To discover your authentic
self you must be willing to abandon yourself--to YOURSELF! It is through the BELLY HOWL and DANCE--tending
to the snakes writhing in the pit of your stomach--that your VOICE and natural
GRACE is discovered!
Hallelujah Pilgrims for
mentors who share their well-traveled paths with us and by doing so “light” our
way to explore and develop our own journeys!
Currently, MOVING or
DANCING is my “coffee with Hallelujah” or my 15 minutes of creativity every day
even though I am a dedicated visual artist. As I experience “moving” with the
Dancing Flowers for Peace, the Dance Church, the Atlanta Wave, or by myself, I
am discovering my dancing mentors.
Today, I would like to
blog about what I have just learned from Cynthia
Winton-Henry in the beginning pages of her book Dance—The
Joy of Movement as a Spiritual Practice.
Why move? Why dance? Why
sing? Here is my summary of Cynthia Winton-Henry’s “The Dancing Parable” or “Feeding
the Snakes”:
It is a story about a
woman who has a grumbling, churning stomach and cannot relieve herself of its
pain or noise. While consulting a wise woman in her village, they both listen
closely to her belly’s rumblings and are surprised to hear yellow-bellied
snakes making demands to hear “their” song.
So…the troubled woman, determined
to appease her disgruntled belly snakes, journeys to other villages, learns
many songs and returns home without having found the song which would free her
from the pain in her stomach. The yellow
bellied-snakes are not satisfied!
After the woman discovers
the same grumbling has begun in the belly of her oldest child, she rushes to
the forest wailing, moaning, and thrashing about. During this outcry of duress,
she discovers that each new movement and each new sound she makes with her
voice pleases the snakes. They stop grumbling. They are at peace.
From then on, as long as
the woman attends to her snakes by singing and dancing in a way that is unique
to her, the snakes stay quiet.
THE END (or beginning of
dancing and singing)
There are some important
take away ideas from this parable of feeding the snakes:
1) We all have a voice and
a way of being that long to be heard, listened to, and expressed (the snakes).
2) When we ignore our
inner voice and its natural expression outward, we harm our bodies (the snakes
writhe in anguish).
3) Expressing our ideas in
ways that follow traditional songs and dances does not satisfy our desire to
experience our own authenticity (the snakes are not appeased).
4) We can trust our
intuition joined with our life experiences to forge a “new” song and dance each
moment, each day (the wailing, moaning, and thrashing worked for the woman
because it was real).
And finally, the most
important of all…
5) Who you are is good
enough! What you have to say, sing, move or dance needs to be expressed;
therefore,
BE SURE TO DO YOUR FIFTEEN
MINUTES OF CREATIVITY EVERY DAY. FEED YOUR SNAKES!
That’s coffee with
Hallelujah! Soul blog with me and tell me what you will do today to feed your
snakes? Will you dance or sing?
You are truly becoming your dreams of self discovery through creativity. I really like this new painting of the snake-invaded woman in motion.
ReplyDeleteHer fluid arms and off-kilter stance embody the flow.
Dearest SEE SEE, one who has accompanied me in the journey of looking and seeing! Thank you so much for BEING a SOUL BLOGGER and spiritual art pilgrim along with me!
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