A Floral Centerpiece In My Life Is My Bouquet Of Ballroom Dancing Elita Sohmer Clayman

Abram L. Urban said that “In my garden, there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thought and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers and the dreams are as beautiful.” I do not know who he is, but his words are truly like a bouquet of beauty.

My mom had the desire when she was young girl and after graduating high school, to become a florist. She did not, but she always retained her love for flowers. She knew the names of hundreds of flowers and I always made sure she got a special hanging plant for Mother’s Day. She liked the one called Impatience which when hanging, always looks like the flowers are upside down. They come in various colors, white, lavender, pink, dark purple, red and that is about it. I always got her the largest one they had and she hung it on her patio, in the new apartment she lived, in after Dad passed on. When you drove up the court where she lived, hers was the largest and prettiest plant hanging from the roof of her garden apartment. Many of the neighbors commented how pretty it appeared, when they drove in the court too.

They always prospered under her ‘green thumb’ and it was a shame, she never got to work in the florist business. I had a friend Martha in elementary school, whose uncle was a big florist in Baltimore. Martha lived behind the florist shop in an apartment there, I believe with her Mom and this uncle. When we would walk along the street where she and the flowers lived on our way to the movie theater, I would wave to her because she always seemed to be in the window looking out. She was a quiet girl who dressed a bit oddly for a kid in those days. I do not know if they could not afford nicer and more up to date clothing for her; but somehow she did not seem to fit in the beauty of the florist shop, in her old lady type of long and mostly brown dresses. When she talked about the florist business, her eyes would light up and she appeared to be blossoming, as one of the flowers in the containers in her uncle’s florist shop.

One day she came to school looking quite different. She really looked pretty and bright and she had on a floral colored dress and she was glowing. I asked what was new, not stating that she looked quite lovely, because that could have meant in her thoughts, that I thought she always looked drab. She said her grandmother who also lived with them was retiring to Florida and now there would be her mom and uncle and her and the grandmother would be far away. It seemed from what she told me, her grandmother was very plain and dressed plainly and she was the one who took over the job of dressing Martha. Her mom was busy running the florist shop with her mom’s brother and her grandmother had this terrible attitude on how young girls should look. That is why she was dressed so out of style for a young girl, because the old lady had terrible clothing thoughts. Now, she was dressing like all of us and she was like a flower ready to open up and show its beauty.

From that day on, her personality changed, she was vivacious, fun and bright as one of the flowers in a container in her uncle’s floral shop. Her garden had been cultivated, her thoughts were not weeds and she herself was a thing of beauty and she was like an awakening bloom that was like a garden that had been cultivated.

I walked by one day past the florist shop of her uncle and there she was standing in the window looking out. She was dressed in a lovely pink long skirt, a rose colored blouse and she had a real flower in her hair. She wore many bangle bracelets, all the colors of a bouquet of flowers one carries at a wedding. She was smiling and her grin was as wide as a large green plant. I could not get over how she had ‘blossomed’ and how her personality had become as tall as a large flowering plant. She told me that when she graduated high school, she was going to college and learn all about horticulture, planting and gardening. She was going to get a degree in it and her uncle, who had no children was going to let her run the florist shop then and pay her a large salary. He promised her that if it turned out well, when he was ready to retire, he would give her the shop and all she had to pay him for was the building that housed their home and business. The business would be hers and the building fee could be paid out in twenty years,.

She turned into a flower herself with the change of clothing, attitude and how she herself, became a rose which was opening up.

It was a metamorphosis of a shy girl wearing ugly clothing, coming from a home where flowers were the basis of the home life and a grandmother who was behind the times, even then. She ‘flowered’ and grew like one of the many flowers in her uncle’s floral shop.  It showed that anyone can change if they are given the opportunity to do so.

I have seen plain looking people learn to ballroom dance with their spouses and both of them also changed into handsome folks who from learning to dance felt better about themselves. They came to dances and dressed up in pretty clothing that showed they had good taste and the ladies would color their hair and get really lovely hairdos. They sparkled when on the dance floor and when they came off, the shine was still there because they had done something they loved to participate in and were feeling quite gratified in doing so.

I know I felt that way every time I went to a social dance on a Sunday. I might not have been doing too well with these aching knees; but when I finished the particular dance, I flowed off the floor as if I were a very important and well known ballroom dancer. I was the same me, but participating in this event, transferred to my mind, that I was really a great dancer and had showed it to whoever watched me, while I was dancing. This power I felt being a dancer transferred itself to my mind, soul and heart and I felt a great leap of beauty and joy into my being. It may sound unusual that dancing a dance or lots of dances empowers you or me to feel this way; it does for me and this is better than eating a piece of pie, smoking, gambling, or anything that we do that give us temporary happiness. The happiness I receive from simply going to a social dance is extraordinary for me, is phenomenal, outstanding and marvelous.

Dancing is like painting a picture, like doing a sculpture, like knitting an outfit, like excelling at golf, tennis, skiing or anything else we do for pleasure. To me dancing is the utmost level I can attain and when the physical therapy starts on July 9th, I hope I will be able to once again feel the pleasure of ballroom dancing that will go from my feet to my heart and soul.

I will be like Martha and I will be going into my garden of dance, which is also my garden of thought and dreams. Dance is like a bouquet of many colored flowers. As you learn, you bloom and you open up from a small flower and you become a taller version of the flower and you get prettier every time, because you are constantly blooming with joy and peace. The peace is the feeling you receive as you move your body and your thoughts and dreams are realized and you have become a floral centerpiece in your life of other wonderful happenings.