….Honest friends are doorways to our souls, and loving friends are the grasses that soften the world. It is no mistake that the German root of the word friendship means “place of high safety.” And as Sant Martin said, “My friends are the beings through whom God loves me.”
There can be no greater or simpler ambition than to be a friend.
Meditation:
Center yourself and open your heart to the unnamable place of high safety.
After a time, look around in your heart and see who is there.
Breathe gently and give thanks for the true friends you have.
White dress…Katherine Butler 2019 IN BUNDLED POSTURES – performance w NEWDANCEALLIANCE My website…Www.barbaramahler.netAlvina calls this “Levitating”Green Dress Series: Summer 2020 QueensboroDanceFestival VIRTUAL EVENT
The working title of this solo is “This is how it happened “Music: Bartok, Sonata for solo violin 117 Meladia ( adagio)This solo dance reaches to make a movement collage of some of my hard to talk about experiences of this pandemic journey. It grazes only the surface.Grateful for this platform. Living and creating on Canarsie ,Munsee Lenape, and Matincock Land.
Thank You Barbara for sharing …. Your amazing and beautiful work!
While WaitingThis solo was created in the pandemic- and we worked with all limitations which included lack of space, distance between us, time, more. We utilized the stool and taped outdoors in the middle of day to day living as the weather permitted. Making use of what life and the situation has given us was the reason we were not on the river. Dancer- Jamie Graham
New York Times Bestseller Poet and Philosopher Mark Nepo in his book The Book of Awakening writes in his June 24th entry:
“When was the last time you danced?” — Question put to the sick by a Native American Medicine Man
The beginning of dance i s giving gesture to what we feel. While this is very obvious to most children, it remains very difficult for those of us schooled to live in our heads.
The ongoing effort to dance, to give gesture to what we feel and experience, is ultimately healing because, as riverbeds are continually shaped by the water that moves through them, living beings are continually shaped by the water that moves through them. If there is no water moving through, the riverbed dries up and crumbles. Likewise, if there is no feeling moving through the body, the being at the center of that body will crumble.
More often, though, there is too much to give gesture to, and we fail to move these feelings through our bodies. In truth, much of our inner sickness comes from the buildup and pressure of all that is kept in. The ongoing act of releasing that inner buildup is what spiritual practices call embodiment. { I, Alvina, am reminded of WAH!’s Self-Care Program where she continually blows out her breath through her mouth releasing what is no longer needed or over flowing through her. She is fantastic…and has regular LIVE programs weekly on Facebook or Instagram I highly recommend}
There are many ancient practices intended to help us live more fully in our bodies, including the Chinese art of meditation movement known as t’ai chi and the Buddhist art of space awareness known as maitri, to name just two. Once unblocked, giving gesture to our inwardness not only frees us from being pressurized, but the gestures, once allowed out, teach us how to dance further into our own lives.
Still, most of us learn to feel, trap, and snuff our feelings in our hearts, and if they wont go away, we try to hush them with our minds. If they still persist, we often feel them throb in our temples or burn in our gut.
In contrast to the painful layering of heart, mind, and body, embodiment itself is nothing more or less than feeling the wound or lip you touch in your hand and mind and heart at once. Embodiment is allowing our heart, mind, and body to exist as one miraculous skin.
Suggested Activity:
Stand quietly and breathe slowly, feeling your breath move through your heart.
With each breath, let the feeling of being alive move further into your body.
First feel it move in and our of your heart, then in and our of your lungs.
Let the breath of being alive now move up and out your shoulders and hips, and let it extend you rarms in whatever gesture happens to come.
Repeat this process until the breath from heart to fingertip feels like one continuous gesture.
I, Alvina, highly recommend Barbara Mahler’s Dance work. Here is her website and she’s on Facebook too
Susan Falkenstein teaches Tai Chi twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays at 9:45…Highly Recommend. Contact her directly for Zoom link…sweetsusan62@gmail.com
Hector Munoz teaches Tai Chi in Naples FL at Love Yoga….Lots available…Enjoy!!!! Move!!!!! Love!!!!!!
There’s a powerful Native American Chant celebrating beauty. It is said or sang in circle of people around a Medicine Wheel or Dance of Universal Peace. It goes like this:
I walk with beauty all around me, as I walk the beauty way.
I walk with beauty before me,
I walk with beauty behind me,
I walk with beauty above me,
I walk with beauty below me,
I walk with beauty all around me, as I walk the beauty way.
My thoughts will all be beautiful, HO!,
My words will all be beautiful, HO!
My actions will all be beautiful, HO!
As I walk my life the beauty way.
It comes from Navajo Blessing and here is a link to that information. https://talking-feather.com/home/walk-in-beauty-prayer-from-navajo-blessing/
Here is a link to a You Tube Video of it done by Dances of Universal Peace folks. Enjoy!!!
