Pathways to the Divine
…Oh that’s who I am.
I’m like this fluid spirit catcher,
spirit bringer.
It doesn’t matter what the form is.
It doesn’t matter if it’s at this baptist church
or at the village in Adaklu.
It doesn’t matter if it’s in New Orleans
at the Congo Square.
It doesn’t matter if it’s at the go-go—
It doesn’t matter.
I can feel into that raw opening,
that invitation of the universe
to be in your body.
and to ride this wave,
to ride that momentum.
And that’s what is so generative…
3 january 2022
Happy New Year! It’s been one month of curating Dancing Mother communions. I’m breathing through what has been birthed inside these portals so far. I’m slowing down and just feeling the magnitude and bounty of it all…and I’m still only at the beginning of discovering all the parts of this galaxy, of me.
I’m taking some time to reimagine the communion curation inside Dancing Mother, and feeling into ways to slow down even more. The creations are so vast…MY CREATIONS ARE SO VAST! This is what I come to again and again as I sit with myself, sift through my memories, feel into all the layers and origin stories of Dancing Mother, of me.
This weekend I’ve been sitting with my adolescent girlchild-into-young-woman days, specifically the transitions that occurred when I was 15 years old. My dance school that I’d been attending since I was 4 years old abruptly closed. At the same time a dance ministry was being formed at the church where I grew up. I was invited to be a part of the founding of the dance ministry. It was my first time being a movement facilitator, and realizing my passion for supporting others to experience their body as a site of joy, beauty, and creative power.
Sunset Ringshout | Malcolm X Park, Washington, DC, June 2021 | For a few weeks last summer I experimented with a pop-up sanctuary for the Fertility Abundance Garden at the Sunday drum circle. My vision was to dance and commune with mamas who felt called to commune with me, to share the magic of the Garden with others who I would have otherwise never met. Magical as those few Sundays were, it wasn’t sustainable for me though, as the labors of commuting to and from the park on foot and by bus, of nursing babies, of packing sustenance for 4 munchkins and 2 parents, and of caring for everybody in a large public space with no bathrooms—it was A LOT. And then trying to be present for the sanctuary labors and the ringshouts—I could do it. But it was a strain. I realized, I can be in sanctuary at home, where it’s softer, and where I don’t have to do so many extra labors to manage munchkin care, safety, and food needs. I feel my spiritual powers are strong. I can be anywhere, and commune with the mamas everywhere.