In a distant and remote island, a beautiful little girl was born and raised in a small, quiet village. She was a free-spirited girl who loved to dance, run, skip and play in the fields outside the village.

Each morning, the beautiful little girl would wake up with joy and excitement in her heart. She loved life, and she loved to express her joy through dancing and playing . She would excitedly eat her breakfast with her eyes aglow with joy and anticipation as she thought about the day full of fun and dancing ahead of her.

As soon as she was finished with her breakfast, she would giggle with glee and skip out the door, heading for the open fields, where she would dance and play and sing her songs of joy to the birds and trees. She loved life, and her young heart felt the most joy when she was dancing, running and playing through the woods. Every day she sang songs of joy and celebration as she danced and skipped through the woods.

Unfortunately, the village had been hit with a horrible virus several years earlier causing everyone in the village to walk with a severe limp. Her father had a limp, her mother had a limp, everyone in the village had a limp, except for the small girl.

For a long time, the beautiful little girl did not notice that others could not dance and play as she did. She was too busy celebrating life. However, the villagers quickly noticed, and they began to complain to the little girl's parents.

"There is something really weird about your daughter," they would say. "She doesn't walk like the rest of us; she does strange things like running and dancing. We have never seen anything like her. She is either deformed or perhaps she is evil."

The elders of the village called the little girls' parents and told her they had passed a law that all children must walk with a limp. No children were allowed to run, jump, skip or dance. This was to ensure that the other little girls would not feel bad that they could not do those things.

The chief elder sternly told the parents that before their daughter arrived, all the children were happy with their life. Having to watch the beautiful little girl run, skip and dance was causing them discomfort, so to preserve the comfort of everyone, the village elders insisted that the little girl stop any expression of joyous movement. The elders insisted that from now on, the beautiful little girl must walk with a limp, dragging her leg behind her.

However, the young girl was extraordinary in a variety of ways. Not only was she beautiful and filled with joy, she also had an inner awareness of who and what she was. From deep within her, she understood that it was her purpose in life to live life with joy and celebration. On a very intuitive level, she understood that the villagers' problems with her were just that, their problems.

Therefore, the beautiful girl continued to celebrate life. Truth is, she couldn't have held herself in if she had tried, for to deny her celebration of life would be denying her truth. Living any other way would have destroyed her.

Her parents did everything they could to get her to stop. They shamed her, restricted her to the hut, punished her, spanked her, and finally beat her. Nevertheless, nothing they did could break the young girl's spirit; she was born to have fun, to celebrate and to dance.

Despite the hardships she suffered from her parents and the other villagers, she never lost her joy for living. She refused to live her life in a state of anything less than bliss. Somehow, she understood that her reaction to life was her choice, and she chose to live it with appreciation and celebration. There was so much to be thankful for. She was grateful for the sunshine, the rain, the butterflies, the birds, the lakes, the streams, and the flowers. She could not imagine how anyone could find anything to complain about, not with all the beauty that surrounded them.

One evening, the elders of the village called a meeting to decide the fate of the young woman. They could no longer tolerate her "outrageous behavior". They had tried to be patient, but she had not listened to their reasons and had refused to conform to the rules of the village. Their patience had worn thin, and they evicted her from the island.

A raft was constructed, and a month's food rations were loaded onboard. Her parents were heartbroken, but societal pressure forced them to agree with the verdict. The day she left, her mother stood on the shore and cried. Her father couldn't leave the hut. He closed his eyes and mind to the pain and decided the best way to handle the situation was to never allow himself to think of her.

The young woman chose to see this as an adventure, a new chapter in her life that promised a new beginning with the chance to live, celebrate and dance with others. The days on the raft were difficult. She survived blistering heat and torrential storms, but she never lost the vision of who she was and the life she was moving toward. She refused to succumb to fear; she refused to focus on the challenges of today. Instead, she focused on her dreams and the life she knew she was moving toward.

Before long, her food ran out, and the raft started coming apart. However, the young woman would not be thwarted. She knew her dreams were in front of her and she would not let anything keep her from them. She met each day on the raft the same as she did when she was in the village, with joy, celebration and determination. She taught herself how to catch fish and repair the raft. She welcomed everyday with excitement and celebration, understanding that each sunrise brought her one day closer to her dreams.
Then, early one morning, her raft drifted onto the beach of an island far from her own. When she awoke, she could hear a strange sound coming from the village nearby. It was the sound of singing – joyful songs of celebration. The young woman cried with joy as she ran toward the sweet sounds that her soul had yearned for her entire life.

The young woman had found her home. She had held her dreams in her heart, and she had manifested them beyond even her own imagination. Rather than conform her life to one of limping through life, she had held to the dreams in her heart and her belief in herself and she had created a life surrounded by joy, song, celebration and dancing…lots and lots of dancing.

Are you living your life with a song in your heart and a dance in your step, or have you conformed to the limp of society?

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