A Beautiful Spring Story by Anna Schantz
Posted: Apr 8, 11:36 PMHappy Spring, Everybody!
Yesterday, my 89 year-old father, Robert Schantz, was sitting with my brother Fred in a sunny courtyard at his nursing home in Pittsford, New York. They looked at the first bulbs pushing through the ground cover and wondered, what kind of flowers are these? Crocus? Bluebell?
These are two guys who don’t know from flowers, believe me. But they sat there arguing, maybe they’re crocus. No, they must be bluebells. Hyacinth? Finally, my brother said, “Dad, I’ll get you a book on flowers next time I come visit. We can look it up.” “Fred, it better be a big book,” Dad said. “I’ll have a lot of time to learn about flowers.”
Last night, Dad passed on peacefully in his sleep, to join my mother whom he has missed so much in the eight months since her passing. I can imagine them both, deep in the earth, becoming the earth, becoming crocus and bluebells and hyacinth, becoming the hemlock tree that shelters my family’s burial site; becoming the wind and the rain. Dad has a long time to learn about flowers.
In his old age and in the dementia that accompanied it, he had a child-like sense of curiosity and wonder. Also, a great gratitude for small things. A hug from a grandchild. A song that Mom used to love. He couldn’t remember anything for longer than a minute, so life was always fresh! always new! He could be just as pleased and surprised to see me coming back from the washroom as to see me coming back from Canada. Life is simple.
Dad was pretty much the poster boy for living in the present moment with curiosity and wonder. I’ll be channelling him when I step into my Nia classes this spring. I’ll wonder, now where will this song lead us? How come jazz wants to blend with Aikido today, when last week it was all about yoga? And what is today’s spine, breath, front kick like?
I’ll be curious to know: what is it like for you? Where are you today? Are you here in this present moment called the Nia class, where we celebrate pleasure and beauty and sensation, eclectic and electric, in bodies alive and ecstatic? Or do you have something holding you back from entering fully into this healing, whole, holy joy? Pain? Sadness? Attitudes? That’s OK. Bring it in. Dance it, cry it, move it, sweat it, laugh at it, shout it out loud. I’ll be right there too, grateful to be with you on the Nia journey into the now.
With love,
Anna
