Mari Travels with Tango

Last night, went to my first "silent milonga" (no talking allowed), and wasn't really surprised at how effortless not saying a single word during the 3+ hours was. Perhaps silence is more natural to us Finns (after all, as the old saying goes, a Finn is fluently silent in all the languages he/she knows ) than to people from more talkative cultures? What was surprising, though, was how much more intense and deeper the dancing felt. I experienced this increased depth in both  roles, and realised that I would actually prefer at least the dancing part of every milonga to be totally wordless: no pleasantries between songs, no idle chit-chat while walking back to your seat from the dance floor. Just an intense sensation of having shared a moment with another person, of searching for an experience of common humanity that needs no explanations, no when's and how's and if's. I left the Milonga feeling strangely refreshed, and very aware of the importance of touch...

Two days after returning from Riga Embrace, and still, i am hardly able to produce a coherent sentence to describe the past weekend. What is clear, however, is that this was exactly what I needed at this point in my life. From inadvertently walking into the sightseeing group just the moment when the guide was explaining the one thing I was curious about, via having the right conversations just at the right time, to dancing just the right tandas with exactly the right people , the weekend was like a string of pearls made of meaningful encounters served to me at the best possible moments. Most importantly, however, it was another journey of self discovery. I learned a lot about life, love and myself, and discovered that indeed, time does heal most things and forgiveness is the only way forward. I realised something that I have suspected all along: that the only way to really be freed from pain is to expose yourself again, even if your instinct would tell you to lock up everything tha...