A few years ago I learned that you balance from your feet.

There were two separate incidents:

1) A class I took in which the teacher explained that you can actually visualize your center of gravity rolling around inside of your feet, like the axle of a wheel, just a half inch above the ground. It's very difficult to fall a half inch above the ground (though I managed it in spectacular fashion at age four). It changed my dancing to feel my feet under me that way. It changed the way I connected the ground, to my feet, to my ankles, to my legs, to my core.

2) I cut a tendon in a toe I had largely considered irrelevant until that point–the fourth toe on my left foot. I panicked, because like, I HAVE the tendon, so probably I NEED it, right? Is this, like, an appendix tendon?

It is not like an appendix tendon. Your toes hold your balance for you.

Once I went through all the physical therapy, I realized I can basically stand on one foot indefinitely, and the thing that wears out is my foot. It gets tired before I fall over.

You'd think, after dancing for 25+ years, I'd have known where balance comes from. I would know it was your feet, and not your arms, though your arms can help. Not just a perfectly centered alignment, although that helps too. From your feet.

Knowing how you balance doesn't mean you don't wobble. You just wobble a lot less, and you know how to fix the wobbles when they come.

I'm pretty sure this period of my life is just me, looking at wobbles, and trying to figure out what I've been doing wrong for the last 32 years. Looking for the key. Looking for the root. My arms are tired from waving around; it's time to find stability.