You Signed Up for This Dance

Today is Monday, February 3, 2014.

You signed up to do this dance before you were born.  –Annie Kagan, The Afterlife of Billy Fingers: How My Bad-Boy Brother Proved to Me There's Life After Death

This quote attracted me before I knew anything about the book it was from, because this is my belief, as well.  I believe Soul is eternal, and that It comes to earth again and again in many physical lifetimes in order to gain experience.  And I believe that each of our lifetimes is set up intentionally for us.  Not the details, but the broad strokes.   As Soul, we agree on some level to be sent here.  In other words, we sign up for this earthly experience, because we know that this is a great place to learn and to mature spiritually.

I haven't read the book yet, but I certainly plan to do so now.  It is a true story.  Annie Kagan's brother, Billy died and some time later he "woke her up" to communicate with her.  This phenomenon, while rare, has been recorded before.  It is called After Death Communication (ADC), and apparently, Kagan was blessed to experience a detailed communication with her brother in which he gave her a "vivid, real-time account of his on-going journey through the mysteries of death," according to the synopsis I found on Amazon.  

Whenever I come to a situation that I find difficult, I ask for understanding, because I know there is always something I can learn from the situation.  Over the years, I have come to know something about my purpose in this lifetime, as well as the type of "job" I am being prepared to do in the Worlds of Spirit when this physical lifetime is finished.  I often remind myself that I signed up for a situation.  Perhaps it wasn't the exact details of the situation, but I signed up to learn a particular thing.  It helps to bear the difficulties a bit, knowing that they haven't been foisted on me without some agreement on my part.

It's like signing up for a course in chemistry as an elective in school.  You know before you attend the first class that you will be learning something about chemicals, and you are pretty sure you will have to do some sort of experiment.  But you don't know the details of the course material, you don't know what exact experiments you will be required to do, and you have no idea what the midterm and final tests will be like, nor do you know what will be in the textbook when you sign up for the course.  In the same way, you may sign up to learn patience, humility, grace, detachment, discipline, or discernment in a given lifetime, but your own choices in life – your free will – helps to set up the exact situation once you get here.

I think it's a great metaphor to call life a dance, because it is.  There is movement, balance, rhythm, grace, and harmony involved in a dance, especially when you are dancing with others.  :-)