"Art is not a mirror held up to reality,
but a hammer with which to shape it."
--Bertolt Brecht
It's uncomfortable, right? Feeling our edges and being with them versus just pretending they're not there by avoiding them altogether. The thing is, the only way to transform ourselves and our world is by feeling all of it and LOVING our way through it. Sure, it doesn't make for winning a popularity contest by choosing honesty and authenticity in lieu of a masked appearance of softness and unconditional acceptance.
"Why my desire for change and transformation?" you ask. "Everything's perfect," you assert. Yes, It Is! AND, it can always be even better. LOVE includes Awareness of "What is" and Building Towards the Spiritual Evolution of All Living Beings. Pain is part and parcel of life and death on planet Earth, but Suffering doesn't have to be. That's a Choice and it's once again time that we chose our collective highest.
So, how do we co-create embodied experiences that keep us in our bodies, tasting our edges, feeling our fear as well as our loss of judgment, sitting in boredom and falling into our patterns, and moving with - and thus through - all of it? We just try.
Last night, we tried with Blindfolds. Without music or our vision, we dropped into our centers and moved in the pitch black studio together. We breathed and stretched. We tiptoed and crawled. We listened and we exhaled. We felt our fears arise in response to the unknown as we also felt liberated by the colorful darkness. Then, we played. Forgetting all of it and remembering our school days, we chased each other and played tag. We fell into abandon and joy, laughter and innocence.
Finding a partner, one person now took to the blindfold while the other remained their eyes, watching for their safety as well as simply bearing witness to their process. "What did that feel like? What did you perceive? What did it bring up for you and make you think?" Next, we did a Trust Dance through the studio, allowing and trusting our partner to manipulate our movement and to move us through time and space. "How did this feel?" We used markers and paper, drawings and words to allow the expression to bubble up from our psyche and subconscious. Revealing and messy, self-conscious and curious, open and fearful, it all poured forth.
More than anything, however, it's about Cultivating Real-Time Community Spaces where we can be seen and heard as well as held to our highest. It's about expressing our vulnerability as well as giving our bodies the deep medicine that flows when we expose our true selves and are offered a warm hug in response. And, I don't know about you, but for me I crave being surrounded by people who LOVE me so much they're willing to step into discomfort when s/he witnesses me behaving in ways that are not testimony to how I pledge to live my life to say, "Hey, Cara.... I'm really disappointed." "Or, hey Cara? Can we talk about that choice you made?" "Or, hey Cara! That just sucks!"
LOVE - it isn't all rainbows and butterflies and pure acceptance of what is. Rather, it is also pounding and hammering for expanded growth and evolution. We can do it gently, though - I promise. And, I'm bound to make mistakes, but I'll apologize and take responsibility for my actions - you can count on that!
