Dharma Comics
I’m gonna put my dancing shoes on. No, not the glittery stilletos when I go clubbing. I mean good old fashioned social dance. Ballroom dance. Salsa. Tango. Foxtrot. I’ve got a date with Mr. Arthur Murray!
Why? It’s my acupuncturist’s fault. She’s like my own personal Yoda with little tiny needles and amazing glass cups, but regular shaped ears and normal skin tone. She and I go about living our separate lives, doing our own separate things, and sometimes we intersect in moments of life (we’ll call them “appointments”) when she’ll work wonders on my back and knees and neck and qi. Every now and then, BAM, she randonly throws some wisdom at me that I just wasn’t expecting. It used to piss me off.
But we’ve started getting friendlier because she sees me mostly naked more than anyone else these days. We make small talk, and she told me about her ballroom dancing hobby. I shared that I took a Social Dance class in college and it did not go well. I said I was surprised it was so difficult.
She remarked, “It’s actually not hard. You do hard things. You’re impatient and don’t follow well. The problem is you don’t like to be led.”
And then she had the nerve to leave the room. So I’m alone in the room with only her words, a thin sheet, and a bunch of needles in my back. Damnit if she’s not right. How does she do this?
I have to admit to myself she’s right. I hated that dance class. I hated not being in control. I hated that I had to relinquish control to someone who was supposed to gently guide me. I was supposed to trust someone’s abilities and intentions. I was expected to just go with the flow as a stranger defined it. And in a class setting, your lead differs with each class. You meet new people all the time, and I was supposed to just trust them?
I decided I didn’t like this topic so being the mature adult I am, I chose to ignore her when she returned to the room. But in a subsequent appointment, like a moth drawn to a flame, I asked more about her dancing. She told me where she dances, and then turned it right back to me. She said, “You must learn to trust to let someone lead. Let him make mistakes. Wait for him to come back to you. It’s OK even when he makes mistakes. Follow him. He’ll come back.”
Ugh. So there you have it. My next adventure is social dancing. Why? Because I need to practice how to trust and follow and relinquish control. I used to trapeze to trust. But since I can’t do that any time soon, dancing it is. It’s gonna be ugly, in all sorts of ways. “You can dance, you can jive, having the time of your life…”-Abba
BonneVivanteLife 
Fun post, I like how personal and real this story is. I would have the same challenge to trust, as well as not liking to take the lead, so I’d really be in trouble with partner dancing!
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Then we would definitely not make a good dance team!! I also neglected to mention my incredible ability to be the most uncoordinated person on earth, so this should be very interesting 🙂
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Have fun! Actually I’m a pretty good dancer, but haven’t been out in a while. I just need to relax and flow.
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OK, I’ll have to repeat that in my head when the time comes, “Relax and flow”…because I am the jerk who bumps into everyone in exercise class when I go “the OTHER left”…and I’m always about 2.5 steps behind. I have many skills. Moving in a coordinated fashion is not one of them… 😉
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You can do it.
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Great story. I have been doing weekly acupuncture and I am learning a lot about myself and life. Very cool.
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Good for you!! The time to be still is wonderful for reflection and meditation, isn’t it? There’s something about the acupuncture itself that literally leaves me drunk with acupuncture love at the end of each session. Seriously, I have to sit in my car for a bit afterwards, I’m so woozy and feel drunk, I can’t drive immediately! Enjoy your treatments!!
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good stuff!! I love dance myself but yes, solo only lol. I don’t do acupuncture ( I have) now but I do yoga and qi qong . Yes you feel like that after a good massage too. It gets the endorphins dancing!! Enjoy.
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Thank you!! I am trying to embrace yoga, and have settled into it more than ever before, but I still don’t honestly enjoy it. How is qi qong? I’ve never tried it!
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I once played a housewife from the ’50s on stage and was required to dance with a partner. I was weird. I realized then that I didn’t know how to dance, not really. I used to dance like crazy when I was younger, and still do, but not so crazily, at various shindigs. Dancing moves our spirits I think.
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*It, but I was weird is welcomed too. 🙂
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LOL 🙂 tomato, tomahto… Ooh, you were an actress? I had no idea! That is courage! And yes, I agree, dancing moves spirits–I need to learn to allow my spirit to flow freely 🙂
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I am an actress, at times. It’s odd, though. If I’m being someone/thing else, it’s easy. This is why I practice daring to live life out loud as myself. For some reason, I take myself way too seriously. 😉
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Because that’s when it really counts, when you’re yourself, perhaps? Interesting–that you identify as an actress–“at times”–as opposed to “Yes, I am”–speaks so much to this “What do you want to be when you grow up/identity issue!”
And interestingly, I find it more difficult to be someone/thing else–I get caught up in the self-imposed expectation that I must get that “someone/thing” right!
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We only really have this time, right now, so I suppose I am all that I am at times.
Life is wondrously mind-blowing sometimes too.
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”You must learn to trust to let someone lead”. < Hits home ..Loved this !:)
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“So I’m alone in the room with only her words, a thin sheet, and a bunch of needles in my back.”
LOL. Wonderful post!!!
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Oh thank you so much!! 🙂
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