roots that suckle our souls...12-2-21
Pictured above? Yoga Woman, portrait of Madonna, an original artwork by Grace Slick. In 2000 this apparition landed in my home, post-vision quest. Under her intense gaze my childhood dance passion re-ignited. She whispered to my tree-climbing, jump-roping, roller-skating little being, the one with keen internal body perception, natural sensory attunement. She incited my search for freedom, space to emerge and expand. Within two years, yoga and dance re-activated my life. Another three years and the physical therapy clinic sold. She shipped out to the east coast last week having fully completed her destiny-tickler mission in Sacramento. High time to bring her magic to a new home.
The soil of childhood can conceal roots that suckle our souls. When we recognize those inspirational head-over-heels moments, when we appreciate a natural surrender to full on engagement, we are actively tracking those roots. These are moments when paying attention just happens. When curiosity takes the wheel. When pleasure is palpable. When time is elastic. When we are inexplicably drawn.
The imprint of childhood threads weave into our present time life. We can choose to take heed and follow. Or not. But perhaps tracking these moments is a way to partner with deeply rooted destiny. And those threads are not always the joyful ones. My tender little heart was broken open and then shuttered closed so very young. Healing this wound…destined. My childhood was utterly uprooted, the family moving from place to place to place. Setting down roots, establishing community…destined. On a more upbeat note, my early entrainment in the lap of the Sierras and the Pacific continues to call me home. And that organic persistent girlhood tug to both writing and teaching keeps moving me toward aliveness.
When I looked out at community moving in the garden last Sunday morning it was all in one place at once: teaching, embedded in sangha, dancing in nature, my heart overflowing---obviously destined. Believe it’s random your life has a particular form? Wonder what roots have shape shifted your soul?
You can sit right here for a few, do a bit of investigatory musing. And you can practice this week and see what your body knows.
On the mat:
Essentials Friday 10:00: sacrum, mythic root of our life force, stored right from birth. As this energy rises toward the crown, our destiny manifests toward the divine.
On the dance floor:
5Rhythms Sunday 10:00 and Wednesday 6:30: souls draw sustenance from embodied remembrance, historical heart happenings, beliefs and events that shape the way we imagine the world. Come shape-shift.
Full on engagement is so juicy. Moments to cherish and pay attention. Maybe even partner with destiny.
❤️Bella
"Now you realize how precious your time here is. You're no longer willing to squander your essence on undertakings that do not nourish you.... your patience grows thin with tired talk and dead language....Now you are impatient for growth, willing to put yourself in the way of change....You want your gods to be wild and to call you to where your destiny awaits."
~ John O'Donohue