life unfurling...4-7-21
January and February…quietest months of my life, on mute. Undoubtedly. Taught online classes, showed up live for the garden dance each Sunday, Coop shopped once a week. Saw friends and children outdoors time to time, talked on the phone, read an insane number of books. Gardening and cooking---saving graces. Too cold to camp. There was no to-do list.
In this moment, it feels like there was life before vaccination…and then, life since. Revelations in bits and pieces unfolded over the long winter. How adept at slumbering, my heart and mind. How effective hibernation can be as a route to survival. How patient I am when push comes to shove. How quickly bursts of anger and frustration pass. How boredom often paves the way to a creative burst. How life affirming physical sensation is. How skilled I am at remaining curled up.
Since mid-March my life has slowly been unfurling. I learned just how extroverted I really am. Back in the 90’s, when Meyers-Briggs was all the rage, I tested 50/50 on the extrovert/introvert scale. Change happens. The medicine of real time connection, hug doses, loved ones in close contact. Healing in fits and starts, slumbering parts of me stretch open. I did the best I could this past year---most of us did. I stayed connected to myself and in many ways, sweet hubby and I have never been closer. But I thrive in the spaciousness of multi-dimensional connection. I love being out there in public spaces, nourished by the breathing, pulsing, vibrant mass of us.
Spring metaphors have never seemed less trite. The world bud is poised to blossom. Maybe. Everything tentative. Always has been, just feels more sketchy these days. We’ve rested dormant through a long Winter and now we enter a Spring that may or may not lead to Summer growth. Or Fall harvest. Be that as it may, I feel re-birth rumbling all over me. Mulched by this year of radical shift in how I work and move in the world. Compulsory shifts I resisted and railed against and whined about. Evolution that totally fertilized my work. You’d think by now I’d trust the inevitable transformative power of change. I acknowledge a lifetime of initial resistance in response to change.
Yet here’s what’s changing…
ESSENTIAL RECHARGE: live this month at Clara 10-noon Monday April 19. For those of you fully vaccinated. I’ve never in the flesh met some of my on line students. Can’t wait to practice together in that big light-filled room. Letting class evolve naturally from what I witness. Offering hands on assistance. Music gently flowing out those big JBLs. You’re welcome with or without experience in the essentials for a soft focus on the bhandas, the natural breathing way our bodies move life force and create power. A bit of rolling, stretching, asana. Just bring your mat, roller and curious self. Pre-enroll, no drop in.
WORLDWIDE RAVEN WAVE:Catch this global 5RHYTHMS offering Thursday at 11:00 PT. Or on demand anytime until May 8. It is Dance Essentials---roll, dance, stretch---going out virtually into the world, available to the vibrant breathing global pulse of us.
UNBOUND: Stay tuned for this May 8 11:00-2:00 PT collaboration with Erik Iversen, my 5Rhythms compatriot in Montreal. Between us we offer 140 years of embodied wisdom. UNBOUND: moving from lockdown to freedom is a Zoom in your room episode. Erik is a master of his own unique blend of body play. Wrapped up, armored, protected for a year…bound. We’ll co-facilitate to free us up: guided foam roller play to unravel those fascial kinks, a very personal unlocking of your vital essence, your unrelenting life force. A communal exhale as we dance, connect, collaborate. Inspired and moving together on the breath…unbound. Must have supplies: your willingness and curiosity, a foam roller, paper and pen. Web link available soon.
And here’s what’s staying the same…
Essentials: 10:00am Thursday and Friday
Wednesday Waves: our re-started committed group moving live together at Clara for 4 more weeks. Masked, ventilated, distanced. Pre-enrollment only, no drop in. Stay tuned for tentative next group starting Mid-May.
Sunday Sweat Your Prayers: 10:00am, live or Zoom.
Physical Therapy LIVE: oh my. The real deal. Real hands on real bodies. Up there in my East Sac in the trees studio. Let's.
Whatever. Let's take a breath together right here. Let it go and feel kumbhka baya, Sanskrit for breath retention after the exhale. I have been feeling into that space a lot lately. The emptiness feels so full of potential. A momentary lockdown guarding the gates to freedom until we are good and ready. Everybody at their own pace, their own timing.
Unfurling in fits and starts....❤️Bella