“You don’t know which foot to dance on, meaning eh, you think too much, you know? You think about which foot to put first, in the dance, but you should just dance.”
Monsieur Maigrot, my French host, dumped his cutting board full of chopped onions into a bowl and paused to look up at me.
“How about when you write? Do you think? No, you just write!”
I nodded as I realized what he was trying to say. When I’m creating in a way that feels the most natural to me, I don’t even think about “how” I’m doing it. I just do it. I flow and everything else flows with me. Monsieur was right — you cannot think about which foot to dance on, you must just dance.
I learned many things from my stay in the countryside of France, but this may be the most important lesson that I’ll take with me.
DANCING ON THE POTTERY WHEEL
I sat at a pottery wheel in Monsieur Maigrot’s studio. After watching him make plates and bowls on the wheel, I felt like I was ready to give it a try and make my own bowl. And so I sat down to take a lump of clay from nothing into something. I expected that I might not make anything that could be kept, but I was excited to try.
On the first piece I made, I started overthinking the process and my bowl went lopsided. On the next piece I made, I knew that I wanted to end up with a little espresso cup. I have loved drinking an expresso with “lait” every morning here in France out of a tiny ceramic cup. I thought about the feeling that I get when I place my hands around that tiny warm cup. I could almost smell the coffee as the pottery wheel started turning. I relaxed.
The steady rhythm of the wheel moved the clay under my hands and we became one for a moment. I became captivated with the process. Wheel, clay, and human. Dancing. Together. Before I knew it, I was instinctively opening up the little mound of clay and a little espresso cup took shape on the wheel.
Together — human, clay and the pottery wheel — we danced to make a delightful little espresso cup.
It’s your time to dance!
Your dance might be pursuing a dream that you have. It might be launching a new business. Or it might be something else that feels like a risk, like the new responsibility you’ve chosen to take on at work. Or it might be the same dance you do every single day, but today it feels like it’s going to be more difficult… or boring.
Throw in a new move and keep moving.
Not everyone wants to dance. Dance anyway.
Some people want to learn one dance and do that dance for the rest of their lives, never learning anything new. Don’t let their apathy rub off on you.
Some people will want to try to make you dance exactly like they do. Don’t be afraid of making up your own dance.
Some people won’t like your dancing, no matter how good or how bad it is. But even if you don’t have any admirers on the sidelines, dance!
A lot of people say they want to dance, but then they don’t. They’re waiting for the perfect time. They’re waiting on all the right details to be in place so they can start. A year from now, they’ll still be saying they want to dance but they’ll still be sitting on the fence. Sometimes it helps to sit on the fence for a while and observe, but you can’t stay on the fence forever because well, fences really aren’t comfortable to sit on. It might feel safe for a while, but those boards will start poking your hiney and make you get off the fence.
You don’t have to be worried about how awkward it’s going to look when you start. It really doesn’t matter how awkward you are. Everyone starts at the awkward points, I don’t care what they say. You have to love the feeling of dancing more than how it looks. You have to want to learn the dance and you have to be willing to just throw yourself in and learn. Be willing to stumble and keep going.
Think about the first time you’ve ever tried anything new. Did you get it right the first time? Exactly. Do you remember the first time that you actually danced? Anyone could dance better than me — I have the most awkward dance moves ever!
Coming from a homeschooled, Amish-Mennonite background, I never learned how to dance. Secretly, I listened to a classical radio station in my room and made up dramatic, interpretive dances, but that was the extent of my “dancing”.
I’ll never forget my first real dance. It happened at my non-Mennonite friend’s wedding. At the beginning of a slow song, one of the groomsmen asked me to dance. I shook my head and told him I couldn’t dance, but he just smiled and said he would show me. And he did. But it took more than one song for me to start catching on. At first, I kept stepping on his feet. It had to be embarrassing just to watch me trying. I felt embarrassed, but I kept going. I really wanted to learn.
“Just let yourself feel the music,” he encouraged. But I had no idea what he meant. Feel the music? What did that even mean? That was like another language to me.
My heart was beating in my ears and my body felt like a misshaped log. After a few more awkward moves, I decided to try relaxing. It made an immediate difference. I dropped my head forward a little and found myself leaning against my dance partner’s chest. I closed my eyes and stopped thinking about what I was supposed to do and for just a few steps, I found myself moving with the music. It felt like magic.
When I stopped thinking about which foot I should be moving, I could dance. At least, I could dance without constantly stumbling all over my partner’s feet. After that, I wanted to dance all night!
You won’t always have someone to come beside you and show you how to “dance”. You can learn how to “dance” anyway. You might only have your Google search bar and Youtube to learn how to do what you want to do. Maybe there are local classes that you can take or a course that you can sign up for online. Maybe there are podcasts on the topic that you want to learn more about. You don’t have to know everything to start. The “dance” might look so advanced that you might feel like giving up before you even try, but you can start doing the basics.
But before you do anything else today, stop everything you’re doing, put on some music that makes you feel like moving, and dance.
Don’t think about which foot to dance on, just dance.
