White Nights was released in 1985 when I turned ten. I had been taking ballet for just a couple of years, but I loved it, and I adored Mikhail Baryshnikov. I’m certainly aging myself so, for all the young readers you need to understand that Baryshnikov was all things amazing. He was born in Latvia and quickly rose to a principal dancer in Russia.

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The million-dollar Christian question: how can I know God’s will for my life? Have you ever asked yourself that question or a variation on it? I went through a pretty decent season of throwing darts at the board and hoping some would stick. If we don’t know what He wants from us, are we wasting our time, energy and God-given gifts?

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Last weekend was really busy.  My son graduated from high school and we were going from party to party. It has been an unseasonably cool late spring but on Saturday the sun came roaring back in with no cloud cover to be seen for miles. What I would deem “gorgeous weather.” As we enjoyed our time in plastic chairs with no shade in sight, reminiscing about the past years and looking forward to the future, I found myself starting to sweat profusely.

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It was 1990-something and I was at a dance conference, quietly sitting in a corner in the back of the room, long after roll call when we were broken up into groups. When I didn’t hear my name called, I raised my hand and asked where I belonged. The teacher blinked at me and said, “Wow! I forgot you were even here.”

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Today is a good day. I wake up before dawn to head over to the gym and teach yoga. Summer has just begun and I’m off work for the next ten weeks; my new bootcamp class is growing and the bible study I’ve been hosting at my house has been encouraging. No controversies, no hardships. But how does it look when it’s not a good day?

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