Dancing For Darfur

Day 4 of my teeny tiny commitment to raise funds for displaced persons in a women's refugee camp in Darfur, that just happens to be changing my life...

www.darfurpeace.org/programs/womens-center

This is turning out to be a wild ride on the home front. My husband and son have unexpectedly got involved.

On the second night, having not yet developed a routine time for this dancing, I came home exhausted and ready to crawl into bed and slip into heavenly slumber. (Just now as I wrote those words a wave of gratitude for having a bed, a deliciously warm cozy soft dry bed, enveloped me. How many nights do I take that for granted?!)

My husband reminded me, "Ahem- didn't you make a promise to dance daily for that Darfur fund raiser?" Uhoh. *gulp* My mind raced for a cop out, something along the lame lines of I'll dance twice as long tomorrow started to form in my mouth. He cut me off with this save the promise invitation, "Come on I'll dance with you!"

As I shuffled thru my ipod searching for the right musical choice, my son hijacked the DJ role and announced, "Mom, if you let me pick the music I'll dance with you too!"

That settled it. For 3 evenings we have turned our living room into a most unlikely dance club. Songs from Jack Black, Flight of the Concord, to Usher have been the soundtrack of this nightly event. This wasn't quite what I had in mind when I signed on. I imagined mySelf lost in the rhythmic sounds of world beats, drumming, chants, and some Nia blends.

This is perfect! All day I look forward to this time together, laughing, busting out sweet faux break dancing moves, and being supported by the 2 most important men in my life! I am so blessed!

Check out the fundraiser, get involved! www.vividlywoman.com/darfur.htm

Stretching ourSelves

There we are! (We are missing a few). Circles to Spirals Sweaty Goddesses surging with life and renewed passion for Sisterhood and ourSelves!

We danced, played, were in ritual, nature, and bliss last weekend!

Here's what I notice after a fabulous weekend of expansion:

I walk back into my life and it feels too small. I grow each time I surrender mySelf to another retreat. No matter what my role at the retreat, Growth is inevitable and somewhat uncomfortable. (Yet not growing is far more painful.)

I feel like Alice in Wonderland, bumping my head on the ceiling of my old life, cramped, and awkward. It takes a few days of maneuvering, lots of rest, writing, oh and let's not forget the crying. Yes the unexplained grief, Who knows? It's just my process. Your is probably quite different. I'm not setting this up for a good sale am I?

Wait I'm not finished... On the other side of it... where I am today are:

waves of creativity

awareness of pure potentiality

elation at the view from up here

a deep calm grounded knowing

It's delicious. Oh yeah, now I remember who I am. I do have a definite purpose, even some clarity, and some kick ass tools I am wielding with ninja like precision!

Kindness Poem

Before you know what kindness really is
you must lose things,
feel the future dissolve in a moment
like salt in a weakened broth.
What you held in your hand,
what you counted and carefully saved,
all this must go so you know
how desolate the landscape can be
between the regions of kindness.
How you ride and ride
thinking the bus will never stop,
the passengers eating maize and chicken
will stare out the window forever.
Before you learn the tender gravity of kindness,
you must travel where the Indian in a white poncho
lies dead by the side of the road.
You must see how this could be you,
how he too was someone
who journeyed through the night with plans
and the simple breath that kept him alive.
Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing.
You must wake up with sorrow.
You must speak to it till your voice
catches the thread of all sorrows
and you see the size of the cloth.
Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to mail letters and
purchase bread,
only kindness that raises its head
from the crowd of the world to say
it is I you have been looking for,
and then goes with you every where
like a shadow or a friend.

Naomi Shihab Nye