Dancing the Music of Life

The other night I went dancing with a couple friends. We were excited about going to a place where they had Latin music such as salsa, merengue, bachata, etc. I must say that I felt like the tin man from Wizard of Oz. My joints needed oil urgently! Hahaha. I was dancing and happy to be there. But as always...I made a pause to look at my surroundings. I saw the different people dancing, their behavior, the lights, the music played in the background. Everything started to move slowly in my mind until something captured my attention.

There I saw two men. Let's call them John and Josh (Not their real names!). If they were in "Dancing with the stars" they would have been sent home during the first round ;-). They did not seem to have a dancing technique or deep knowledge on the dance types. But thank God we were not in Dancing with the Stars and it was a place where everyone could participate. ;-) The difference between these two men was that John was dancing to the FEEL of the music and Josh was too concern about dancing TO the music.  John came to me to dance with a smile in his face said he wanted to learn and forgot about counting 1-2-3 etc. Josh was in a corner too concern that he could not make the steps right.

Does it ever happen to you that the more you concentrate in dancing "salsa" you just see it too complicated? You feel afraid of being embarrassed by not being able to do a mega-spectacular turn? Have you ever felt afraid to make a move in your life for fear of not doing something right? Just as with dancing salsa, if you don't try to jump in the dance floor and FEEL the music, instead you stay standing or sitting looking at other people dance, you are missing the fun of it. Just like that in our lives sometimes we want to dance the rhythm of life's concerns instead of living to the feel of life's music, life's beauty. Appreciating the little things, the smile of ourselves in the mirror.

 I want to share with you that me too I did not always knew how to dance Salsa. I had to learn! (contrary to the popular believe not all Latinos are born knowing the steps, lol) I also was dancing to the rhythm of what I thought was important and not to the feel of life's music. To help me identify what type of dance I am performing I ask myself: Am I in the dance floor of life or am I in the corner afraid to make a bad step?

To end, I want to share an excerpt from the song "I Hope You Dance". Read carefully:

 And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance
(Time is a real and constant motion always)
I hope you dance
(Rolling us along)
I hope you dance
(Tell me who)
I hope you dance
(Wants to look back on their youth and wonder)
(Where those years have gone)


God Bless You! And May He be the guide of your steps 1-2-3 while you dance the SALSA OF LIFE!

~Cindy