RED number 1

My sisters and I all had a book called Schools Days. Each page had a slot that you could put a school picture or memento in. A few years ago I found my book. Being the youngest of 5 girls my book didn’t have much in it. On the page from grade 2 I found some words I had written. There was a line that read, ‘What do you want to be when you grow up.’ I wrote dancer. In the place I grew up there was one dance school but my parents couldn’t afford it. To be a dancer seemed impossible for me. But I still wrote it because it was a deep desire, a call from God. All through high school I was a cheerleader. This was my only outlet for the passion to move and create that lived in me. At 21 I gave my life to Christ and very soon after was using dance for worship and teaching others . This was a stepping-stone to many other forms of expression.

For two years I ran an arts program for the homeless at a mission in downtown Winnipeg. In terms of spaces this mission filled with rapists, raped, lost, broken, smelly, needy people, I found the most incredible place to create and watch creativity take place. The room we worked in was small and stuffy but the walls were covered with colour that had poured out from the patrons. It is, and possibly will, remain the most incredible space I have been in. It was not always easy to be there but it changed me forever. I worshiped in that place, received from God and communed with others.

I’m always balancing what I should share in the greater community and what I should keep just for my self. I am currently in a place where I feel discouraged and alone on this journey. Then I think back to the moment when I was 7 and the word I wrote, dancer, and I am encouraged to continue.