Hold Me Closer, Tiny Dancer

That’s my big, big sister Lilli in there in that tv box. She’s dancing, see? She takes dancing lessons with Miss Tiffany, who is a friend of Mama’s that she has known since she was very, very small– not too much bigger than me. Miss Tiffany has taught my big, big sister Lilli to be a graceful dancer. She looks a lot like the birds flying outside, so pretty and light, when she dances. When I get bigger, I want to dance, too, just like Lilli.

Until then, I love to watch her dance in the tv box and I can dance along. See? I am stomping too and bending and shaking. My legs are little, but they can do those things. I can be like a bird, or I can be like a strong bear with my dancing. I just listen to the music and I go with it, and my Mama says that is how dancing is… you just feel it and move.

I can watch Lilli and my cousin Bama dance whenever I want because my Granny has made videos of all of us growing up to be bigger and bigger people, and I sure am glad that she is making a record for all of us to see when we are big. Mama says that holding memories close and keeping them in videos, pictures, and even what is here in my writing will be treasured by us always and always. Memories, Mama tells me, are what makes us remember who we were and how much potential we have to become whatever we want to become.

Our family, she says, all of the people who love us, are what makes life rich and full of love. I don’t have to be told that, Mama, I know all about it. When I hug you or blow you a kiss, that is love, and all of those things are memories for you too.

For now, though, I will watch Lilli be a bird and I will be a bird. I will soar into the sky, into the tv, and become anything that I want to be. I am a tiny dancer.