~ This Aliveness! ~ – Sharon Mauldin

Ponderings, Poems & Practices
for Living Your Brilliance!

Hello Dear Ones,

Greeting from the Dominican Republic where I have finally been reunited with Kenneth! Yee Ha!!!

If you’ve been hanging around my Sweet Reminders for a while you already know that I love to dance; to shake; to move, move, move. I’ve gotta keep the energy flowing through this body of mine.

Movement is health. This slogan was on a T-shirt I used to wear over 30 years ago. As time passes the truth of that becomes clearer and clearer. Movement connects me to the orgastic expression of life. Movement keeps this 64-year-old body vibrant and turned on to this moment.

Movement is health … body, mind, soul and spirit health.

Movement is aliveness. Movement is life.

Spontaneous, uncontrived movement is a wonderful ally, making space for something new to come in. New inspired ideas. New ways of being in the world. New insights. New openness. New neural pathways.

I’ve noticed how I have my “go to” dance moves. The easy way my body finds comfort, ease and delight in the familiar. It’s the “I want to look good” dance. I’m dancing to the music and its pure ecstatic happiness. And it’s the “I” that is dancing.

But there is a different way to be with dance. There’s a way to let the music itself dance me. When I slip into that dance, magic happens. Instead of reaching out to meet the music, I slow down, I quiet down and I feel the music begin to stir me.

My body opens to an organic movement that doesn’t give a shit about looking good. The music dances me freely. It dances me in surprises. It dances me playful into “I don’t know”. It dances me in ways that are embarrassing to my “look good” persona. It dances me alive to this very moment.

I let go into un-orchestrated, uncontrived, unexpected, out of the usual groove. This kind of movement stirs up the fixed patterns anchored in my nervous system. This kind of movement opens a space that invites something new to emerge.

This kind of movement cleans outdated, sluggish energies out of my pipes and opens the way for vitality to flow in.

The fresh, new, uncontrived something that flows in isn’t just about the way a body moves. It’s about the way I move through life.

Today I want to encourage you to join me in a little dance experiment. Play some of your favorite music. Stand in stillness and begin to listen with your whole body. Notice how the sound begins to reverberate through your body. When the impulse to move arises from inside the body, follow the movement of that reverberation.

Let the music dance you out of the expected; out of the ordinary; out of the looking good move; out of your comfort zone; into wildness; into uncontrived surprise; into new possibilities and into freedom.

Here’s a link to an ecstatic dance mix that’s been dancing me the past few weeks.
ENJOY! You have come to be danced!

Being Danced with You in Love,
Sharon

We have come to be danced
by Jewel Mathieson

We have come to be danced
not the pretty dance
not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance
but the claw our way back into the belly
of the sacred, sensual animal dance
the unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance
the holding the precious moment in the palms
of our hands and feet dance

We have come to be danced
not the jiffy booby, shake your booty for him dance
but the wring the sadness from our skin dance
the blow the chip off our shoulder dance
the slap the apology from our posture dance

We have come to be danced
not the monkey see, monkey do dance
one, two dance like you
one two three, dance like me dance
but the grave robber, tomb stalker
tearing scabs & scars open dance
the rub the rhythm raw against our souls dance

We have come to be danced
not the nice invisible, self conscious shuffle
but the matted hair flying, voodoo mama
shaman shakin’ ancient bones dance
the strip us from our casings, return our wings
sharpen our claws & tongues dance
the shed dead cells and slip into
the luminous skin of love dance

We have come to be danced
not the hold our breath and wallow in the shallow end of the floor dance
but the meeting of the trinity: the body, breath & beat dance
the shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance
the mother may I?
yes you may take 10 giant leaps dance
the Olly Olly Oxen Free Free Free dance
the everyone can come to our heaven dance

We have come to be danced
where the kingdom’s collide
in the cathedral of flesh
to burn back into the light
to unravel, to play, to fly, to pray
to root in skin sanctuary
We have come to be danced

WE HAVE COME

by Jewel Mathieson