Last summer when I saw my physician, she was not satisfied with my 20 minutes of exercise, three or four times a week. “You need to exercise 30 minutes a day, six days a week,” she pronounced. So I dug out some ballet exercises from my memory banks and added them to my calisthenics, hand weights, and stretches.

Gentle Reader, I am not young, and I don’t enjoy exercise. It’s a struggle. However, one day after six months, it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, I was strong enough to actually dance.

I will admit that I tried it when my husband was out of the house, with only the dog for an audience. I lit the fireplace and turned on the music of “Soundscapes,” channel 857 on Direct TV, and then I began to dance. It was a slow, interpretive ballet with no impressive leaps or pirouettes, but it was dance. It felt fantastic!

So now I exercise in the morning, so I can dance in the afternoon.

What next?