Salsa and Merengue

Tonight I went about 100 miles outside my comfort zone. That's what I'm all about these days.
I went with some of Graham's friends from school (without Graham) and we went salsa dancing. Yes, I said dancing, as in a guy and a girl, presumably moving to the same beat, in rhythm.
If you know me, you know that I wasn't born with a lot of natural rhythm or smoothness. I spent about half my life falling down stairs, and I can't remember a time when I didn't have a bruise somewhere.
Maybe I should have warned my fellow dancers of this BEFORE they took the floor with me. I may or may not have taken out a woman within the first 15 minutes. This lady's poor toes peeking out of her shoe were no match for my sasquatch-esque feet strapped into cute 3 1/2 inch wedge heels. I definitely saw her date bring ice for feet and I never saw her the rest of the evening. To this woman, I am so sorry and please send me the bill for the x-ray of your toe.

The other victim of the evening was a nice man we'll call "Ted". Ted was a fairly good dancer who definitely liked to dance closer than most. What poor Ted didn't know was that my right elbow liked to get a little close as well. To his eye. I think he has a 50/50 chance of seeing again out that eye.

Also, I was the only woman who got paired with the most OCD guy on the floor. Through the first hour-long "lesson" session, we got stuck on one move that we never mastered, despite the fact that "Jim" kept coming back to me the rest of the evening and saying, "Okay, I think I've got it, let's do it again." So I'd march back on to the dance floor with him, stand there as he counted off, "1 2 3 4 and 5 6 7 8" before beginning. Poor Jim.

The most important thing I learned this evening was how imperative it was for me to STOP BEING IN CONTROL, and let the guy lead. hmm... that sounds familiar. Every time I resisted or tried to lead, we got out of sync. I think there's a spiritual lesson here that I've been learning for awhile.

When I let God lead, let him make the decisions, things go so well. Just as the guy partner sees the whole dance floor and leads the woman out of danger and into an open area, God does the same thing except on a much larger scale. He knows all, past, present, and future and if I just let him lead, he'll lead me into safety.
Despite not being naturally good at dancing, I do think I can get better at it with practice, and I plan to go again.

And this time, I'll let the guy do all the leading.