Article October 9, 2017 Issue

My journey to freedom and unlimited joy

Deborah Huebsch

“I’m sure I will be dancing when I’m ninety!” That was a statement I often made to friends. I had been a dancer since I was twelve and attending ballet classes pretty much dictated my schedule for some thirty years. I couldn’t imagine life without dance. It was my joy, my challenge, my desire to come as close as I could to perfection. Dance defined my comfort zone and at that time, to some degree, my identity.

But at the same time, my desire to be in the healing practice of Christian Science was growing. I felt a need to shift my focus from a strong emphasis on dance to an even greater emphasis on the practice of healing. Of course one can practice Christian Science wherever one finds herself. It was a rather compulsive approach to dance that I needed to give up, not necessarily dance itself. This caused me to pray deeply about my desire to keep dancing, even after I was in the public practice of Christian Science.

This passage from Science and Health with Key the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy gave me pause: “The time for the reappearing of the divine healing is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ’s cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of Christian healing” (p. 55). My “earthly all”? Did that mean I had to be willing to give up that which I thought gave my life joy and artistic expression?