After the wedding...

Such an exquisite agony suffusing every joint, and every bit of it well-earned and relished! I live in a body that complains. The joints creak and ache and sometimes swell because throughout my life I used them all, thoroughly and well. I danced. Started ballet a tad too young for growing bones and danced on a shattered metatarsal once after another nymph on stage missed her mark and found my foot. The show never stops for injury although rehearsal might.

At London School of Contemporary dance I left my bloodied footprints with the others as we did floor exercises that crouched us low and dragged us forward, seeking shapes and statements Graham would have loved and later with my own troupe, working hard I heard a quiet snap and felt the sting, much harder than a rubber band against the skin, as a ligament parted and cartilage tore. And still I danced.

So all my joints are filled with crystals earned, the diamonds of performance with a small genetic contribution; so now three plus hours on a dance floor, floating free of inhibition, giving up control to terpsichore, my Muse on many levels, comes with a price. A price I know and have paid willingly before although it gets a little steeper every time.

The party ended early. Well, the wedding was at four and then moved forward through the night until the witching hour. Rain clouds glared and frowned around us, all outdoors, but held on to their bounty. Vows were exchanged, sand mixed, brown and blue, in bottles to symbolize the joining of two lives. Speeches were short and funny and the food was excellent with grilled marlin, roasted pork, bajan ham, lamb stew; spanish rice and black eyed peas and rice alongside scalloped potatoes and sweet potato salad. And salads, vegetables, the works.

I did not sit on the beach at dawn and watch the sunrise. I came home, deeming a six hour wait untenable when Morpheus was tugging at my wrist so tenderly. And I can be up late tonight skywatching for the Perseids to fly.

I have a prayer to all the gods: Please never let me dance in moderation. Let me never count the morrow's pain and hold back my soul today. Please grant that I shall always be exalted by the music and carried to the place where spirit and flesh combine and flow like water finding its most perfect level. And help me to keep healing fast.