If sad, just sashay

Making life fun

No one saw it coming. To set the scene: it was a hot sunny day in July. A group of family members had just started on a walk. Four adults, four children.

Suddenly my cousin started snapping her fingers. It takes me only a second to realize that she is doing the routine from West Side Story. Her goal: embarrass her brother. Will she succeed? Absolutely not. He has been used to her shenanigans for 37 years. Does it matter? Again, absolutely not.

Her sister-in-law doesn’t miss a beat and joins in with the Sharks portion of the dance. They are surrounding my cousin and doing Sharks vs. Jets routine, complete with singing. Suddenly my cousin switches it up and starts sashaying past her brother. Sister-in-law quickly adjusts and starts sashaying as well. (In case you were unaware, you must say the word “sashay” as you do one.) I am cracking up laughing. I bring in some Bob Fosse moves from “Chicago.” There was some jazz hands action.

Now granted, my cousin’s brother departs from our merry band shortly thereafter. He may not have been embarrassed but he wasn’t going to join in on the dance brigade. The rest of us ceased dancing maybe thirty seconds later but I noticed that my mood was lifted. Even though it was disgustingly humid outside, no one noticed it for that two minutes.

Later my cousin was talking and she said that sometimes you need to make fun happen in your life. There are a lot of things you can’t control, but sashaying down the street is definitely one…