A year ago Labor day weekend (about 3 days away for us here in the grand ol’ US of A), I was sitting around with a broken foot reading Sue Monk Kidd’s book The Dance of a Dissident Daughter. I was about half way through, and taking my time reading as her journey was meaty and full of similarities…yet she kept talking about God in the Feminine…and it made me uncomfortable. However, I persisted on for something inside of me said – “keep reading, the truth is at hand.”
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| Picture credits: Sylver Blaque |
So I did. Little by little I read.
Then it happened…the nauseating rolling of the ground beneath my feet. The cabinets started to shake and their contents started to thrust their way out on the floor with a loud crashing sound. The deep deep rumbling of a woman in labor could be heard some where…some where in the dark where this movement was coming from.
I can remember all this almost as clear as day…maybe that is because it is day now and I sit in the same spot that I was that day almost one year ago.
Monday, September 3rd, 2012
I had plans with a friend, a woman pastor to be exact. She was to come pick me up since I couldn’t drive…remember I had that broken right foot…and we were going to hang. But for now, I was engrossed in the “Initiation” of Sue’s book.
Sue talks about “finding her circle of trees” as she prepares for her “solitude of descent” where she can finally herself open up to the “feminine divine” (go ahead Sue, you’ve got my attention now). Now she is “crossing the threshold”where she finds herself “dancing by night” (preach it Sue, dancing is my language…that I get!).
And then I arrive at the doors to a “Guiding Feminine Myth”. The story of Theseus and Ariadne. The story that – looking back from now – undoubtedly was the last major Earthquake that hit the foundation of my world. That Earthquake was off the Richter scale for sure…
Where the other earthquakes from earlier that year had been big, they were manageable for I still had my concept, my belief and my faith in the Christian God in check. He was there, even though His shape was shifting, evolving, morphing into a bigger and more graceful God.
Yet, as I looked around the rubble after this last Earthquake…well I was left standing in mid-air if you can believe it. Just left standing with nothing below me…well maybe there were ashes of my former beliefs still there but they were being quickly blown away by the wind that was now starting to come in…and the rain would follow after that.
I would LOVE to share more of what happened at that point, but I will do that writer thing and leave it as a cliff hanger and tell you to sign up for my newsletter HERE to keep posted on when my book will be out with the entire story in it.
If you are really dying to know what happened, well you can certainly go back and read starting here...but I didn’t really share the entire story since it was so personal and raw at that time.
FOR EVERY THING THERE IS A TIME
Selfishly I wanted to get a post up to document this time in my life – one year out. This day for me was such a monumental shift in how I existed in the world…and while this Earthquake destroyed my foundation – it really just allowed the space for a new seed to be planted…one in which I fully am now birthing into life even as we speak.
I know you have not seen or heard from me much this year. I have to say I have missed writing you terribly…missed hearing from you when you did respond and I am eager to get back in relationship with you, my dear sweet Blogger.
Yet, I have not wasted my time off nor regretted it. See I have been a busy busy bee. When I left you, I was preparing to sponsor and host the 3rd Annual Women’s Healing Conference (my 2nd time around). That event, while being a blessing for the 150+ women that attended, was a painful contraction on my way to my own birth. It taught me the importance of asking for help, for balance, and for speaking my truth at the FIRST sign that something is not sitting right in my soul.
Then I had the privilege of attending HoneyRoot (re)Treat – the 2nd year and my 2nd time :-)! While I was sick and on my Moon time, I wasn’t able to participate much and certainly not able to join in the dancing and celebration. No, instead I had the privilege of sitting back and watching the amazing Power of Women come alive as they are given permission and give themselves permission to come into their own. The Goddess comes ALIVE as the goddessess join together in Goddessville…
Lately, to cap off this time, I just spent three INTENSIVE weeks learning how to become an effective Sponsor as a Coach as I seek to fulfill my mission to change the world by inspiring others to learn how to dance with their lives as fully EMBODIED SOULS. (PLUG: If you are interested in partnering with me to learn how to dance with your life, visit my website at www.practicejoycoach.com.)
These were just the major events and some of the Learning Lessons that marked my days for these last 7 months. There was so much more I learned too that I want to share, like how amazingly POWERFUL and alive Shakti flows in me…and how this can be a little more than scary at times…and exhilarating at others. Or like how much more I have learned about being a woman, a real woman defined in my own language and my own reality…and how I carry the Feminine into the world. Or what about my new Church home – the growing community of conscious dancers through places like Ecstatic Dance, 5 Rhythms, SoulMotion, Inner Rhythm and more? Or how I allowed myself to fall in love, or at least the start of it…only to break my own heart in the end? Well, it was another Learning Lesson for sure…and still is.
Through it all, I have held myself with grace and honored my body as one integral being…and I have to say that I can feel myself coming into my own…coming into and out of my own birthing process. It has been long and tedious, but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. No really, there is a real tunnel and a real light. Can’t you see it? No no no…not in that direction…turn to your right. It’s over there!
VICTORIA’ SECRET VS. PROVERBS 31
So what does my baby, my new self look like? Well, that is a tad bit of a secret still. She is still a newborn you see and we are still getting used to how each of us works together on this side of the womb. (If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am not talking about an actual baby...I like to talk in metaphors for it is so much richer and more fun!)
Here is what I can tell you:
* She is one part Dancer (okay maybe a bit more on this one) i.e. Practice Joy Dance Therapy
* She is one part Coach – partnering with others who want to learn how to Dance with their lives!
* She is one part Author, Speaker, Teacher – in my upcoming book which I am writing now!
* She is a million other parts that make up my Embodied Soul
As I look forward to Her announcement into the world, I wanted to share that some changes will be coming down the pipeline as She starts to reveal how She wants to be announced.
One such change is with this blog. I am hearing that She wants me to make this blog specifically about the topic of our book…a topic that is so vast and grand and touches almost…no it touches EVERY part of our modern Western world that this topic needs its own dedicated space on the world wide web. This topic is about so much more then Victoria’s Secret, so much more then the ancient Biblical Scriptures that have influenced most of the Western World as we know it. This topic is so much bigger then gender or gender roles. This topic bleeds so much deeper then the dynamic of power and control and its by-prodcut of abuse. This topic is so big, I do not even know how to name it.
All I know is that the topic of my book runs deep and runs into almost every soul of those that have been raised in the Western World, with its ideologies and thought patterns.
So with this insight, I can foresee a name change for you my dear Blogger site. I can foresee that you have grown so much and are ready to have your own birth marked by your very own name apart from Practice Joy. A name that will capture the hearts, minds and eyes of your reading audience…and their friends and family.
Oh what could your new name be?……
If you have a suggestion for my baby’s new name for this blog site, please feel free to share it below. And then stay tuned for the big reveal coming early Fall 2013 by signing up for my newsletter!
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| I just could not resist this one! |
