There once was a cat...
/I got nothin’ today.
My mind is swirling.
My body is restless.
My thoughts aren’t connecting.
I’m trying to decide if it would be better to share the story of the next door neighbor cat named Uh-Oh, the kids who lived with Uh-Oh, and the mother who followed us around with a rag, wiping away our fingerprints every time a child’s hand made contact with the walls in her house.
This is one of my earliest memories, but I can’t seem to connect this to dancing, imagination, creativity or anything other than what it was:
A cat named Uh-Oh.
A mother who was horrified about a child leaving a mark on her walls.
Or do I tell you about the time I was living in NYC in my early 20’s, standing on the corner of my street one Sunday morning wearing my hot pink velvet biker shorts (I loved those shorts…they were so soft, and the pink was a perfect pink).
A car pulled up and the man driving asked if I wanted to get in, how much I charged, and to describe the services I would offer to him — in detail please.
I considered getting in that car because I was broke and anxious about my financial situation.
I was constantly worrying about how I would pay for the next meal.
I did not get into the car, and I never wore those hot pink velvet biker shorts again.
This one seems a bit easier to connect to societal structures and the current world order, but as I said: my brain is a swirl this morning, and the dots are too far apart.
All I have for you today, is this:
I love dancing…so much.
I have been away from dancing this past week, and coming back to it yesterday felt like coming back to the raw material of being human.
If felt like coming back to this planet and burying my face in the dirt.
If felt like giving myself permission to slowly roll along the edges of the earth, making my way across the center, and then finding my way back home.
My to-do lists became obsolete, and all that mattered was my body pressing and yielding into the land, my weight pouring into gravity.
Your dance mission for the week is to find a comfortable position, whatever that is for you.
It can be lying down, sitting in a chair, or standing up.
Put a timer on for 5 whole minutes.
In the 5 minutes you have allotted, I want you to imagine that your body is filled with sand.
As you are imagining that your body is filled with sand, let yourself fall into your dance.
Notice how the sand pours, shifts, and reconfigures itself, within your movement, and within your stillness.
Notice the quality and weight of the sand.
Notice what parts of your body are still, and what parts of your body are in motion.
I have an idea:
Don’t put your dance mission off for later.
It’s only 5 minutes out of your day, so:
Put your timer on NOW.
Get comfortable NOW.
Start your sand dance NOW.
And then, let me know how it goes.
With Warmth and Jivey Vibes,
Joanna
of
Joanna and The Agitators
sweetly agitating/persistently upending
www.joannaandtheagitators.com