What's In a Name?

Birds flyin' high, you know how I feel
Sun in the sky, you know how I feel
Breeze driftin' on by, you know how I feel
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me.
Yeah, it's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me, ooooooooh...
And I'm feelin' good.

Fish in the sea, you know how I feel
River runnin' free, you know how I feel
Blossom on the tree, you know how I feel
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me,
And I'm feelin' good

Dragonfly out in the sun, you know what I mean, don't you know,
Butterflies all havin' fun, you know what I mean.
Sleep in peace when day is done: that's what I mean,
And this old world is a new world and a bold world for me...

Stars when you shine, you know how I feel
Scent of the pine, you know how I feel
Yeah, freedom is mine, and I know how I feel..
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me
And I'm feelin'... good.

-- Feeling Good by Nina Simone

Jeff and I had our first dance at our wedding to this song.

As I was thinking of names for my new blog, it struck me how perfectly these lyrics fit. When I told Jeff the name I'd chosen, he knew immediately what I was referring to. Our song.

Jeff and I loved to dance. We met on a dance floor in Palm Springs. During our first year together, when Jeff still lived in San Diego, we went out dancing almost every weekend. At the annual holiday party for Jeff's former work, we were always the first ones on the dance floor. Even when we said to each other, "We probably won't dance this year," we always did.

I'm so grateful now that we did so much dancing in our "younger days." I think that we'll find ourselves on a dance floor together again at some point in the future, but it will be very different, of course. Just like so many things we've encountered over the past 10 months ... we can still do most of them; we just do them differently than before. The same, but different.

I'm grateful that I still have my husband to live this new dawn, new day, new life with. In so many ways, it's still the same. And in so many other ways, it's completely different. But in the end, even when we have some awful days, we get through them ...

... together. 

That's what I call ... feeling good.