I am a terrible dancer, especially when I am wearing heavy boots. Normally, I am very inhibited about dancing, and it would require several drinks to get me to jump around on the dance floor. This was no normal place and time, and my fear had been wadded up in a little ball and thrown into the ceremonial flames. I started to see why the men's lib groups form drum circles. Men make circular patterns out of individual spikes.
Women make individual spikes out of circular flow.
We're all dancing to the same beat, but some of us are the feet and some of us are the hips. Finally, I found myself moving out of the circle, looking up again at the stars. As I walked across the playa, I realized that I could see myself very clearly. The other people out here in the desert were dim and difficult to see, but my skin was glowing and I could see my own body as if it were day. A feeling of elation washed over me, and I recognized it as the fast calm I feel when I am comfortable with who I am.