rain in the green womb

Wild Geese

You do not have to be good.

You do not have to walk on your knees

for a hundred miles through the desert, repenting.

You only have to let the soft animal of your body

love what it loves.

Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.

Meanwhile the world goes on.

Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain

are moving across the landscapes,

over the prairies and the deep trees,

the mountains and the rivers.

Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting--

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things.

Mary Oliver

Today was one of THOSE days where I felt sad for no particular reason and it seemed very appropriate to me that it was raining externally as it felt like it was raining on the inside, too.

After my dance practice, I was going to be leaving in the early evening to head north to my homeland where I would be taking care of my dad and spending time with my sister who recently had a hysterectomy (with her womb AND ovaries removed after finding cancer cells in her fallopian tube). I felt inspired to practice in this circular field in the woods which felt very much to me like being inside a green womb. But, unlike the feeling of freedom of movement one experiences prenatally in the watery realm of the womb as Kazuo Ohno, Momo's sensei, has written about in his book "Kazuo Ohno's World - Within and Without," I felt like all I could do was move just a little and then collapse in the grass with the rain falling on my being.

I wish the film captured the highlight of the dance for me which was looking into the circular framed sky overhead to see a flock of geese in a undulating v-formation heading north...

I immediately thought of Mary Oliver's poem above - to let the soft animal of my body love what it loves - even if it means flopping onto the earth. I also loved imagining the wild geese, the wildness, calling out my place in the family of things... this brought me much comfort on the grass in the rain connecting to Mama Earth, the womb around me and the womb within me - my true home...

Later, the highlight of my 3 hour drive was seeing above me through the moon-roof of my car ANOTHER very large flock of geese flying north, flying home...

I love how there can be so much synchronicity in nature... when we stop to pay attention and listen...

Thank you for reading and viewing (and your touching comments that I have recently received),

Lee

Music: Philip Glass

Filmed by Grass

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