Staying Centered in the Chaos

Hello, Loves.

There’s a lot “up” right now. Do you feel it? There’s the resurgence of COVID, thanks to that nasty delta variant. There are horrible fires burning beautiful land and leaving a trail of smoke for hundreds of miles. There’s flooding in other parts of the world, not to mention record-breaking heat. Politically, there’s abundant chaos, particularly in Afghanistan. It’s easy to feel heavy hearted right now. It’s easy to feel off-center and agitated. I’ve been feeling ups and downs, topsy turvy. One minute, I have magical plans, the next they’re all annihilated. Blessedly, we were able to shift our vacation reservations from Ashland, Oregon (where the AQI is over 200) to Mendocino. Yeah, if that’s all I have to worry about, I’m doing well, right? And yet, we all like a little stability, a little certainty. We want to make plans, savoring the anticipation and then follow through, but sometimes the universe throws us a curve ball and so the question becomes, “how do I shift and bend and flow with this new music that’s suddenly being played?” Yeah, we’ve got some practice with this on the dance floor. We know how to find our feet in the dance. We know how to align movement with deep breathing. We know how to center ourselves in the midst of chaos. We know how to get curious with our bodies; no judgment, no narrative, no commentary. Just movement. Distill it down again and again to the most basic movement, the way the very essence within each of us wants to move. We don’t have to dance to the dominant beat. We don’t have to dance big when we’re feeling small. We can find freedom of movement in the smallest of gestures. We don’t have to dance small when we’re feeling expansive. The idea is to listen, to attune to the body. The body doesn’t lie. And this is how we stay grounded amidst all the craziness of the world right now. Stay soft, Sweet Friends. Stay gentle. Follow your heart. We can do this.

I'm delighted to report that Stacey will be providing the sure-to-be-awesome playlist with Open Floor tomorrow morning. Let's dance together at 9:45am in the Corte Madera park.

Here’s the link for Open Floor:

https://openfloor.discology.me/events

Here’s a poem for your pleasure and inspiration:

TO LEARN FROM ANIMAL BEING

Nearer to the earth's heart,

Deeper within its silence:

Animals know this world

In a way we never will.

We who are ever

Distanced and distracted

By the parade of bright

Windows thought opens:

Their seamless presence

Is not fractured thus.

Stranded between time

Gone and time emerging,

We manage seldom

To be where we are:

Whereas they are always

Looking out from

The here and now.

May we learn to return

And rest in the beauty

Of animal being,

Learn to lean low,

Leave our locked minds,

And with freed senses

Feel the earth

Breathing with us.

May we enter

Into lightness of spirit,

And slip frequently into

The feel of the wild.

Let the clear silence

Of our animal being

Cleanse our hearts

Of corrosive words.

May we learn to walk

Upon the earth

With all their confidence

And clear-eyed stillness

So that our minds

Might be baptized

In the name of the wind

And the light and the rain.

~ John O'Donohue ~

Speaking of learning how to walk upon the earth, I’m reminded of this quote from Thich Nhat Hanh

“When we walk like (we are rushing), we print anxiety and sorrow on the earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the earth... Be aware of the contact between your feet and the earth. Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet.”

I think of this quote often while I’m out walking. It’s good to carefully consider how we move through the world. Dance teaches us how to be aware of the way the body moves through space. Let’s be soft and kind, yielding space to others.

“May you slip frequently into the feel of the wild.” Love that line!

Love you so,

KB