My life changed in a 2009 healing with Spring Forest QiGong Master Chunyi Lin. I remember feeling like I had traveled to the deep center of the universe. This was the turning point in my healing from cancer, the moment when I tapped into the origin of life and accessed limitless resources for healing. I’ve been following the scent of this experience ever since.
It is powerful to know where you come from.
When I started dancing, I did not expect to discover the nature of my beautiful origins. Circle dancing was more of a social choice, an embodied, meaningful alternative to church. And then – zing! – the dance (it was a Romani ÄoÄek) suddenly opened a mystical door. I realized (with the help of dancer/scholars such as Laura Shannon and Elizabeth Wayland Barber) I was moving in harmony with the rhythms of life as generations before me have done. I had found a door into European practices for living in harmony with the earth and one another. Dancing into the source of life, I find my cultural and spiritual origins.
The beauty of my cultural origin may not be as transcendent as my spiritual origin in the heart of the universe, but it is still important. Finding a source of deep sustenance in my cultural origins is a form of liberation. To truly appreciate other cultures without coveting or co-opting them, we must “Remember, we all come from beautiful origins,†to roughly quote Mel Basil. I think this is true both culturally and spiritually.
How do you connect with your beautiful origin?
What becomes possible for you when you are connected to your beautiful cultural and spiritual origins?
Let’s dance the questions.
