"Call The Dance to Life!" Dabbling with the unfolding dance of my life and our human journey from past to present...which informs the future!

As I was heading to a special little church service (psst, in falls village ct also known as canaan ct, not north canaan or new canaan so don't trust your GPS to get you there for a 10 am service some Sunday...) I had an idea come to me about calling contra dances after learning that there will be a workshop in Sheffield on March 10th and 11th to help people learn to call dances.

Check out Sheffield Contra Dances at Dewey Hall for more info on that. I got to take a program along those lines about two decades ago in West Virginia at the Augusta Festival of all places. Okay some family connections to the folk music world brought me there. It was a week to remember among lots of crafty and talented folk artists and singers...and dancers. I learned a bit and heard 'it's okay to improv with dance' while the music is playing too. I found my happy place since I just so happen to be a 'natural improv dancer'.

True I got to study dance at Vassar College in the early 1980s and now think of some wonderful folks heavenside that were in the studio with me (jessica a short while in modern dance with Ray Cook, and colin..well, everybody got to know colin's talent. He did come to my CT house along with Lorellen and Susan to perform at my elementary school, Kellogg which is still rockin' out with some awesome kids, but they need to increase their numbers to keep that boat afloat.) I love to look back on my 9 years and the memorable 8th grade final year and graduation in June of 1977!

But now it's a new day 40 years later..and it's time to Call The Dance anew.. Who knew how my life would turn out? The dance turned out to include becoming a partner to someone who had more talents than I could list and Mom to a wonderful quartet of offspring, one of whom took one step from this world to the next when trying to save his friends from the river near the Falls.. (yes the ones the town is named for.) Each of us has found our way from the spiritual realm to this earthly realm... I have come to consider and learn into as an important theory to consider.

I may have lost a few friends in my circle for mentioning this idea or going one step too far in offering the idea to lean into it in case it could prove helpful 'on the other side', as in asking directions about a new country one may visit. I am genuinely surprised when such a thought when shared can cause a sudden and complete withdrawal of one's friendship... with little room to review options or explore an apology once the offense is clarified. I found myself singing the names of angels for this one person who did this recently (among many others who insist their Interpretation of my motive not only my message is the one I intended, even if I am asking them to consider it as an educational or helpful possiblity. Such is life...and will I 'shut my trap' or 'never dare to share an authentic unscripted idea with a friend of a few years or even more of a newcomer? I think not...but I may try to blog about such snaffews and encourage us to look a little deeper and wider at such phenomenon. I used to study (and pay hard earned money to do so) to Consider with thoughtful investigative inquiry and assessments such experiments in social pyschology.

My prof Amy had long hair that literally touched the back of her knees..now that I think of it I would have liked to study the social implications of such long hair in our culture. I have learned 'hair is a thing' for many people and not always in a rational, easy does it way..It's serious ju-ju...just sayin' in case there's anyone else who may not have tuned into such a thing (some may call a fetish.) Worth noting anything that 'gets in the way of normal living' or if it's getting a bit 'out there...'

Meanwhile I was watching part of The Reconnection online Level One program (for free...) and hearing Eric Pearl explore the idea (with some history of Galileo asserting that the earth was not the center of the universe back in his day and getting summarily punished by the Catholic Church...and seeing religion and science try to part ways) about perception and how things that seem solid or to be touching are not in reality doing so since everything is made of atoms in movement. With that bit of 'background' or prompt how's the directive or inspiration to Call The Dance sounding now?

As it turns out, I heard the sermon by a guest minister who spoke about the sad turn of events recorded in The Bible about John the Baptist being sacrificed for pointing out someone's sin. The sinner punished him by having her daughter request his death as a reward for dancing in front of the men in charge of the country...who did not want to limit their wild reverie or insist on reviews by sensible checks and balances. Resounds a bit like the modern day politics where a runaway train of wrong doing seems to be done in the name of keeping a certani unsavory dance going or insistence on pleasing certain palettes. For a moment then the Lord of the Dance, another name for the Lamb of God or Jesus, was overshadowed by humanity's base and unforgiving tendencies.

To what extent are these dynamics at play in our modern minds, hearts and souls? While the minister shared a more hopeful message of Jesus being generous caring for the many who came to see him when he was trying to recoup from the horrible loss of his cousin John the Baptist, we have more time to reflect on the recurring themes in our culture promising gold and human conquests gained in unruly ways. Our very survival not only one's reputation or inner unchecked drives can be blended with not only getting ahead but staying alive and healthy or at least well enough to live independently.

How can we pull together through the 'dark nights of the soul' especially when a crisis carries on for weeks or months, or even years. While we do not need to consider that there is a spiritual kind of experience or message unfolding through our individual or shared journeys, why would it be so difficult to do so? Allowing, accepting, appreciating that 'someone always has it a bit worse' and that strangely we can often pick on others who we know have hard  life...(or that some people find that reasonable and Do Not Want to Review their Thought Patterns...) is one way to Consider having a Do-Over...as one song playfully poses "I was right, I was wrong all along... " Let's keep out dream cycles in mind when we are having tizzy in 'real awake life time'. Maybe ask what IF this were a dream..what would the message be? What am I feeling about this experience. or believing about myself or the other person or their idea? Alllow, accept and appreciate the experience..and call the next steps of the dance to life!