Serpent power

She stood in front of her dance instructor in the little studio on a warm late June evening. He was teaching her about the secrets of the close embrace. It was about connection and presence - as in being with your partner in every breath of the tango.

As he demonstrated the way that their axis should be complimenting each other, and how it shouldn't look and feel, he asked: "Do you feel the difference? It's like you want to be here. You're in this moment and that's all there is."

As they moved up and down the length of the dance floor, her chest resting on his, he spoke his reminders to her as if they were a mantra: "Come closer. There. Reach back more with your legs, as far as they'll go. Aliven your spine. Yes. Come closer, still. Yes. Feel the subtle spiral with each step. Breathe. Breathe with each standing leg. There. Let your hips go. Even more. Yes. Shake that serpent awake..."

She looked up at him, surprised by what he said. She had to laugh: this was the third time in a week that reference to her Kundalini had arisen in private conversation. "That's my homework for the year," she said, as she felt a part of her shell, another layer, crack and fall to the floor like a small existential breakthrough. They kept moving in the line of dance, heart to heart.

As they had reached the end of the floor, he stopped. "Did you feel that?" he asked. "Did you feel the connection, that's what this dance is about."

She nodded and noted, "It's hard to be that way if you really aren't feeling the connection with your partner. I can't seem to fake it."

"I want you to know and be that for yourself, no matter who you're with. You can't meet rigidity with rigidity. Some partners won't even get what we just did. You have be this for yourself. I want you to own it. It's yours - don't let any partner take that from you."

And with that, another layer fell to the floor and shattered as her little heart opened a bit more. She looked at him with eyes at the tear threshold and confessed the bigger take home assignment that had been universally issued that year.

Revolution & renaissance

She tucked a flower in her hair as she read her Brezsny horoscope for the week. The universal love letter got her thinking about the questions she needed to consider to really get to the heart of the matter, or rather, the matters beating in her little heart:

Virgo for the week of June 25:
There's a better than even chance that you're about to embark on a Summer of Love. To improve your odds even more, meditate on the following questions.
1. What qualities do you look for in a lover that you would benefit from developing more fully in yourself?
2. What do you think are your two biggest delusions about the way love works?
3. Is there anything you can do to make yourself more lovable?
4. Is there anything you can do to be more loving?
5. Are you willing to deal with the fact that any intimate relationship worth pursuing will inevitably evoke the most negative aspects of both partners -- and require both partners to heal their oldest wounds?

Spontaneous O

Have someone say this to you, and see what happens:

chocolate fudge brownie cake with hot caramel and peanut butter toffee chunk ice cream

The tell-tale dance

"Dancing is a vertical expression of a horizontal desire."

It's been said that you can learn a lot about how a man performs the horizontal tango by how he busts-a-move on the dance floor.

"We saw some great dancers up in Breckenridge," she said about the latest sociological research on her most recent night out in the mountain town. "There was this one guy who was a really great dancer. ...But amazingly, he was even better by himself." [insert laughter here]

Dancing is more than a memorized set of footsteps. It's about the sensuous, the feel and the rhythm of the moment, no worries about text-book choreography - as any good horizontal tussle should be.

Take note at the next club or wedding and do some guesswork. Report back if the rule holds true.