S-WING Theory

Feather tattoo s-winging on interplayer Rea's arm

Witness: Hula Prayer/O KE AHI LONOMAKUA
Poetry: The Swing
Body Wisdom Practice: Move Your Belly Button
Swing Low Blessing

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Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh…

Witness: Hula Prayer/O KE AHI LONOMAKUA
Music Video: Welcome SWING!

Poetry: The Swing
Georgia Jane Kaftan (InterPlay Wisconsin) sent the following:

The Swing by Kabir

“Between the conscious and the unconscious, the mind has put up a swing:
all earth creatures, even the supernovas, sway between these two trees,
and it never winds down
Angels, animals, humans, insects by the million, also the wheeling sun and moon;
ages go by, and it goes on.
Everything is swinging: earth, water, fire,and the secret one slowly growing a body.
Kabir saw that for fifteen seconds, and it made him a servant for life.”

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I like to think of this as swing theory. We are growing the body of “the secret one” one play at a time. -georgia jane

Body Wisdom Practice: Move Your Belly Button
Put your finger in your belly button. Really! Make your belly button move back and forth. Do this while sitting or standing. Can you move your finger/belly in a circle?
Welcome to the center of some of our planet’s most sacred dances- hula, belly dance, and gospel singing movement for instance. Why? Cuz it don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing!” Gotta have some give and take. Gotta get some grace.
Swing Low and High today. Swing on by. Getting places requires collaborations of this and that.
Anytime you need relief from focus focus focus…get up and twist or swing. Take a deep breath. Let it out with a sigh. Let life swing you!

Swing Low Blessing
As you raise your hand and connect with others around the world, swing. Let the swings and wings of life lift up and rock this beautiful world. Watch and Listen to Ladysmith Black Mambazo sing Swing Low, Sweet Chariot (you will have to open to youtube to listen to this one):

Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.

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Are you an InterPlay leader? Have you counted your connections lately?
Go outside at noon and dance anywhere. It’s Dance anywhere day!
Do some interplay and count it!
We’re one of the few movements that doesn’t require a left or right foot! Woohoo!

Let the Dance Dance You

James Schattauer (MN InterPlayer)

“Spirit Groove” music by Kojo Samuels & Volker Kaczinski

Let the dance dance you Body Wisdom Practice

“Beannacht” (“Blessing”) by John O’Donohue Poem

Raise a hand in blessing

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Gratitude to CathyAnn Beaty’s wisdom at the InterPlay and Therapy Toolkit Day at InterPlayce

Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh…

“Spirit Groove” music

Enjoy Kojo Samuels & Volker Kaczinski – Spirit Groove – Djembe, Flute & Voice

Let the Dance Dance You Body Wisdom Practice

Spring is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere. Instead of speeding up, let spring spring you! For those moving toward Fall, fall lovingly into the earth.

Soften your focus. Want to play with releasing co-creative insistence and control and experiment with letting the dance of life dance you? Be a tumble weed in the wind, a rock rolling downhill, a fire of energy. Practice faith, trust, curiosity to know your body at one with the dance of life. Can you trust this most physical life for a minute or two and let life’s dance dance us in brief ritual of vacation from responsibility.

Choose one of the following actions.
let thrust thrust you.
let the swing swing you.
let shapes hold you.
let the flow flow you.
Play into your physical sensations (Yes this requires release of inhibition. Pretend you are a crazy artist for a minute).

Take a deep breath. Let the music support a moment to drop into the dance that is always there. Start with a hand moving like a kite in the wing, or shake, or be perfectly still in your shape, or drop into your seat. Play the above music again if you want.

Beannacht (“Blessing”) Poem

On the day when
the
weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay
dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze
behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a
flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in
you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in
the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may
there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you
safely home.

May the nourishment of the
earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the
ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a
slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to
mind your life.

~ John O’Donohue ~
(Echoes of Memory, © John O’Donohue. All rights reserved. www.johnodonohue.com)

Raise a hand in blessing

Raise a hand in blessing to all directions and InterPlay friends as we honor and are nourished by the changing dance of seasons on the planet, in our lives, above and below.

Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh…

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Note: Phil will lead InterPlay with CathyAnn in Minnesota next week March 24-27. Cynthia will be in Asheville and Raleigh, North Carolina April 23 – May 1. Click on each of the links for Minnesota and Asheville details! Raleigh details to come!

Rhythms of the Heart

Masankho playing djembe in Bali

Practice Spirit of the Djembe
Body Wisdom reflection/poem
Dance of Connection movement

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Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh…

Practice Spirit of the Djembe
Practice: Find your pulse with hand to heart, neck, or wrist. Check in with the rhythm in you! Tap your foot.

Welcome to the spirit of the djembe beat (4 year old Isaiah Chevrier )

Body Wisdom reflection/poem
Sharie Bowman, MFT and InterPlay Seattle Life Practice leader learned that djembe means gather together. She says, “I was searching for answers of how to come to peace with the sudden, totally unexpected death of a client. I attended my creative expression supervision group and the art of the month to explore was a rhythm circle. I was immediately drawn to the Djembe drum. As we focused on our clients that we were bringing to supervision we drummed first in sort of unison energy and then in a more dissonant energy. The dissonance felt so powerful and healing for me. After drumming we were given time to journal. This is what emerged.

Rhythms of the Heart

Deep within the Soul
Lies a place where all is well…
Connected to the rhythms of life.
My body feels whole and strong.
I know my strength and power.
I hold myself in love.
I hold the world in compassion.
I offer my heart to gift and serve…
All in the rhythm of my heart.
When it was my turn to share I only wanted to return to the comfort of the drum. First I held the drum and talked. Then I read my poem. Then I was invited to drum and read my poem. I felt a sense of drumming on behalf of my client and his family and friends and sending a blessing to them. As I did I felt my spirit recenter and come back to a sense of strength and peace. The group reflected back the power they felt that had come through. I later looked up the meaning of Djembe…the translation I found said “gather together”. I felt that the Djembe had “gathered together” some shattered parts of my soul and perhaps my client’s too…as I drummed the rhythms of my heart.

Dance of Connection movement
Need to move some love, grief, or whatever? As you raise your hand to dance in connection with people around the world, enjoy Emiliana Torrini singing and sounding like a jungle drum. Let your heart beat and the power of life arise!

Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.

(Classifieds 3) Wanted: Teacher of Silence

Classifieds poem
Body Wisdom Howard Thurman “How good it is to center down!”
Practice dance into silence
Raise A Hand in Blessing movement
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Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh….

I TEACH silence
in all languages
through intensive examination of the starry sky,
the Sinanthropus’ jaws,
a grasshopper’s hop,
an infant’s fingernails,
plankton,
a snowflake.
~ Wislawa Szymborska ~

(Poems New and Collected 1957-1997,
trans. by S. Baranczak and C. Cavanagh)

Body Wisdom Howard Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart

How good it is to center down!
To sit quietly and see one’s self pass by…
As we listen floating up through all the jangling ecoes of our turbulence, there is a sound of another kind–
A deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear.
It moves directly to the core of our being. Our questions are answered,
Our spirits refreshed, and we move back into the traffic of our daily round
with the peace of the Eternal in our step.
How good it is to center  down!

Practice Dance into silence.
Moving in silence is a teacher.
Instead of trying to become still water
let a hand move– smooth and slow, then smooth and fast, then in  a jerky way. Let your hand move however you like until, like a feather or a leaf on the wind it lands– in stillness.
What if your mind could do that?
What if your mind is really a dancer that you force into shapes?
What if your mind is longing to play, to let loose, to run rampant for a few wild moments?
What if your thinking can’t wait to get to the silence that calls them home after playing?
Why not dance into stillness, for stillness and silence are one.

“In stillness, dancing still.” T.S. Eliot

Raise A Hand in Blessing movement

When we dance hand to hand we often practice opening the space between us. We can often feel that connection even when we aren’t right together.
 Raise a hand in blessing in silence. Do you hear the silence? It’s the music of the spheres. Turn in a full circle (or not) and know that others are sending blessings to you too. Connect and bless others.

Take a deep breath and let it out with a sigh.

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