Tag Archives: Dance

DANCING TO THE MYSTERY OF LIFE

Posted on March 28, 2012 | 2 comments

“Dance is the essence of mystery.  Through dance we experience a dimension that the linear mind is not structured to perceive.  It may have been dance that enabled us to first conceive of experiences beyond our immediate physical experience, thereby creating the concept of spirituality, of ‘God.’” -Iris Stewart

Does the mystery of nature feed your spiritual life? Do you take the time to really experience the changing of the seasons?  What makes you come more alive when winter moves to spring?

Dancing With the Mysteries of Spring

The first blossom that appears in my yard is the Grape Hyacinth.  Clearly, no one planted them here because they are strewn all over the lawn just like the violets that appear about the same time.  It’s a mystery how their seeds got here—just one of the many mysteries that arrive with spring.

Yesterday, walking through the botanical gardens in the sunshine with a friend, I was so perfectly at peace in a joyful way, observing the many flowers that were blooming way ahead of schedule. Once again, nature has caught us off-guard, dancing in a delightful way.

It is this dance of energy that connects us all to joy.  No matter what is happening in our lives, no matter how challenging they are, it is important to take the time to dance this dance of life.  Open the windows and dance to the breeze.  Dance to the bird song in early morning.  Dance through a field of flowers or down a forest path.  Dance with your dog in the park and let it dance with the other dogs, which it is sure to do.  Allow yourself to feel that connection with the creativity of life.

Exploring the Mysteries

When I was a child growing up in Arkansas, my family hiked in the woods and mountains where we often came across caves.  Questions and images flooded my mind.  Did anyone ever live there? Who had been sheltered from rain there?  Who built a fire there?  What animals roamed through the cave or used it for shelter?

We also visited larger commercial caves with multiple rooms and water dripping from huge stalactites.  I had difficulty paying attention to the guides because I imagined myself exploring the cave for the first time, I envisioned ancient people dancing there, their silhouettes reflected upon the walls by the fire around which they danced.  I was hypnotized by the mystery of it all, and out of that mystery, I developed a curiosity to learn more and considered becoming an archeologist.

Awakening to the Mystery in the Dance

Many people are afraid of experiencing something that is different from what they are used to, but the unknown, the mysteries of life are there to lure us away from our complacency, to give us that nudge to answer the questions that arise in our lives.  Mysteries take us deeper to places we might never discover otherwise.  Had I never taken dance classes, I might never have come to understand the mind/body connection that stimulated my interest in further exploring psychology and spirituality.  Had I not pursued answers to questions that arose along this path, I might still see myself as a victim of my emotions and fear.  Instead, I explored the mysteries of the mind and found techniques that changed my life and empowered me.

If we dance with the mysteries of life, will we find all the answers?  Probably not.  But we will find the one answer that matters the most—the connection with Spirit—because it is the essence of all life and the greatest of the mysteries.  It is the energy of flowers blooming, caves forming, and people connecting.  When I look into the beautifully complicated center of a Columbine, I always ask, “Who thought of this design?”  This is like asking, “Why do people have five fingers, not six?” although some scientist probably knows that answer.

Live the Questions Now

One of my favorite books is Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters To A Young Poet.  Some of his advice is valuable for us at all ages, especially when we are frustrated by not finding answers.  “…be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue.…the point is to live everything.  Live the questions now.  Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”  Or, as I would say, dance the questions.

What mysteries are you dancing with today?

© 2012 Georganne Spruce

Related Articles:  Being in Your Flow ~ There’s an App for That, Synchronicity, Living in the Flow, The Art of Uncertainty: How to Live in the Mystery of Life and Love It (click on the book cover and read the first couple of chapters)

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DANCING WITH SPIRIT IN A NEW WORLD, Part 1

Posted on October 6, 2011 | 1 comment

Taiowa is the breath, humankind is the mouthpiece

to carry the sounds of creation to the far reaches of eternity.

The people are the building material,

bringing on their wings the lessons of time.

 Timelessness, selflessness, oneness are

the rhythms of the song the ancestors knew well.

 The preceding excerpt from Powamu: The Last Myth of Creation is on a poster I bought at Chaco Canyon in 2001.  This song is in Meditations with the Hopi.  Chaco Canyon was the center of the great Anasazi culture in New Mexico.

