Tag Archives: Creativity

AWAKENING TO THE HEALING DANCE: Feel the Love, Part 2

Posted on May 2, 2012 | Leave a comment

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” William Shakespeare

Where do you find love in your life? Is your only source other people or do you look beyond and find it reflected elsewhere?

We all need to experience love. In every spiritual journey, love is the key element. We learn about it through many experiences; sometimes in secondary experiences through which others have expressed their love.

Art Touches the Heart and Soul

A few weeks ago, as I walked through the entrance of an amazing garden, Wamboldtopia, I felt transported into another dimension, one which brought the ancient spiritual energy of the past into the present. The energy of this place touched me because of the natural beauty, especially the bright red and iridescent lavender of blooming azaleas and the lush green of many kinds of plants. But this garden was created by a wonderful artist, Damaris Pierce, to create a natural home for much of her art work. As I wondered down the paths, I found elfish houses, graceful sculptured women, and the face of a Green Man, and through these, Damaris’ spirit and love of nature touched me.

Only a love deeply connected to nature would create this energy. But that is what an artist does—connect with that inner source of spirituality, even if they don’t call it that. That is why we feel uplifted after walking in the natural beauty of nature or through an art gallery where the art reveals the depth of artists’ souls. When the two are combined, we cannot help but feel the love of Spirit visiting us through those creations.

Through Nature’s Creatures We Receive Love

Other encounters with nature can also activate our own loving source and bring it to the surface. As I ate lunch today with the back door open to my deck, an older Siamese cat approached. I had seen her in the neighborhood before and attempted to pet her, but she ran. This time, I talked to her through the door with warm words. Slowly I moved onto the deck, and she began to give me those double messages cats love to give: you can pet me, no you can’t. I sat on the steps and waited. She moved closer and allowed me to pet her, then suddenly she jumped into my lap and started rubbing me with her head. For a few moments, we were lovingly connected.

I am so grateful when I can connect with the creative energy of the Universe, for it is the very source of life. We are all products of nature, all “kin,” as Shakespeare reminds us. When I hear the birds in the morning, I am reminded how glad I am to be alive. I am filled with laughter when the local turkey gobbler performs his dance for me. I am inspired and irritated sometimes by the community of crows that negotiate in the trees outside my writing room. Each is a part of life that reminds me I am part of the dance of life.

We Are All A Part of Love

It is this reminder that we are a part of nature too that can be a powerful healer lifting us out of depression or disappointment or loss, reminding us that we are more than just this life on this planet. That is why it is so important that we make time to connect each day with that loving, healing, positive energy. We are part of the Spirit that creates all life and that love will never deserts us.

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BODY AND SOUL AS ONE

Posted on June 2, 2011 | 1 comment

The Body As Container For The Soul

One of the problems I’ve often had with traditional religion is the way it describes the body as a lesser part of our being. The body is, after all, the container for our soul. If we didn’t need it in some cosmic sense, we wouldn’t have it. At this stage in our spiritual journey, we are experiencing a physical life because we need to learn lessons we can only learn by being in a physical body.

If we embrace the idea of wholeness or oneness, then we have to acknowledge that all parts of ourselves are sacred. Living in a body offers us infinite opportunities to learn. As a child, I had many illnesses including one that left me with a heart murmur which I out grew by the time I was twelve. I missed those early carefree years of life that others remember with joy. What I remember is lying in bed alone reading and designing paper doll dresses, feeling weak and shy and inadequate when we played softball at school and never learning to ride a bicycle. I remember having a friend or two but never feeling part of a group because so many group activities were too strenuous.

Awakening The Body And Soul

As a result of this childhood experience, I developed two interests: good health and creativity which I later developed through dance and writing. Staying healthy became a priority in my life. As a young adult I began to search for the answers that would allow me to become stronger and stay in good health. My love of dance was not just about expressing myself creatively. It was about building muscles on my skinny frame to become strong. It was also about the mind/body connection. Having rejected traditional religion by this time, I found that dancing brought me joy and touched my spirit. At times, dancing was transcendent, my body seemed to fall away and I was all spirit.

Each physical challenge has been a teacher. Around 1976, I studied with an amazing dancer, Erick Hawkins during a summer dance program at American University. Having studied Eastern philosophy and anatomy and kinesiology, he had created a modern dance technique that trained the body gently, working with the pelvis as the center of the body, and teaching us to respect our own bodies.

