A Courtesan to Life
Mindful
Every day I see or hear something that more or less kills me with delight,
that leaves me like a needle in the haystack of Light.
It was what I was born for – to look, listen, to lose myself inside this soft world – to instruct myself over and over in joy, and acclamation.
Nor am I talking about the exceptional, the fearful, the dreadful, the very extravagant – but of the ordinary, the common, the very drab, the daily presentations.
Oh, good scholar, I tell myself, how can you help but grow wise with such teachings as these – the untrimmable light of the world, the ocean’s shine, the prayers that are made out of grass?
– Mary Oliver –
In this very moment, unwinding breath through the undulation of an arm, soft round curve of hip and breast, the texture of ground beneath bare feet. Slippery, pulsating, flowing, throbbing – each note of music guides, leads, and then drops back behind, in front, within and to the side of the dancer and the danced – as if the story being told, the breath being breathed, is the universal connection to each other…… to God.
How is it that we as women leave our soft, sensual animal bodies behind on the shelf when we step into our days?
Will we, at the moment of our death, feel the panic that we haven’t given ourselves permission to explore and intimately embody what it feels like to walk as a courtesan to life?
This morning, after six months of being away, I joined the ecstatic dance community to celebrate the freedom and joy of movement unrestrained by any rules, regulations, or techniques.
The simple request is to remove shoes, stepping with untamed presence onto the dance floor – the agreement with ourselves and each other to explore this soft, sensual, alive animal body that we have been given. To find the joy in simply unfolding what presents next, partnered with deep listening and possibility.
How linear our lives, our thoughts, our conversations can be if we forget to breathe and explore into the space of sensual and earthy curves and valleys in belly, pelvis, back and thigh. Opening our eyes, faces, and hearts to each other to be recognized as our soul’s calling.
Claiming a willingness to “get lost” and voice pleasure within day to day tasks – moving in circles and spirals, leaving behind the linear patterns that are almost never what is asking to unfold – and embracing the sacred geometry of life as it really is…….
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