The words of this ancient song speak to me deeply today as they did on that day so many years ago as I watched the first light of day shine through an opening into the Great Kiva and strike the wall beyond as it had for centuries.  A great civilization lived in that place.  As I think about it today, I am struck by how the time in which we live is significant in relation to the future of mankind.  As a result, I will take each stanza of the song as the theme for my blog post this week and for the next two weeks, exploring how the ancient wisdom relates to us now.

What Changes Will We Make in the World

We are experiencing huge changes in physical and spiritual world.  We are in a process of ascension, a change in individual and world consciousness.  We are approaching the end of the Mayan Calendar, another signal that we are moving into a new paradigm. So who will we be in this time and what do we wish to contribute to our new world?

We are the mouthpiece through which the holy speaks.  We are the individual expression of Spirit.  When what we create comes from Spirit, we become who we really are:  beings of Love and Light.  Although we are but a moment in time, our voice travels through all eternity.  When we are gone and our civilization is only miles of ruins, what will the scholars have to say about who we were?

What sounds will we choose to carry to the far reaches of eternity?  Will they be the sounds of falling buildings, the explosions of weapons, the cries of the dying?  Will we carry our obsession with self-destruction into eternity?  Or will we choose to carry the sounds of peace?  To choose silence over noise so that we can hear the sound of the bird’s flight and the fish slipping quietly through the waters?  Will we choose competition or cooperation? When will we begin to listen to the holy within ourselves, to hear our own heartbeat and follow its guidance?

The Dance of Our New Life

The time is now to decide how we will dance in this new life.  Ancient peoples danced for every celebration, for it put them in touch with the eternal spirit in themselves.  To dance in this life is sometimes as simple as listening to the sound of the birds and sharing the laughter of a friend.  It is often about awakening to the choice to see what is positive in an experience and focusing on that.  It is about dancing as a community where we care for others and they care for us. This is the energy we need to take into our new world, spreading the joy and hope wherever we go, committing ourselves to creating new structures that equally meet the needs of all people, and caring responsibly for the resources we have.

Being the Mouthpiece of Spirit

We are the mouthpiece of Spirit, and our words and choices carry the sounds of our creation into the far reaches of the future.  Despite the chaos around us, we have the power to reinvent our lives, our cities, and our relationships.  Let us choose wisely and lovingly as we create this new world.  It is time to create an opening for the Light to come through and venture into a transforming way of life.  Join the dance as we move into this higher consciousness.

What is your vision of a new world?  How are you helping to create it?

© 2011 Georganne Spruce

Related Articles: The Quickening (2012), Nearing 2012 of Spiritual Emergence Teachings: Krishnamurti, Gandhi, and Eckhart Tolle

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PRACTICING THE SPIRITUAL DANCE – BALANCING

Posted on July 13, 2011 | Leave a comment

“We learn by practice.  Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same.  One becomes in some area an athlete of God.”  Martha Graham

Awakening To Balance the Mind And Body

Finding balance was one of the great gifts I received from studying modern dance for many years.  Imagine, balancing on the toes of one foot, your spine stretching to its full length, your energy flowing from your pelvis, reaching down into the earth and upward to the sky, a perfectly balanced tension. 

Surry Celebration Team Dance, Flickr.com

To find balance requires strength, practicing pliés (knee bends) and relevés(balancing on the ball of the foot) daily for years until one day, it is easy and one rises miraculously into a moment of perfect balance.

I learned early that in order to perform a movement well, my mind and body had to work together.  This was long before I learned to meditate, so I didn’t’ have the advantage of knowing how to center my mind.  At first, when I tried to balance, I concentrated on contracting the right muscles in order to balance on my toes or one foot.  Then one day, I heard a teacher say, “Stretch, stretch your spine, stretch toward the ceiling, stretch out of the floor.”  I got it – balance was about expansion, not contraction.

We Need A Strong Spiritual Core For Life

Balancing requires stretching and strengthening.  In traditional modern dance, all movement is motivated from the center of the body, the pelvis.  Dancers need a strong core or else we find ourselves foundering, too weak to control leg and arm movement or unable to control our movement as we move out into space.  The same is true in life.  We need a strong, core spiritual belief that guides us.  We may believe that we are all One or we live from a spirit of Love that connects us to others in a meaningful way.  Whatever this belief is, when it resides at the center of our lives, it comforts and guides our actions and choices, acting as the core that holds the rest of our lives together.

