green valley frolic

Today I was en-route to my childhood home to assist in the care of my elderly father which can be emotionally challenging - witnessing his declining and changing body / mental capacities from visit to visit. It is a minimum three hour drive and lately I have included stopping in the Skagit Valley to drop into my body, presence, and to connect to the earth by doing my daily dance practices there. This helps to break up the journey and to nourish my soul, as the natural world, to me, is such a direct gateway to the soul...

Excerpts from "Have You Ever tried to Enter the Long Dark Branches?"

Do you think this world was only an entertainment for you?

Never to enter the sea and notice how the water divides

with perfect courtesy, to let you in!

Never to lie down on the grass, as though you were the grass!

Never to leap to the air as you open your wings over the dark acorn of your heart!

Who can open the door who does not reach for the latch?

Who can travel the miles who does not put one foot

in front of the other, all attentive to what presents itself

continually?

Who will behold the inner chamber who has not observed

with admiration, even with rapture, the outer stone?

Well, there is time left –

fields everywhere invite you into them.

And who will care, who will chide you if you wander away

from wherever you are, to look for your soul?

Quickly, then, get up, put on your coat, leave your desk!

To put one’s foot into the door of the grass, which is

the mystery, which is death as well as life, and

not be afraid!

To sit down, like a weed among weeds, and rustle in the wind!

Listen, are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life?

While the soul, after all, is only a window,

and the opening of the window no more difficult

than the wakening from a little sleep.

Mary Oliver

The sun was near setting and I found a deserted street near a dike that was so captivating to me. I loved being amongst the new, tall green grasses - the sight, the smells, the textures, the sound of the grass swishing... It was so inspiring also to dance with the beauty of the grey clouds interspersed with the light from the setting sun. In my sessions with Momo she has taught that the senses are gateways to presence and opportunities to be able to dance from there... allowing the dance to arise spontaneously from the senses...

At one point, a man in a pick up truck with a barking dog in the back drove by. This unexpected 'intrusion' into my dance space made me feel self-conscious, but he gave me a friendly wave as he drove by (you can see me waving back :~)

This dance practice tonight felt very much like a joyful frolic soul connection with the beauty of the surrounding environment....

Thank you for viewing / reading this blog. I hope it may inspire you in some way - perhaps to find a break in your life to drop into presence, your body and dance and frolic from there,

Lee

If you double-click the photo below you will be able to view the film without it being cut off on the right side :~)

Music: Beethoven

View my inspiring butoh mentor's blog here: Maureen 'Momo' Freehill