Well bugs, we’re going to try something a little new today. Something that I don’t think I’ve mentioned to you before is that I absolutely love doing art. Granted, my art is rather foolish and usually contains silly things such as the dancing giraffe that you see above, but it’s one of the many ways I express myself and is one of my stress reliefs. My mom would say that I have an “immature art form that appeals to the adult eye”, which I would say is probably about accurate. Anyway, I’m going to start trying to incorporate my art into my posts. I’ll basically still talk about life in general the way I always have, but I’ll try to pair it up with whatever art I have recently created. I actually think this will help me with inspiration for posts because whatever I put into my art tends to be whatever big thing is on my mind, so now I’ll have a better idea of what to write about. Anyway, let’s jump into this post.
“Then he raised his head up and looked at the moon and stars above, ‘We can all dance’ he said, ‘when we find the music that we love'”. What is this quote, you may ask? Well, it’s from a children’s book titled “Giraffes Can’t Dance” by Giles Andreae. This was one of my favorite books when I was little and honestly, I had forgotten about it until recently. My mom found this quote somewhere in the deep dark depths of pinterest and sent it to me, thinking it might spark up an old childhood memory.
When she sent me the quote I immediately remembered that I loved the book, though I couldn’t quite remember the story – except that it involved a dancing giraffe (that’s the important part, right?). So I turned to google to find it and behold, I found a 3 minute long youtube video of its narration. I of course had to watch it, which I now encourage you to do if you feel that you would appreciate a story about a dancing giraffe. Which, let’s be honest, who wouldn’t? Here’s the link; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVzblgpqQnk
Well for those of you who don’t feel inclined to watch this wonderful narration, I’ll give you a brief overview. Basically, Gerald the giraffe is a bad dancer and he is sad because the other animals in the jungle make fun of him for it (for the sake of this book giraffes apparently live in the jungle. Just go with it). The other jungle animals can all dance the tango and the scottish reel and all sorts of other kinds of dances, but they tell him that he can’t dance and discourage him before he even tries. So then he walks away and finds a clearing, where there just so happens to be a cricket with a violin that inspires him to dance to the music of the nature around him. (At this point in the narration video a rather creepy cricket voice suddenly shows up). At this point he has suddenly found his groove and all of the animals of the jungle can’t believe how awesome he is and essentially tell him that he is the bees knees. They ask him how he learned to dance that way and the book is concluded with the quote that I doodled up above.
Looking back on it now I find it rather hilarious that this was my favorite book as a child, and that now is the time I have rediscovered it. A few years ago I became obsessed with giraffes and they have been my favorite animals ever since. And more recently, just a few weeks ago, I was accepted to an international volunteer program that will allow me to go to South Africa this summer. I’m sure that I will tell you all about that in a later post, but all you need to know for the sake of this post is that I’m super excited, and that while I’m there I get to go on an African safari – and there WILL be giraffes! YES!
The timing of all of this is also quite fantastic because this semester I am taking an aerobic dance class, just for the fun of it. I actually really love it and it’s one of the best parts of my day. It’s at 7 a.m. so most people would probably despise it, but for me it’s just a great way to start my day. It puts me in a good mood, gets me moving, and gives me something to get my mind off of my crazy homework load. I’ve always enjoyed dance, but never quite like this. The class is often taught by grad students and I have decided that teaching the aerobic dance class as a grad student would actually be fantastic. Overall it has really gotten me excited and has just been a great addition to my daily routine.
I find it kind of awesome that the book I liked so much when I was little is actually quite representative of my current interests. So, next time you’re up in your attic (or perusing the dark depths of pinterest), look through some of your old favorites and see if you find any foreshadowing of your own. I loved being reminded of this book, something about children’s books just makes me happy. How could you not be happy when looking at a dancing giraffe?
Anyway, until next time…
Love,
Laney-Bug ❤
(Medium: watercolor and micron pen)
lovelaneybug 