An intimate relationship is a dynamic, often dizzying dance of contradictions that is sometimes delightful and seductive, sometimes fierce and combative, sometimes energizing, and occasionally exhausting.
This dance requires being able to flow continuously back and forth between opal opposites — between coming together and moving apart, taking hold and letting go, engaging and allowing space, yielding and taking the lead, surrendering and standing firm, being soft and being strong.
This is not an easy dance to learn. Many couples quickly lose the flow, fall out of step, and wind up deadlocked in antagonistic positions, struggling for supremacy, pushing and pulling, attacking or withdrawing. Teachers of the dance are few, and the conventional dance steps we learned from the culture seem increasingly stiff and outmoded as the years go by. How we may wonder, can we learn to dance with grace and power?
