seven seven eleven moon

"Heart is like the moon. Don't keep sorrows in it. Cast them off in waters deep." Rumi

After spending a few days alone in my childhood home one month to the day after my Dad passed (7/7/11), I could feel his presence as I left. Unexpectedly, the motion detector lights at the far end of the house turned on mysteriously as I was packing up my car. I was reminded of the ritual Dad and I had of him standing at the door, waiting and waving as I backed out of the long driveway after visiting with him.

Missing him, tears began to flow and I felt inspired to dance my grief, so I threw on a sweater and hat that belonged to him, and just as I set up the camera, a thundercloud overhead began to send rain to the earth - the hugest drops I have seen in a awhile, feeling like they were my tears, washing my spirit's grief...

Driving home, I was inspired to pull off the highway onto a deserted country road to take a photo of the moon, which suddenly appeared through a crack in the clouds. As I pulled to the side of the road, a white barn owl flew across the moon's light and onto a nearby barn roof. Once again I felt insipred to dance, feeling my Dad's presence in the infinite night sky, reminded of the connection I felt with the moon and his passing...

Right after Dad passed in the hospice a visitor in the lobby began to play Debussy's 'Clair de Lune,' a song that I remembered hearing waft through our home as a child. Hearing the song so soon after he passed, felt like Dad was being serenaded into the spirit realm with the sounds of the moonlight...

Connecting to my Dad, the moon, the owl, the cosmos and the mystery...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpLQUO9fsJM

Music: Clair de Lune

Thank you for viewing my blog posts of grieving. I hope they may inspire in some way to embrace and embody your own grief, when the time arises, in a way that is nourishing for your being -- body, mind and spirit.

Lee

Visit our collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Company

consciousness stream

...dancing with MomoButoh Dance Company 11 /11 /10

Photo: Susan Elizabeth Cowperthwaite

'stream of consciousness' installation

Momo and I... 11/11/10

Spontaneous dance exploration of connecting to the infinite cosmos / consciousness in the finite - in urban North Vancouver with Katherine Kerr's stream / bridge / installation... feeling connection to the life cycles of the salmon... and nostalgia and excitement for Momobutoh's upcoming 11/11/11 dance dedicated to the wellness of the salmon at Oyster Creek... and throughout the Pacific Rim....

Momo and I... 11/11/10 Oyster Creek

Momobutoh Company at Oyster Creek 11/11/10

i dream of salmon coho crisis sockeye collapse bear scat food web tear i marvel again rest its time now nowhere deep...

Thank you for viewing this dance blog of exploring inner and outer environments of my soul... I hope you may feel inspired in some way to dance your own dance, to express from the soul in whatever way may resonate with your being...

Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg9E_JZ0RfA

Music: Mountain Man

Visit our collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Company

butterfly metamorphosis

During the weeks of my Dad's passing there were so many images of metamorphosis that kept appearing, including the card that was placed on his door by the hospice staff right after he passed - two butterflies in flight.

So many times I reflected on how in life we have to surrender to the natural cycles of life, no matter how desperately we may may want things to be a certain way... life, and death, unfolds in a way that ultimately, we have no control over.

Since then, I have been wanting to honor his passing with a dance of metamorphosis... of honoring his transition from this realm into the realm of spirit... and the courage required to enter through the doorway into the greatest mystery of all...

After creating this dance, I found this poem from Mary Oliver, and once again, as she often does, felt so moved by her sentiments... providing such inspiration for my imagination and nourishment for my soul...

One or Two Things ~ Mary Oliver

1

Don’t bother me.

I’ve just

been born.

2

The butterfly’s loping flight

carries it through the country of the leaves

delicately, and well enough to get it

where it wants to go, wherever that is, stopping

here and there to fuzzle the damp throats

of flowers and the black mud; up

and down it swings, frenzied and aimless, and sometimes

for long delicious moments it is perfectly

lazy, riding motionless in the breeze on the soft stalk

of some ordinary flower.

3

The god of dirt

came up to me many times and said

so many wise and delectable things, I lay

on the grass listening

to his dog voice,

crow voice,

frog voice, now,

he said, and now,

and never once mentioned forever,

4

which has nevertheless always been,

like a sharp iron hoof,

at the center of my mind.

5

One or two things are all you need

to travel over the blue pond, over the deep

roughage of the trees and through the stiff

flowers of lightening—some deep

memory of pleasure, some cutting

knowledge of pain.

6

But to lift the hoof!

For that you need

an idea.

7

For years and years I struggled

just to love my life. And then

the butterfly

rose, weightless, in the wind.

“Don’t love your life

too much,” it said,

and vanished

into the world.

Mary Oliver

Feeling grateful for this practice of dance / embodiment as taught by my mentor, Momo. Thank you for viewing my blog. I hope this dance of metamorphosis may inspire you in some way...

Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggn-rJIdJjY

Music: Stefano Bataglia

Photos of dance by Brooke / photos of nature and edits by me :~)

View our collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Company