But that summer, I was in distress, and despite Hawkins’ peaceful way, I made a decision I would regret. I injured one foot simply walking across campus, adding more pain to the tendinitis slowly healing in the other foot. I was in a dance company and had a performance coming up. We were short on dancers; I couldn’t disappoint the director. So, I demanded that my doctor give me cortisone shots which he did going against his own better judgment.

When I danced, my feet were numb; I couldn’t feel the floor, but somehow I got through the performance. Afterwards, as I rested and healed over several weeks, I realized I had committed a terrible act of aggression against myself. I’d somehow crossed a line I’d never crossed before and was willing to abuse myself in order not to disappoint others. This was clearly a signal that something was very wrong with my thinking. I realized at that moment that I couldn’t stop thinking about the reverence with which Hawkins treated the body even in training. As I thought about Hawkins and the reverence he had taught us to have for our own bodies, I realized he had been my spiritual teacher that summer.

Loving Ourselves With Good Health

This experience made me realize that I needed to learn to love myself. I had created unnecessary suffering and my soul ached. Dance taught me about one aspect of taking care of my body, but other experiences taught me about a healthy diet. When I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I found a doctor of integrated medicine who taught me how to use food and supplements to heal. What I learned from him has continued to serve me well over the years to support my immune system, keep my blood sugar level, and sustain a level of energy that creates a feeling of well-being.

It is difficult to enjoy life when we don’t feel well, and while it is important to take care of our minds and soul, taking care of the body is sacred work too. To deny the body’s needs is just as detrimental to our well-being as ignoring our spiritual or emotional needs. Although I am middle aged, I’m actually healthier than I’ve ever been, and I believe that is because, in addition to taking care of my spiritual life, I have cared for my body, this precious container for my precious soul.

Do you want life to be a dance or a drag?

We have a choice and it’s an important one. Caring for our bodies makes it possible to do things that feed the soul like walking in the forest, dancing until dawn or jogging through the early morning air with your daughter. What are you willing to do to make your body and soul one?

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Posted in Inspirational Posts

Tagged Body, Creativity, Dance, Self-awareness, Soul, Spiritual Awakening, Spiritual Health, Wholeness

WORDS ARE MY DNA

Posted on April 6, 2011 | 3 comments

Where does the intoxication of spring lead you?

When grape hyacinths and red tulips spring up in my front yard, I get an urge to create something new in my life. Like many people, I’ve never created children or a vegetable garden. Words are the DNA of my creations, and whatever form they take is a new creature. When I wonder about what I have to pass on to the next generation, I think it is simply this: the word beings I create through time.

Like the flowers in the yard that scatter their seeds so that new flowers will grow next year, I scatter thoughts, ideas and stories into the wind, hoping they light on fertile minds and light a fire or provide comfort. Growing up, there was one thing I loved as much as Nature – books. Before I could read, my mother had to lock my books away in the dining room bureau drawer to force me to go outside and play.

I can’t imagine what kind of life I would have had without knowing Faulkner, Dostoyevsky, Keats, Dylan Thomas, Margaret Atwood, Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf or Alice Walker. Books exposed me to cultures and ideas that I would never have encountered in my environment. My mother taught me to love books, and with books in my life, I have never been bored.

So, as warmer spring days descend on us and the fragrance of fresh cut grass fills the air, I always come down with spring fever. I have trouble focusing on any work and stand in the yard feeling the breeze blow through my hair forgetting what I came out there to do. The activity of my mind slows down as I take the time to watch the squirrels spiral up the tree trunk and the crows congregate for a communal discussion.

I’ve come to understand that spring fever is the mental equivalent of cleaning out the closet. It forces me to slow down and clear the mental space so that there is room for a new revelation or this year’s spring poem to come through. I wait patiently for the bud of the idea to appear and when it opens, spilling its beauty onto my paper, I birth a new creation.

I am always saddened when I meet people who believe they are not creative. The Creator lives in each of us. How can we not be creative? It’s in our DNA. When we allow ourselves to think outside “the box” or learn something new, we are exploring our creativity. When my electrician finds a way to rewire my ancient lighting fixtures although the parts he needs can no longer be bought, that’s creative. When I have to substitute rice flour for wheat flour in a recipe, and I still end up with an edible cake, that’s creative. Creativity is about living, not just about art and poems.

What creative urge is pulling at you? Rebirth yourself this spring and feed your creativity and spirit. There is always something new to be created.