This is Dedicated to Good News

My dearest friend Linda made me—she made me— take a tap-dance class with her.  This was—years ago.  We are guessing, 2014?  I wonder who we thought we were then.  Who did you think you were in 2014?

Anyway, back to tapping:  We were an intergenerational class, which meant the kids, the girls in the room, bless them, were horrified, Horrified, at our presence.

They couldn’t look at us.

All I remember is laughing.  And laughing.  And laughing.  Before, during and after class.  Years ago, laughing.  Today?  I’m not still tapping, but whenever I even think of tapping, I am still filled with crazy, joyous laughter.

I couldn’t hold the posture—as we might say in yoga—to learn anything.  As soon as I started doing even a tiny little tap, the tapping took over, and I would find myself in a swirl of wildness and self-tapping-expression.  All I could do was laugh and tap.  The word might not even officially be “tap”, it was more a free-flowing clumping.  Clumping is a more descriptive term.  Clumping all over the place.

This blog, damn it, is dedicated to good news.
It is dedicated to laughter.
It is dedicated to joy.
It is dedicated to
Whatever is positive.
Whatever makes us smile.
Whatever makes us
Maybe
Even
Possibly
Relax
For
A
Moment.

The picture above?

Can you see the tiny, teeny babies, swimming between the two adults?  I saw them the other morning, unclear as to what those dots might be between the big birdies.  Yes, they are teeny babies.  They delight me!

Mr. and Mrs. Google tell me that baby Canadian Geese swim within a few hours of their hatching.

Swimming.  A few hours after you are hatched.

Somehow, today, this falls strongly under the category of “good news”.

Dearest Linda, same friend, however now without tap shoes, told me about the link she gets every morning called Nice News.  It is a lovely combination of easy-to-read, slide-a-smile-on-your-face stories and videos.  It certainly outdoes my early-morning-doom-scrolling, and supports my commitment to cortisol calmness at 5 a.m.

What a concept.  Nice news.

At my temple—well, I’m a member-from-afar.  I fondly call it Couch Temple.  At Couch Temple, one might wear pj’s, eat a meal, fold one’s laundry, snuggle with a doggie, and God DOES NOT CARE.  Central Synagogue, a wonderous New York Reform temple supports me through much these days.
At one point in the service, there is a prayer for healing called the Mi Shebeirach.
The congregation is asked to call out the names of people needing healing—we the Couch-Temple contingent participate fully in this, of course.  The translation of the prayer is:

It’s beautiful and wonderful prayer that most always makes me cry but the best part, the most important part is—the next prayer!  A prayer for gratitude.  A prayer of celebration, for the simcha, the blessings, the joy, the delight in our lives.

The rabbi calls out events and people stand, if they relate to that subgroup: a birthday, an anniversary, somebody who finished finals, anybody who saw the cherry blossoms, on and on, and people stand up.

At the end, everybody is standing up.

From pain to healing to joy to celebration.
In the end, everybody is standing.

And in the end
Everybody
Is
Standing.
~~~
Here’s a good one, A Celebration!  From kids around the world, doing their version of Kool and the Gang’s great hit: