“How about we dance with bubbles?” she asks, seeing my worried face.
“Dance with bubbles? What do you mean?” I stare at her, my eyes full of doubt.
“Yes… yes… Just wait and see,” she whispers and runs to the kitchen.
She returns after a few minutes with a bucket, two sticks (why she had the sticks in her kitchen, I do not know), a ball of string, and a huge grin.
“Bubbles – they are marvellous creations, aren’t they?” she murmurs, her voice trembling with excitement, “Delicate, beautiful and if you are lucky enough to catch the sunbeams into them, colourful. Watching them is genuinely relaxing, but making them brings even more tranquillity. You don’t need much: two sticks, a piece of string and a washing liquid mixture – and there, there you have a fantastic way to relax. Dance-like moves, conjuring up magical, ephemeral beings – what else can be a better idea to take your mind off worries and negative thoughts?”
She starts to dance, the bubbles like giant crystal rainbow balls swirling around her. She looks like an enchantress doing her magic. Spellbound, that is what I am.
Watching the bubbles drifting skyward got me thinking. Sometimes we get scared and worried. We work our bodies up with stress, feeling tense and nervous. Our bodies start to ache and feel tired, and we start believing it is – our reality. But is it? What if our negative thoughts were just like bubbles? They would be there just for a moment, catching our attention, and then they would burst and be gone forever. We would observe them, acknowledge them, and then let them go like we do when we watch bubbles. We wouldn’t store our worries in our bodies and feel more peaceful. I found that thought very comforting – it made me feel more relaxed already.
“Can I try?” I ask her.
“Sure”, she says with a note of triumph in her voice and hands me the sticks.
Clumsily, I make one bubble, after another, after another. I hear her sing, and I feel my body take the lead and make me move more gracefully, swaying to her song. I do not think. I do not worry. I just dance, forgetting all about the stress. I let it go skywards, up with the bubbles.
Birkiverse 