I’m taking a break from teaching. Stepping back - for the time being - from all that is “Rooted and Rising”. It’s time for a change. Destination unknown.

Our bodies are unique ecosystems that seek nourishment in a variety of realms. It can be helpful to 1) consider which realm/cup is in need of fulfillment, and 2) what is the just right amount of that manna. It often changes depending on our body of the day, the cycle of our life, our level of health, etc.

Many of my clients have been walking the edge, at some point of transition or reckoning, not knowing what is to come, but committed to finding a new center of gravity to orient their lives. Through countless oscillations and impulses, pivots and transitions, loss of ground followed by return to stability they've embraced and faced, moved and included a myriad of endings and beginnings - sometimes in the context of one breath, one dance, one conversation. It's part of what we're integrating... within ourselves, with one another, within our communities and in our environment.

This year, while the stirring is strong, it is also tempered. With continued social distancing and navigating how to share space with one other, I can feel my body bracing...emerging cautiously...each movement outward followed by a turning within...opening then closing...orienting to the external world, then returning to the ground of my own living, breathing body. More than ever I need to belong to myself...to root before I rise. More than ever I need to honor and follow the impulses, pace, and timing that are just right for me as I dip my toes back into connection and belonging.

While I may not see or sense the full essence of the seed that wants to serve life now, I can feel how nurturance, loving kindness, compassion, and enjoyment are integral voices within this song. They sing a balm to all Life around us, and support the strength and clarity we need to envision a way forward that is in harmony and service to Life!

Every time I grow and expand capacity into new terrain, “what was” dissolves into the embrace of “what is”. And while I’ve traversed this terrain before, I am still practicing how to yield to the vulnerability required…to surrender all maps with their familiar reference points, destinations and paths home.

These times are an initiation into the unknown and many of us will, if we haven’t already, come into contact with hard truths. Some may arise in our environments while others arise from within. In many ways, we are (re) learning how to Dance with Shadows.

Though we will certainly experience moments of stress in these times, we can turn toward our practices to help us find our way. We can turn to one another to have faith in our inter- connectedness,to trust the heart’s ceaseless capacity to care and respond.

Soul demands our full participation with ALL of Life...initiates through beauty AND pain...traverses the glorious, messy, wild and difficult...sometimes all within one dance. If we can stay with our present tense experience and offer our breath, gesture, and sound to the landscape emerging, we can weave each thread of our experience into the great tapestry of wholeness. Soul longs for this...for wholeness, not perfection.

The practice of surrender may seem simple on the surface, yet for me it's one of the more challenging aspects of life. Whether I’m cultivating a dream, or persistently and diligently tending something I am passionate about, the more invested and close to my heart the endeavor, the more attached I seem to be.

Becoming aware of the fabric that shapes us, and learning to allow each subtle or gross shift to become part of the ever changing rhythm of the dance can open space(s) for practice, growth, and the strengthening of connection…to our bodies, the earth, and one another.

Whether through dance or singing, writing or drawing...within ritual and ceremony...in the deep wild of nature or life itself...the 3rd body yearns to be sensed and experienced. At any moment...between, around and through...it wants to be brought to Life. To be cultivated through friendship and time. To be known.

Contemplative practices like conscious dance may seem radical in this fast paced culture of accomplishment, yet they are the way toward building our capacity to slow down and enter a process of consciously listening and connecting with our inner world

Today, with all that is happening in the world and in your own life, ask yourself what is having the greatest impact on you...what imprint sticks most deeply? Take a moment to listen to how this may be shaping the way you feel, the way you think, the way you carry yourself in this moment.
 

This is INTO-ME-SEE. This is something that we are wired to do....to feel what is, to let the feelings move through consciously, to allow our presence to bless each hurt, and to listen to our hearts in their response. This is the call of NOW. If we don't face and feel, nothing will change and we will fall off the cliff that we are creating with our eyes WIDE open. 

Through conscious dance I have (re)membered  that I am FAR more effective when I am anchored IN my body. When I trust my intuition. When I STAY in the dance that is presenting itself. It is through the movement that I access wisdom. Through my body that inspiration is felt and revealed. Regardless of the obstacle. Regardless of the question. I take it INTO my dance. I welcome it ALL. 
 

I had crossed some kind of threshold, indeed. Arriving somewhere I never thought I'd have to come. I didn't know how I had gotten here. I couldn't see where I was going. All of it was up for the Dance of Surrender

To come into contact with the natural world - to attune with it's coherence and rhythms - is one of the most healing and nourishing practices I know. We can experience this powerfully in the wild, yet it is just as accessible in our urban environment. To slow down and listen - to come into Presence and encounter our nature IN RELATIONSHIP to nature - may just be the greatest invitation to (re)member where and what we belong to.

More and more people across the globe are dancing because it is GOOD for us. It enlivens us. Supports us. Awakens us. And, when we can give it our full attention, moving more and more from the innate intelligence of the body, it can literally transform our lives.

If you want to "change the world" tend to your own needs first. Keep your well healthy and full. DANCE! Acknowledge your unique skills and abilities and the ways in which you feel called to contribute to a better world. Some of us protect our waters. Others speak against inequality and injustice. Some of us teach or tend or love. Others dance and sing and pray. There are innumerable ways to contribute. Inexhaustible ways to show up in this world and take part in the Great Turning. Start by choosing the work that is directly in front of you - within yourself, your families, your communities. Stay present to the work that life presents and contribute as much as possible to the joy of the great unfolding.

Knowing your why is a moment by moment inquiry, one that evolves as you do, and yet, the more aware you are of it the sooner you can make conscious decisions to align with it. 

For most of my life I have been on a journey of the heart. Called to follow inner stirrings rather than rational explanations, routes and pathways. Sometimes I have followed it without fail, being led to blessings unimaginable. Other times I have suppressed and denied it’s whispers in order to “play it safe”. Mostly I have searched, explored, and experienced – through landscapes known and unknown, terrain both human and spirited – to learn that living with fullness of heart and awakening to the great love affairwith ALL of life is a journey of a lifetime; one that begins and ends in mystery.