Balance Opens Us To Wisdom

We also need a balance between the mind, body, emotions and soul.  If we can see the world only in emotional or rational terms, we have a limited awareness and may not be able to see the whole picture in a situation.  As we stretch, we allow the mind to open, expand, and move into new space.  We consider the possibility that ideas we have previously rejected may have value.  We learn to listen to another’s truth considering the possibility we may learn from them.  We learn to corral the part of our unruly ego that wants to reject whatever is not known and comfortable.

With balance comes wisdom, for balance teaches us to sit in the midst of chaos and remain centered.  When we feel balanced, we may choose not to respond to conflict.  We may choose to take a few deep breaths rather than honk our horn at the slowly moving person in front of us in traffic.  We may be able to stop ourselves from rushing out the door to a meeting when our child needs us to sit and listen.  When we are balanced, we are more aware.  We are living in that perfect tension between earth and sky.  We are an “athlete of God.”

 View the first in this series on “Practicing the Spiritual Dance – Developing Strength.”  

© 2011 Georganne Spruce

Related Readings:

Is Balance Possible in This Lifetime

How to Find That Elusive Balance Between Work and Life

 

 

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PRACTICING THE SPIRITUAL DANCE – DEVELOPING STRENGTH

Posted on July 6, 2011 | 3 comments

“We learn by practice.  Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same.  One becomes in some area an athlete of God.”  Martha Graham

Dance As A Physical And Spiritual Practice

The practice of dance is one of the most rigorous and spiritual disciplines that exists.  Like all practices, the more one learns, the more expansive are the results.  Each step along the way yields riches of the physical and spiritual kind that not only strengthen one’s dance skills, but which enhance all aspects of life.  Beginning with this post, I want to use the practice of dance as an analogy to the practices that can enhance our lives spiritually.

From 1960 to the mid-1980’s, I trained, performed for four years, and taught modern dance.  Its gifts were abundant!  Dance taught me about inner and outer strength, how to balance and center my body and mind, and the value of flexibility.  Learning the value of daily dance practice and seeing that it could result in my accomplishing something I thought I couldn’t do taught me why it is so important not to give up when life becomes difficult.

Learning modern dance was enormously challenging for me.  As a child, stricken by rheumatic fever and a heart murmur at four years of age, I was not allowed normal physical exercise, nor was I able to study ballet, which was my dream.  Fortunately, I out grew the heart murmur and at sixteen, my high school offered a modern dance class which I quickly embraced.  It was tough for a weakling like me, but with time I developed muscles that gave me strength and some shape to my skinny body. This was the time of Marilyn Monroe and years before Twiggy’s shape became the ideal.

Choosing Physical and Spiritual Health

Without physical strength, we cannot enjoy the activity of life, but we also need inner strength.  A few years ago when I fell on the ice and sustained a broken elbow and two pelvic fractures, I went through months of physical therapy determined to return to my former state of activity.  What I found shocking was that, according to my physical therapist, most people stop doing their exercises as soon as they leave the rehab facility.  As a result, they never fully recover, choosing to remain disabled rather than be disciplined and committed to their healing.

Empowering Ourselves

With any injury or challenge, we need the inner strength to persevere and take responsibility for doing all we can do to overcome the challenge.  This is how we grow in confidence.  What dance taught me was that even when a new dance phrase was difficult and I struggled to perform it smoothly, if I kept going, it would eventually get easier, and one day it would flow effortlessly.  There is always some challenge in learning something new.  If we avoid everything that is difficult in life, we miss wonderful opportunities that, through our perseverance, will empower us. We all feel more confident when we have successfully overcome a daunting obstacle. 

Both inner and outer strength require practice in life as in dance.  By practicing, we develop experience, find new ways to solve problems, feel more confident, and grow in awareness.  We can’t learn to dance without dancing.  When we choose to develop strength, we are choosing to become an “athlete of God.”

 When have you been an “athlete of God” lately?  How do you practice?

 In 1960 Martha Graham, choreographed a dance called “Acrobats of God” in which she celebrated and made fun of dancers and choreographers.   Look here if you’d like to see a video.   

 © 2011 Georganne Spruce

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ART: A FEAST TO AWAKEN THE SOUL

Posted on June 15, 2011 | Leave a comment

Art is a shadow of what a person is thinking…a small glimpse of what they hold inside.  Little secrets, regrets, joys…every line has its own meaning. ~Sarah, Los Cerros Middle School, 1999

A Glimpse of Artist’s Visions

This past weekend I gorged on a feast for the soul, a series of the most tasty fine arts dishes that I’ve consumed in quite a while. The feast began on Thursday night with a unique event at the art museum, a PechaKucha Night where several artists each showed 20 slides of their work, making a 20 second comment on each piece.  These were the hors d’oeuvres.  Each was a small delicious sampling of the artistic vision of each artist, and like all art, each vision was a glimpse into the soul of the artist.

