Dance Me to the End of Love

Every night before bed, I read one story to my son before he goes to bed. Being only 13 months old, he usually doesn’t listen, but I still read to him every night. Now that we have been joined by a little girl, she gets to have two stories before she goes to bed. She gets to pick any two books she wants me to read to her from our children’s books shelves.

I have quite a few children’s books because I was a preschool teacher and I worked in a bookstore for many years. I started buying books I liked even before I had children. When I was a bookseller, a beautiful picture book came in and I fell in love with it. It was book where the words were Leonard Cohen’s lyrics "Dance Me to the End of Love" paired with paintings from Matisse. It is an absolutely spectacular book, but the combination tends to be a little more adult than a regular picture book.

Last night, one of the books she picked was "Dance Me to the End of Love." I hesitated, but agreed to read it to her. I figured that it can’t hurt for her to know an expression of deep love for another person. Like every other time I have read the book, I get tears in my eyes. I’m not an overly sentimental person, but I like to think that when I find that person, these words would be representative of our bond:

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic 'til I'm gathered safely in
Lift me like an olive branch and be my homeward dove
Dance me to the end of love

Oh let me see your beauty when the witnesses are gone
Let me feel you moving like they do in Babylon
Show me slowly what I only know the limits of
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the wedding now, dance me on and on
Dance me very tenderly and dance me very long
We're both of us beneath our love, we're both of us above
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to the children who are asking to be born
Dance me through the curtains that our kisses have outworn
Raise a tent of shelter now, though every thread is torn
Dance me to the end of love

Dance me to your beauty with a burning violin
Dance me through the panic till I'm gathered safely in
Touch me with your naked hand or touch me with your glove
Dance me to the end of love

After I was done reading, she looked up at me, smiled and said, "That’s a pretty book, Mommy."