Sacred Body: Biology and Soul

“I accept my brilliance.”
This was the focus of our Nia practice today, the first class of 2010.
Your mission — should you choose to accept it — is your brilliance.

Accept the wild brilliance of  your body — with all its 75 trillion cells shimmering like stars, metabolizing and burning bright in the universe of your flesh and [...]

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Happy New Year!
. . . Whatever that means.
It might mean another holy every day opportunity to be here now and celebrate together the preciousness of what is happening.  ”Happy” and “happen” are from  Middle English hap, meaning “happen,” as well as “good luck.”  So “happiness” means “happen-ness” and “lucky.”  It’s the fortunate state of being present [...]

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Today we chose the focus from the basket of 2009 focus cards for almost the last time this year.
The focus of our Nia practice today was “moving forward.”
As we move forward toward 2010, we find ourselves in the seven day period between what we call Christmas and what we call the New Year.  This is [...]

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I’m not ready for Hanukah
I imagine the Jews of the second century BCE weren’t ready either.  Just like now, it was the darkest time of the year — the new moon closest to winter solstice.  It was the darkest time spiritually, too, for the eternal flame in the temple was about to go out.
What does [...]

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I bow to Nia.
I bow to Nia as a path of body consciousness.  There are many paths of body consciousnes – thank God! —  and the one I’ve been practicing for the last 14 years is Nia.
One way I understand why I got sick and went back into asthma, which I hadn’t had in years but [...]

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How I approach everything is how I approach my body.

On Saturday I made yogurt.  I use fantastic raw milk I get from a dairy farmer and freeze for storage in gallon jugs.  I love this milk and it’s been therapeutic for my body during this healing time.
The milk had not completely thawed, so as I heated it [...]

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Thank you to my Nia community from the whole of my being.
Thank you to the Nia teachers who have been holding the space for the practice.  Thank you to the Nia students who have been creating the space for the practice of Nia at The DanceSpace in Ashland, Oregon — during the last four extraordinary weeks in [...]

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What if we heard the voices of each thing singing, “I am alive”?
As I begin to engage in the world a little more each day, I feel the vexing return of the hurried, fight or flight culture in my body.  I notice this because I notice I’m holding my breath.
I’m holding my breath, not in [...]

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Yesterday I went to Nia for the first time in three and half weeks!  (Who’s counting?)  Woohoo!
I took the first 15 minutes of Judy Newton’s class that she was teaching for me at The DanceSpace.
It was astonishingly beautiful to see all the big hearts shining out through people’s faces as I entered the studio.  I [...]

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Here are some of the books I’ve been reading during this period of healing.

The Epic of Gilgamesh, a new English version by Stephen Mitchell
A beautifully written and poetic, if academically incomplete, blend of versions from a two thousand year period weaving the heartbreaking love story of Gilgamesh and Enkidu.  We are living every day this same heartbreaking [...]

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