Art Awakens the Soul

That is why I love art: music, dance, visual art, literature and theatre.  I am uplifted by this soul connection and by seeing the interior of another human being expressed through art. Twyla Tharp, the wonderfully innovative choreographer, once said, “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home.”  We can leave our rational minds and the mundane aspects of our lives and attend the dance of life, exercising our mental, emotional, and spiritual selves in new ways. Art awakens us to a different point of view, one we might never have experienced had we not seen a particular piece of art.  Art may take us to a depth of knowing beyond words.

The main course of my feast each day was the arts walk in the River District, a buffet of sensory delight.  Overloaded by color, texture, and design, I could only embrace what was there. I let it seep through my pores and become a joyful energy that awakened me to the diversity and uniqueness of human expression.

Having looked at art all my life, I have long since giving up the need to attach meaning to what I see.  It is interesting to talk to artists about why they use a certain color or image, but often the artist doesn’t have a rational explanation.  Images for a sculpture or painting may arise in the artist’s mind mysteriously just as the ideas I receive for my writing are frequently surprising gifts from Spirit.

Going Deeper Unites

My soul was further awakened on Saturday evening, when I ended the day with a dessert even more satisfying than chocolate.  While I enjoy the intensity and brief pleasure of dark chocolate, the flavor of Anam Cara’s music has lasted for days.  Listening to Mary Davis’ soulful ballads, especially “Life Moves,” reminded me of the depth and width of human emotion taking me to deeper places within myself.  Listening to her sing of challenges in her own life reminded me we are all One and how our love for one another can heal so many wounds.

Dancing With the Divine

On Sunday evening, my feast of the soul ended with the Dances of Universal Peace based on a cycle of seasonal invocations to the Goddess.  Like strawberry shortcake, there were many divine layers to these dances.  We learned basic steps, then layered on symbolic gestures and ancient chants, each enriching the experience in some way.  As we danced, our individual energies created a community connection that carried us all along, blending with the chanting.  As I moved, there were moments when I was lost in the energy of the dance, imagining the goddess presence in our midst and being in touch with my own Divine Feminine and the source of my creativity.

Since the weekend, I have felt renewed in some deep way.  Spiritually sated by the wide range of sensory experiences spiced by innovation and originality, I feel grateful for the abundance of soul awakening experiences that stretched and opened my perceptions.  Today I feel like there is more of me to express and share and give.  I am more awakened to the dance of life.  That’s what art can do if we are willing to take it in.

How will you dance with the Divine and feed your soul this week? 

© 2011 Georganne Spruce

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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?

© 2011 Georganne Spruce

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DANCE THE TRANSFORMATION

Posted on March 24, 2011 | 1 comment

I know transformation is a good thing.  It may not always be easy, but it always leads to something better.  However, right now, I’d like to ask the Universe to slow it down a bit.  There’s the consciousness transformation, my technological transformation, my yard’s transformation (I really need to say some affirmations about this one), and the recent transformation of my washing machine which left a puddle of water in the floor after I used it.  At least if the dog leaves a puddle, you can talk to him about it.  My washing machine has nothing to say except, “Gurgle.”

What the washer didn’t tell me was that it wasn’t spewing water out of the little hole in the back as I thought, but that the drain was stopped up. The washing machine guy couldn’t fix it so I had to call a plumber.  Unlike cosmic transformations, at least this one will stop.  When the plumber arrives, he will fix the problem.  There will be a defined moment when the machine will be usable again today or tomorrow.  I hope.

 But in the midst of the unexpected shifts that occur in cosmic and personal transformation, it’s a good idea to remember that life is a dance – usually an improvisational one.  Sometimes we travel long paths that never seem to end.  Sometimes we travel short paths that constantly loop back upon themselves and trip us up.  We may dance solo or with a partner who smoothly waltzes around the dance floor or one who, like a tango dancer without a sense of rhythm, keeps tripping over our feet. 

