Day 11

“Shake. Feel the echo in your arms and hands.”

When I shake my booty, I feel the echo travel into my left arm. But in my right arm? Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

I can’t figure out why.

The echo stops in my shoulder. Perhaps it’s my old shoulder injury. I try shaking more... Then engaging more... Then relaxing more... Nothing works.

“Block your shoulders. Shake only your pelvis.”

This I can do.

“Now, block your pelvis. Shake only your shoulders.”

This too I can do.

Faster and faster, our teacher asks us to switch between blocking the shoulders and blocking the pelvis.

My brain gets confused. The signals criss-cross. I block when I’m supposed to shake. And I shake when I’m supposed to block.

“Now, don’t block. Allow both your pelvis and shoulder to shake.”

BLAM!

I hear the echo in my right arm.

Ignition… my body has just been hot-wired.

I feel a release down the entire right side of my body. Energy starts to flow. I wonder if the teacher sees the expression on my face. It’s an ear-to-ear WOW.

Here’s what I think happened: even though my injured shoulder was strong again, it remained disconnected from the rest of me. What it needed was confusion.

And connection.