We continue our theme this month of “Honoring Saints & Ancestors: which arose from our Community Lectio Divina practice with the letter to the Hebrews and continued with this month’s Photo Party and Poetry Party.
I invite you into a movement practice. Allow yourself just 5 minutes this day to pause and listen and savor what arises.
- Begin with a full minute of slow and deep breathing. Let your breath bring your awareness down into your body. When thoughts come up, just let them go and return to your breath. Hold this image of our “Saints & Ancestors” as the gentlest of intentions, planting a seed as you prepare to step into the dance.
- Play the piece of music below (“Dance in the Graveyards” by Delta Rae) let your body move in response, without needing to guide the movements. Listen to how your body wants to move through space in response to your breath. Remember that this is a prayer, an act of deep listening. Pause at any time and rest in stillness again.
- After the music has finished, sit for another minute in silence, connecting again to your breath. Just notice your energy and any images rising up.
- Is there a word or image that could express what you encountered in this time? (You can share about your experience, or even just a single word in the comments section below or join our Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group and post there.)
- If you have time, spend another five minutes journaling in a free-writing form, just to give some space for what you are discovering.
- To extend this practice, sit longer in the silence before and after and feel free to play the song through a second time. Often repetition brings a new depth.
2 Responses
I very unexpectedly found myself dancing in tears with my deep grief and longing for my daddy who died many years ago way too soon. As I cried and felt what I was feeling, my cat Jack came and intentionally held me in his gaze and petted my heart with his head. My dad loved animals. Just maybe he had something to do with this orange ball of fur and love showing up unannounced on my front porch during a brutal winter 4 winters ago. And just maybe my dad had something to do with the comfort Jack brought me just now as I shed and healed yet another layer of my life’s sacred journey.
would that this might play on all of our news channels with Michael Brown and his mother’s picture to change the atmosphere of violence into reconciliation… my sister comes today who was a victim of domestic violence and black and white violence. I will embrace her in her graveyard and walk with her in the beauty of creation next to the Ocean Mother and pray that we may sing and dance in gratitude for all earth’s gifts and beauty even as we lament in sorrow partings and racism and seek ways to make our world a better place… one of sisterly and brotherly joy in the family of humankind.