Eating my words . . . let me count the ways

This is what I read last night after posting my blog about blogging:

 

"The Yogic sages say that all the pain of human lie is caused by words, as is all the joy.  We create words to define our experience and those words bring attendant emotions that jerk us around like dogs on a leash.  We get seduced by our own mantras . . . and we become monuments to them.  To stop talking for a while, then, is to attempt to strip away the power of words, to stop choking ourselves with words, to liberate ourselves from our suffocating mantras."  -- Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

 

After reading this I went salsa dancing at a club highly recommended by an avid salsa-dancing friend.   The energy and DJ were fabulous.   Song after song, I was asked to dance.  Just dancing. No talking.  No names. No conversations.  Just laughing and smiling as I followed the graceful leads in turns and occasional goofs.  But it was all good, as my lead laughed with me and kept going.   As much of my life revolves around words, this, perhaps, is why I so love salsa dancing.  Words often fail me and sometimes all you want to say and all you want to know is best communicated through a smile, a hand, a dance, a touch.    And maybe this is why I am practicing:  so that when I get that chance, I can say exactly what I mean.