The Other Side of the Earth

I don’t know what kind of dance we need to make right now.

I don’t know what kind of dance is bubbling up inside of this land of ours…this land that includes everywhere…this land that feels like it’s breaking apart at the seams sometimes.

I don’t know what kind of dance needs to happen when the listening from those that decide what happens to, on, and among these lands — when that listening is not keen or sharp, nuanced or fine, clear eyed or empathetic, honest or compassionate.

I don’t know what kind of dance needs to unfold when the same thing keeps happening again and again.

I don’t know what kind of dance needs to happen when there is a threat to close down entry into a space that belongs to all of us, not just some of us.

I don’t know what kind of dance needs to happen when the word “border” is still in our vocabulary, or when safe havens are no longer safe, or when luck - not karma, not good deeds, not hard work - but simple luck lands some of us here, where we are relatively safe from harm and some of us there, where we are in harms way every minute of the day.

I don’t know what this dance is.

As a system of beings making our way across these lands…these lands that include everywhere and belong to all of us….what is the dance we need, right now, in this moment, in time and space?

I only know what I know, and what I know is not enough.

And that knowing is that I am engaged in a process right now, that is steeped in discovering emergent movement forms and patters that are generated - I hope - from a place of listening.

From a place of breath.

From a place of connection to earth and air.

And how that is, in anyway, connected to everything I just said above these last few sentences, I really don’t know.

I don’t know what kind of dance needs to happen in this moment in history.

I don’t know what kind of dance we need to make right now.

Whatever dance we do end up creating — we need to do it  together, standing side by side, helping those that are in harms way, to cross any border they need to find a place that is safer than where they were before, with more resources and possibility, for themselves and for their families.

I don’t know much, but I do know that.

Isn’t that sort of fundamental to our values, not as a country, but as human beings living together on this planet?

Isn’t that the essence of existence?

“In this 21st Century, our lives, our well being, our survival, our flourishing, is linked to the well being of others…on the other side of the planet as well as those on the other side of the city, in a way that is unprecedented in human history.”  — Krista Tippett, Host of On Being

Your Dance Mission this week is to listen.

Listen to this:  http://bit.ly/25XJrcC

It seems like a good time — as we are being inundated from all sides, by all that is happening in our world — to slow down and to take some time away from our to-do list, our Facebook feeds, and our Twitter tweets, and listen.

I listened myself, just now.

Taking the time to listen to Krista speak so eloquently about the soaring questions concerning the messiness and the loveliness of our human experience is helping me get clearer about what kind of dance I want to engage in, right now, in this moment in time.

After you listen, let me know what kind of dance you want to engage with, participate in, and be a part of.

With Warmth and Jivey Vibes,

Joanna

of

Joanna and The Agitators

sweetly agitating/persistently upending

www.joannaandtheagitators.com