messages from people around the world, who wanted to dance with him. I understand that, because by the time this video ended, I had tears in my eyes, a glow in my heart, and only one thought in my head: I WANNA DANCE TOO! It got me to thinking.

A while back, the Muses and I were floatin' and talkin'. We were talking about a poem by Mary Oliver. The last line goes like this: "What are you going to do with your one, wild and precious life?" That led me to thinking about my very favorite song, Unwritten, by Natasha Beddingfield. You know the one. "Live your life with arms wide open. Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten." And that led me back to Matt, the dancing guy, who "doesn't want to imply that college is bad or anything. He's just saying is all. There's other ways to fill your head." (taken from www.wherethehellismatt.com)

So, what are YOU going to do with your one, wild and precious life? In the words of Lee Ann Womack, "I hope you dance!" Care to join me at Gruene Hall?

3 comments:

WomenBloom said...

...your one, wild precious life. Do you not absolutely LOVE that phrase??

Yes, ma'm, I'm doing all I can to make it SOMETHIN'!

That Matt video does make tears come to your eyes and give you faith in the human race.

Hope your Sis does well!

Unknown said...

I laughed and cried, too, watching him dance in all those amazing places. And screamed with joy when it was somewhere I had been. Bill said he did the same thing. There are so many things we can do with our "one wild and precious life." Sounds like you are doing it, girlfriend! So glad you enjoyed the video. See you at the Hole.

Hill Country Hippie said...

That's what I love about blogging. It has introduced me SO MANY of you women who are out there, making the most of "your one, wild and precious life!"