Dancing to a different beat

My 6-year-old niece loves to dance. She dances ballet, she dances jigs that look like a variation of Scottish clogging, she dances slow, she dances fast, and she dances to any type of music possible, even her own humming. For several minutes at a time, she gets lost in her own world as she hums her own tune and twirls, bends, and moves to her body's music. She creates a stage in her mind and she dances as if she were in the spotlight, blocking everyone and everything out.

One day I asked her, "Do you love to dance?"
She continued to dance and smiled, "Oh yes, I love to dance!"
"You should take dance lessons and perform, I think you would love it."
Then she thought about it a while, never stopping for a moment, always moving, tapping, twirling with the music in the background. She looked up at me, quite seriously, and said, "No, I don't think so. Then they would tell me what to dance and how to dance. I like to let my body move how it feels - I like to dance to my own beat."

Her comment stuck with me throughout the entire day. I began to think about my own childhood, in a general sense. Like most kids, I was taught to color inside the lines, to take piano lessons and only practice what the teacher assigned, to be good, behave, and be quiet if adults told you to. Children are so often told what to do and how to do it. While authority and guidance to a degree is obviously very important for a child's upbringing, we must also remember to never squash the creativeness out of them.

Why are we so set on telling children they can't sing loud in church, or they can't color the sky pink when the sky is supposed to be blue, or they can't understand something so we refuse to explain anything to them? Why are we so afraid children might get dirty digging in the dirt or sand, when it can easily be washed away, or they can't even run around in the back yard without shoes on because God forbid they might stub their toe? We all know that children aren't perfect and they all don't fit one mold. We also know, exploring and feeling things for themselves helps them learn and express themselves. So why are we as adults so set on taking that away from them?

In a way, my niece's comment was also helpful for my own life as an adult. I heard once that a writer can go to as many writing conferences and read as many books on writing as they want - but like my niece said, they are only telling you what to write and how to write it. It isn't until you let your heart and mind move and think for itself when you truly become a writer. I think I am so afraid to color outside the lines, or explore a little bit, or dance to my own beat that it is hindering me from finding out more about my own self. In a way, I am acting like my own parent or adult, constantly telling myself I can't, when I know I can.

If this seemed like a rant, I apologize. But if you take anything away from this post, at least remember this: We must all learn to dance to our own beat; not to the world's beat, not to another person's beat, but to our own intrinsic orchestra, beckoning us to move and bend with our heart's rhythm.