WHAT WORD ARE YOU FEELING RIGHT NOW?: Invite yourself to dance that word!

WARMING UP IN INCREMENTAL STEPS. How is creative movement with the Dancing Flowers done? One idea at a time. One movement. Over the moments, the movements gain momentum. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for the Dancing Flowers for Peace and the way they embrace women 40 and older into their bouquet for their Saturday morning improvisational dance (see here)! Hallelujah for DANCING WHAT WE ARE FEELING and honoring our bodies, leaning in and listening to what we want to dance!

Imagine closing your eyes. Your are standing among a circle of mature women in a dance studio at the Emory Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts. Lori Teague instructs us to listen and move in conversation with our bodies. As we progress in our individual dances, we are encouraged to interact with other dancers if we want too. As we listen, dance, and connect, we move through incremental steps of creative movement.

After our warm up, we are asked by Lori Teague, "What word describes how you are feeling today? Can you bring this word into your dance today?" Responses included connected, enlivened, relaxed. My word was INVITED.

Yes I felt INVITED into my body, to inhabit each cell from finger to toe tips and from scalp to heel pads. Each physical part of me was dancing with my hopes, my imagination, my soul! And all of my BEING felt INVITED to connect with the other dancers.

INVITED. I felt invited to move amongst the other women, being myself and addressing the needs of my body and soul all the while connecting, engaging in a larger bigger dance than myself. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

During the two hours, my most favorite movement together was flocking! We began as a group walking together, meandering, splintering into small groups, reconnecting, moving together, flowing, separating, reuniting. Our flocking was done with such ease and confidence, my BODY SPIRIT (an InterPlay term) soared. 

Richness of BEING abounded! Thank you Dancing Flowers for Peace for all that you do to support women 40 and older! Much more happened during this magical time, but some things should remain a mystery so you can discover the magic for yourself. Think about joining us one of these Saturdays!

THE DANCING FLOWERS FOR PEACE PLUS GUESTS. (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

That's Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and tell me what word you are feeling and would like to DANCE out! Did you dance it? Hallelujah to joyful and easeful movement! Hallelujah for embodying who we are!

THE DANCING FLOWERS FOR PEACE PLUS GUESTS. I "invited" myself into the group photo! Oh it is so wonderful to feel invited. (photo by Lila)

TO CHANGE, YOU NEED TO MOVE: Working Out My Soul Through Dance

MOVING IN THE WAVE 1. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for inspiration in the form of others! Thank you to the Dancing Flowers for Peace and the wonderful women who got me MOVING in 2012 during their Saturday warm-ups! Hallelujah for Dance Church, an open group in my Decatur community that welcomes individuals to MOVE in their own unique way! And, YES, I am SO inspired by Wave Atlanta, and the multi-generational group of people who gather at the Existentialist Church on Tuesday evenings to dance to Gabrielle Roth's Five Rhythms!

We are now in February, the second month of 2013, and I have dedicated myself to MOVING both physically and spiritually. I welcome CHANGE in the form of new insights leading to new ways of BEING. As a Spiritual Art Pilgrim, I have discovered that I can JOURNEY right here, right now. No need to climb aboard a boat or wait for trees to grow spring leaves.

MOVING IN THE WAVE 2. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

To be AUTHENTIC is to be PRESENT to who I am now, each day. No thought of yesterday. No thought of tomorrow. What does my body need? Do I need to release the muscles in my neck and set my head free to roam around the curves of my shoulders, back, and chest? Will my feet follow as my head explores the universe of these bones and muscles? YES!

MOVING IN THE WAVE 3. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

MOVING to the Five Rhythms (flowing, staccato, chaos, lyrical, and stillness) is a way to work out your soul as you work out your body!  As a pilgrim, the spiritual travel I am doing right now is through MOVING my feet in accordance with my head, shoulders, spine, and hips. 

MOVING IN THE WAVE 4. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

This spiritual practice requires the deep and profound practice of listening to oneself at many levels of BEING...muscles, bones, emotions, and mind....

MOVING IN THE WAVE 5. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

What will you do today fellow pilgrims to MOVE within yourself and create the change you are seeking? Will you lean into yourself and listen to what your body is asking for? I will leave you with lines from a poem by Jewel Mathieson:

I turn to the Goddess, pray for forgiveness
She says "there is no forgiveness because there are no sins"
She places God on the tips of my fingers
on the tips of my toes
and tells me that everyone has to learn how to pray 
in their own way
in their own way with everything, everywhere

--from The Search for the Feminine in My Bones

For me that prayer is dancing, and that dance is electrifying me to my finger tips and toe tips! 

#REVERB12 (Day 19): How did you nourish your beautiful body in 2012? DANCING WITH THE FLOWERS!

MY BODY ASKED ME TO MOVE, PERCHANCE TO DANCE! In 2012, I earnestly returned to my body to listen to her needs. "MOVE," she exclaimed! (art by Hallelujah Truth)

#REVERB12 (Day 19) PROMPT: How did you nourish your beautiful body in 2012? What self-care practices will you take with you into 2013?

Hallelujah for our most tenacious SPIRIT! Yet without our BEAUTIFUL BODIES to house our SPIRITS we would be star dust! As all of you pilgrims know, our BODIES are sources of great pleasure or great pain. In 2012, my BODY groaned and creaked like an ancient mariner's ship upon a slow moving sea as a result of the hours I spend HALLELUJAHING (making my art expressed as "Coffee with Hallelujah").

ATTENDING TO THE SPIRIT BUT NOT THE BODY. This is a typical position for my body as I execute the visions of my SOUL during my Hallelujahing (HOWL-a-LUJAHING). In 2012, I began to listen to the muscles and sinews of my BODY--they were asking for MOVEMENT! (photo by Chiboogamoo)

Fortunately, for me, I am acquainted with the DANCING FLOWERS FOR PEACE! And as I expressed my quandry about a fun and loving way to address the yearnings of my BODY to MOVE, they responded--COME DANCE WITH US!