It's not that I woke up one morning and decided that from now on I would look for every opportunity to step outside my comfort zone - let alone drag my husband with me. However, on that day in August, when an email from my daughter's dance studio arrived with a request for adult volunteers to dance as party scene parents in the Nutcracker, my mind started racing. Could I? Should I? We? Would Dean be willing to do it with me? Can he dance? I don't know?!?!? How is it that I have no idea if my husband can dance or not??
The sad fact is, since the moment we met, we have never danced. Not once. Not at our wedding, or at a club, or at someone else's wedding, not even in the living room. We may have swayed to-and-fro a bit in the hospital room, but I was in active labor so I may have been hallucinating. We made it official on the evening of November 1st, when Dean took my hand and we twirled on a bonafide dance floor for the very first time. And then I started a count late, he stepped out with the wrong foot, and we fumbled for the other's hand as we each turned in the wrong direction. We were dancing!
We had a great time. It felt like a date night! We chatted, we laughed... This plays directly into sage marriage advice - find and use opportunities to try new things together, as it will provide ways to learn and grow as a couple. It is hard to put what I feel into words, but I feel so blessed - a thousand times over - that Dean was willing to step outside of his own comfort zone to do this with me. Sure my stomach is in knots with anxiety over doing this, but this is such a rare opportunity that we get to dance together in the Nutcracker of all things... It is exciting to be in rehearsal and to be a part of something bigger once again. I also realize that this may be a long-time gig. Willing and able adult volunteers are hard to find - and they know where we live.
