story worthy…8-17-20

On Mother’s Day this year, my astute and thoughtful daughter gifted me with StoryWorth, an ingenious writing program  encouraging family elders to tell the stories that comprise a life.  Each week I get a new prompt.  After 52 weeks StoryWorth binds the responses into a book.  Last week it was “How and when did you decide to have children?”  A few weeks before it was “Are you more like your father or your mother? In what ways?”
 
This mother/father inquiry was deep and long.  Offering a bit of an excerpt here because what emerged from this inquiry helped nudge me toward a process I have been steeped in these last few weeks.
 
“From my papa I received a fiery drive and the ambition to be successful. He modeled it 100%. It took him a decade while working full time to graduate with his engineering degree from UCLA. I remember sitting on the curb in the dark waiting for him to come home. He was gone so much of the time. Then he went on to USC, earning a masters in ocean engineering. Measured in time-devoted, his profession was more important to him than anything else. I have that tendency and have to pro-actively seek balance….

From my papa I am blessed with insatiable curiosity. It knows no bounds. The littlest things can intrigue the hell out of me and create desire to know more deeply. I think his drive was nourished by curiosity. His many re-starts and do-overs taught me that it is possible to start over, be interested in something new and follow it, change directions, turn on a dime, be spontaneous, trust your gut, go for it….

From my papa I not only learned how to teach but he gave me the leg up to become masterful at it. So many memories of him lying on the couch with one of my math or chemistry textbooks, patiently guiding me toward understanding. He just knew how to logically sequence any subject so that learning just happened…..”
 
The way our relationship healed over time, to be present with him as he passed in March, to receive a modest financial inheritance…to remember his qualities of curiosity, professional ambition and natural teaching ability…all of this led me to seize this strange moment to (once again) re-do the website.  It is five years old.  It amazes me to look at it, realize how much has changed—in me and the world—and feel the way what I do is not clearly defined by it any longer. 
 
And what do I do? Reality is one thing.  Articulating it is another.  Slowly the fullness of this picture has been emerging.  For twenty years I’ve been offering service rooted in  this sacred triangle:  you can meet me on the dance floor, on the mat or one-on-one.  And now it can also be virtual.  It does not matter where we meet…the journey is always moving in the same direction.  Aware.  Awake.  Alive.  Presence happens with practice. 
 
I offer transformative movement sessions that guide you on this path to presence.  A journey that always begins with your body.  You learn to listen to its language: breath and sensation.  This attention delivers you to your authentic emotions and thoughts.  With the support of moving meditation sessions, alignment of body, heart and mind come naturally.   And as this alignment unfolds, a portal to soul and spirit opens for each of us.   Soul?  Our unique purpose for being on this planet in this lifetime.  Soul speaks to why we are here, what we are meant to do in this precious lifetime.  Spirit?  Our connection with something way more vast than soul.  The power, the life force that connects and unifies us all. 
 
Our world is changing so rapidly.  A practice of presence is not only revelatory, it can be revolutionary.  Feeling lately that it could be a matter of survival. So I am inviting you to come with me as if your life depended on it.  Because maybe it does.   

See the links below to join me on this path to presence for three more August Essentials: Tuesday 18th Essentials, Friday 21st Deeper Being and Saturday’s two hour intro/refresh: Essential Recharge August 29 10:00-noon.  Essentials re-starts after Labor Day, the week of September 13.  Sunday Sweat Your Prayers is ongoing, does not miss a beat.  It was so beautiful to be, move, dance with you yesterday.
 
Embodied, feeling what is arising, noticing the narrative, clear about purpose, connected with spirit.  On the path to presence…
 
Love, Bella
 


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