Dancing ’Round The Maypole
Oh, the merry month of May! Come and dance with me around the Maypole! Celebrate the gift of life! Rejoice in the gift of this new day, a new month!
No! How can I be merry when there is so much sadness and sorrow in this world? How can I sing and dance when the noise of anger and hatred drown out my voice, and fear paralyzes me? How can I celebrate life when destruction and death dominate the Nightly News? How can I rejoice when jobs are being lost, lives are being destroyed, family ties are being broken?
No! Life has rained all over my plans and has canceled my parade! Thunder and lightning have struck down my hopes and have shattered my dreams!
Clouds of darkness and despair blot out the sunlight. There is no light at the end of my tunnel, no solution to my troubles! Cancel May! Forget the dancing! We have no cause to celebrate!
Mother Teresa, one of God’s saints, working in the worst conditions in the world wrote these words of hope:
“People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered — Forgive them anyway! If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives —
Be kind anyway!
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and make some true enemies — Succeed anyway! What you spend years building, someone will destroy overnight — Build anyway!
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous —
Be happy anyway! The good you do today, people will forget by tomorrow —
Do good anyway! Give the world your best and it will never be enough —
Give the world your best anyway!
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God!
It was never between you and them anyway!”
So, come dance with me ‘round the Maypole! Life will get tough with us, and our ways will get rough — let’s dance anyway! On sunny days, and on days when the sun refuses to shine — let’s sing anyway! In those times when we feel good, and in those times when we feel rotten — let’s rejoice anyway! When there is no light at the end of the tunnel, and solutions seem far away, and we find no reason to celebrate — let’s celebrate anyway!
For God is great and Life is good!