flying into moonlight… 10/12/13

Last night I was lifted ever so slowly from a dream sound-tracked by rhythmic flutter. I rose to a large butterfly, burnt toast in color, beating her frustration against the window-pane by the bed. A few tries, then finally, cradled in the gentle glow of a white t-shirt I had danced in all day, I carried her outside. Released her to the night speckled sky, the almost full moon calling her back home. Paused in wonder on the deck and then fell back into dreamland once more.

In Maui the sun rises and there is only the sound of bird call. After three days of dancing in the presence of unadorned nature, I feel clear and soft and more like a butterfly moving moonward than one trapped against window glass. Everyday there is this persistent and gentle call to presence from Vinn Marti, a master teacher offering up invitations to melt, to weight shift, to breathe, to explore space, to look out and see something. The dance is doing me again: so simple, so familiar, so effective.

Vinn holds a Soul Motion dance space, somewhat different than a 5Rhythms space, and yet totally familiar. In the last few months I have been in the presence of several comparative discussions. These tire me, bore me quite frankly. Especially when the words are tinged with an aura of defense or projection or identification. Any tone that smacks of these painful triplets automatically pulls me into search of higher common ground. And it is usually just a breath or two away. It’s why I love the name of this gathering: One Tribe. A self justifying search for division, for boundary clarification, for separation at the expense of unity… well, this is where trouble roots, whether it be in a relationship or the political/religious realm.

And really, in dance? Let’s get real. We come together to practice waking up. The ingredients are always the same: a floor, some fellow travelers, some music, a guide to remind us about breath and body and being. I am so grateful to be here in space held by someone masterful in creation. It sheds incredible light on who I am and how I operate out there. It gives me all kinds of ideas on subtle ways to offer up my own yoga and dance forms. I wouldn’t care if Vinn was a three-headed alien from some other planet. I just cannot imagine a situation I cannot learn from. Pretentious complaints about the music not being right or the instructions being too much or not enough are just fingers pointing right back to us. When did we get so picky about things needing to be a certain way before being willing to open and express and let go, take in what is offered, appreciate and consider shifting off our precious little center?

I am still in bed, my breath, my heartbeat, the persistent echo of those wing beats still alive inside. It doesn’t take much to gently scoop ourselves up from the righteous window pane of our own small world. Set ourselves free from this all-consuming need for the world to fit to our personal specs. Build ourselves up by tearing something else down. We know this: take a breath. Let it go completely. No, there is still some left. Let it go completely. Feel this empty gap. This is the taste of relief, this is the welcome call back home, this is how we fly together… into the moonlight.

See the sidebar because all classes continue in my absence: Juliette on Thursday, Jeanne on Friday and Jennifer on Sunday. Thank you to these beautiful souls who skillfully hold the space at Coloma and It’s All Yoga with their own special form of magic. Go, experience, be gifted. And all these miles away I am still enrolling you for All My Relations… another masterful space-holder coming our way. We are truly blessed.

Time to rise and dance again… love, bella