 What we must remember is that with an improvisation there is no intention to set choreography.  As we improvise, we are in the flow, allowing an authentic movement to carry us spontaneously through space.  At first, there may be awkward moments while we search for a movement theme that entices us to keep moving.  Then, mysteriously, we make one beautiful movement that leads so perfectly to another, and we are joyously engaged with the dance.

 I’m not opposed to planning life or dances; in fact, I accomplish much more when I plan and organize, but transformation is an improvisation I want to leave room for in my life.  No matter how stressful change can be, stagnation is not life.  Snoopy had it right.  “To live is to dance. To dance is to live.”       

So when the washer breaks down on the day our blogs or major work are due, or the dog pees on the new carpet five minutes before company arrives, remember it’s all part of the dance.  It may not be our favorite part, but who knows, after we take the deep breath we desperately need, our next step may be the beginning of a beautiful theme.  Or we may suddenly find puddles amusing. 

 What transformation are you experiencing? Please share your comments.

© 2011 Georganne Spruce

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FINDING THE FIRE

Posted on February 24, 2011 | 1 comment

“I must find my way back to the central fire to be warmed.  I must find the Source, if I am to be supplied.”  Science of Mind, Ernest Holmes

A few years ago, I was reminiscing with a friend about my years performing and teaching modern dance and how much I loved what I was doing then.  It was impossible for me to talk about it without becoming very animated.  She commented that I obviously had a passion for what I did and added that she had never felt a passion for doing anything.  She had tried a few things but none of them really caught fire.

At the time I was dancing, I always felt inspired, invigorated, alive in the most complete sense.  I began to notice that dancing felt better than going to church ever had; it felt holy.  Where did my ideas for dances come from?  Of course, I consciously created some of the movement through thought or was inspired to move in a certain way by the music, but sometimes the most amazing ideas appeared like magic.  Was God helping me choreograph?  After all, ancient Greek theatre had been a celebration and worship honoring Dionysus, the god of wine and inspiration.  When I danced or choreographed, I felt connected to the Divine as if the altar candle had been lit inside me.  When I created, I burned with a joy and a hunger.  I dared to go places I had never dared to go before.

Doing any creative activity takes one to the edge of the unknown, even if the creation is a business or product.  Only the risk-takers go there.  Perhaps that’s why my friend had never found her passion.  She preferred the safe and secure paths. 

One year I was choreographing a concert and wanted to include a jazz piece.  I didn’t usually choreograph jazz and after creating a couple of minutes of movement, I had to admit the work was uninspired and boring.  I kept trying to think of a more entertaining concept that I could wrap around the dance.  Fortunately, by this time in my career, I had learned to be patient.  I trusted that something would show up. 

One night, about two weeks into rehearsals for the concert, I woke up laughing, knocked over the glass of water on the nightstand with my flailing arms, and like a movie, the dream I had just experienced flashed before me.  A group of vagabond actors were wondering across the countryside (rolling hills) laughing, singing and entertaining anyone they encountered, each trying to upstage the other with their comic antics.  The leader of the group was called Dr. Pepper.   So the dance became “Dr. Pepper and His Traveling Companions,” a fun piece with each of the dancers vying for the spotlight in comic ways.  Spirit has a sense of humor just as we do.

Allowing oneself to be a channel through which the Divine can express is what all artists and other creative people do whether we realize it or not.  Through this creativity, we find the way back to “the central fire to be warmed.”  As a result Source supplies our needs with ideas, insights and occasionally a supportive patron or free use of a studio.

I have a friend who loves to hunt and learn about mushrooms.  I love to eat them, but I’m probably not ever going to read about or hunt them.  I do like finding the really colorful, unusual ones on my walks through the forest and spending a moment examining them, but my friend has a real passion for them.  I really like the fact that she has a passion for something and that’s part of what draws us together as friends.  We are both people who allow ourselves to be passionate.

One way to find your way to the “central fire,” to Source, Spirit, God is to find your passion.  When you follow what you truly love, Source is always there.  Most of us have forgotten before childhood is over, what warmed us when we were too young to make judgments about it or see it as impractical, before a parent said, “What are you doing that silly thing for?” or “You don’t really want to do that, you just think you do.”  If you can remember what gave you joy before then, that will be your first clue.  I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want to dance.  Paul Taylor, the famous modern dancer once said when asked why he danced, “Because I have to.”

The greatest tragedy for those who are taught young not to feel or express their passion is that this cuts them off from Source.   How can you find “the central fire” if you can’t find the fire within; they are the same.

What is your passion? Continue reading →

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