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The dance is strong magic: The dance is life.
~Pearl PrimusDance is movement of the universe concentrated in an individual.
~Isadora DuncanWhosoever knoweth the power of dance, dwelleth in God.
~Rumi
To watch us dance is to hear our hearts speak.
-Hopi Indian Proverb
The object isn’t to make art, it’s to be in that wonderful state that makes art inevitable.
– Robert Henry
Love,
Love is a verb.
Love is an action word, fearless on my breath.
-Elizabeth Fraser|Massive Attack|Teardrop
I recently went on a job interview that was conducted with a considerable degree of gravitas. It was an affair that required metered parking, a conference room, and an entire assembled committee present to ask questions. This is exactly the sort of thing I have been doing my best to avoid for the last decade of my work life. Yet, there we all were sitting at the table with all the questions. One of the questions posed in the interview was an unexpected delight:
How do you do the work?
That’s it.
That’s the whole vague and fantastic question.
At the time it was posed, I was confounded. I had never given voice to my process. How I do the work has been a very long and winding road across time and country, over the river, and through the woods. While the answer I gave summarized that journey, there is something about that question that has been revving and honking (with a Klaxon-like “AHOOGA!” sound) at me ever since it was posed. That question feels like a tiny clown car that I could get inside with twenty friends, and we could go anywhere in it.
So today I am here still mulling over that question with the intent to share some thoughts and scenes from my everyday work life that may help shed additional light on the answer as it continues to unfold. As Rainer Maria Rilke has written,
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves…the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”
How do I do the work?
First off, there is a generous supply of silliness in my work, and that is by design. I have to do quite a bit of work on myself on a regular basis to get my mind-set right. That work begins with Shakti-building exercises and intentional goal-setting to keep me a happy, healthy human. I guess other people would probably call this “planning” or maybe “self-care.” Anyway, the way I do it looks like this:
Having the right mind-set prepares me to deal constructively with the obstacles and menacing hindrances that inevitably present themselves as I’m going about the work, whatever that work may be…
When working through problems and I get stuck, allowing time for conscious play, or blending the lines between work and play does wonders for unsticking the stuck.
A lot of the work I do is setting the stage with the right props and providing the space, time, and encouragement necessary for other people to play and learn and express whatever it is they want to say. Serving as a witness for this self-discovery is one of my favorite things about my work.
It isn’t all fun and games. Yesterday morning’s work was a frenzied internal battle to get idea from brain to paper. When the dust settled this was the scene that remained:
There have been times I have been crushed by the work and fellow passengers pulled me from the wreckage. Other times, Good Samaritans have come along to fluff me back up when I’ve gotten deflated. Never underestimate those singing spirits of the world who hide right out in the open.
~*~
How do YOU do the work?
What questions are you loving and living?
If we cannot love ourselves, we cannot fully open to our ability to love others or our potential to create.
John Lennon
~~~~@~~~~
Earlier this month, I received a special gift from a fellow yogi: a full 60-minute playlist of Beatles love songs to use in our Valentine’s Day class. This gift inspired a contest – whoever guessed the number of times the word “love” occurred in the lyrics during the class won a prize. It was SO much fun!
In appreciation for the playlist, I compiled a list of Beatles lyrics and quotes in the spirit of yoga wisdom. Each quote went down on a little decorated card and was placed inside a repurposed Altoids Tin.
“Like the crocus that pushes into spring willy-nilly, the artist also pushes forward into growth. The crocus lies beneath the snow waiting for the slightest touch of warmth to spring forth. Like the crocus, the artist does not pause to ask if his work is timely or welcome. Critical reception will perhaps be chilly like an unseasonal snow, but like the crocus, the artist survives.”
–Julia Cameron, Finding Water: The Art of Perseverance
May you be safe and healthy and continue pushing forward into growth.
7 a.m. Sunday morning.
Gardening is a never-ending labor of love I muse as I begin gearing up for the ritual. I don the white vestments, the boots, gloves, hat, glasses, and braid. Only then I am ready to meet the Mistress. I open my door to a surprised hummingbird. We regard each other a moment before she flits away. I gather supplies and materials while the wasps and bees still sleep. Time and other trappings of the world recede until there is only the dirt and the things in it, living and dead. Weeds are ripped from the earth; the worms beneath them churn wiggly and wet. Beetles and spiders run for their lives. Secret ant cities are uncovered, their nurseries revealed. The ants abandon whatever plans they had for this day to grab their babies and rush them to safety. The whole colony fights for survival in this sacred space where love, duty, and instinct meld into one indistinguishable force. Blood is spilled over the roses, a sacrifice they demand regularly as thorns prick and stick fingers through gloves. God is in Her place. All is right with the world.
There are some things you can only do with love. You will know that you have love when you do one of them. –Walter Anderson
July & August Garden Goals
- Plant the seeds for the fuzzy pink flowers in the front bed and containers.
- Split and replant zinnias.
- Prep the raised beds (weed and add compost).
- Plant rainbow chard, musclun lettuce, kale, collard greens, arugula, and romaine in the raised beds.
- Plant oregano, cilantro, borage, bee balm, and chives in all the right places.
- Weed front flower bed, cover with weed fabric, and mulch.
- Plant garlic?
- Water, water, water
Dear Garden People of the Internet: What wisdom regarding growing garlic can you impart? The spring’s attempt did not work!
~*~
The Garden
The cherub and the virgin Mary,
the Buddha and the garden gnome –
all the garden statuary –
talked in spring of how things grow.
Buddha said, “From compassion.”
Mary said, “The Lord above.”
Gnome replied, “It must be magic.”
Cherub sighed, “It must be love.”
And it rained then
in the garden
and they all stood ’round
and witnessed in stillness
and listened to that lovely sound.
And St. Francis in the corner
spoke up the gathering.
“Peace,” he said is most important,
“Peace for all the living things.”
And the stars burned,
and the earth turned,
and the sun shone down.
And they knew then in the garden
Life was stirring in the warming ground.
And St. Frances stood entranced
as Cherub watched beguilded.
Gnome’s hands laid on his sharp spade.
Mary gave thanks
and Buddha smiled.
–Peter Mayer
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