What do you call your watershed moments? Some folks call them life transitions. Rudolph Steiner referred to them as ages and stages. One might even just say it’s all part of growing up.

As we go through life, we find ourselves in various cohorts. Nobody has just one, it’s like we live at the center of a Venn diagram that overlaps in many different ways, unique to each of us.

It might be the people you grew up with. It might be the folks you went to college with. It might be a large community of people who shared the same cultural experience.

I, for instance, lived fully in the froth of the San Francisco rave scene of the early 90s. So I’m acquainted with a vast number of folks who were dancing there along with me. Veterans of Woodstock, or the Summer of Love could save the same thing.

What happens is you start noticing waves of events or common circumstances. “All of my old rave friends are having kids!” or “Everyone I know is retiring!”

Observations like this become a reflection upon you. You start to realize where you are at in life. “Wait, I thought that was something that only grown-ups did? Aren’t we the same age? Hold on a minute…”

Transitions are also sadly the time when some people fall between the cracks. Every common milestone is also a winnowing process. Folks face circumstances they cannot overcome, or they make choices that turn out to not be in their best interest. Shrinking cohorts are comprised of survivors.

Last Saturday night I DJ’sd at a birthday house party for a friend who is celebrating his 77th year, and by the look of him and his friends dancing, it pays off to find your groove. Love, kindness, and positivity sure seem to help.

My older brother who’s now chilling in Thailand once summed up the secret to life as such: “Don’t fall off your surfboard!” A simple metaphor for riding the waves of existence.

And with that, I leave you with much love till next Monday!

M+

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine