Recently I have felt the push-pull of the good news-bad news that surrounds us, and can easily drop into overwhelm…

It seems to me kinda like walking a tight rope:  I want to be careful not to fall into the slough of despair and despond  on the one side, as I feel into all the scary and alarming things that are happening in the world, but also not be so overjoyed and blinded by the extraordinary number of encouraging, radically new and exciting trends and events that are occurring, that I lose my balance…I need to be able to hold the both/and, and not get stuck in the either/or.

Since I’m not really a tight-rope walker, I chose the title Line Dancing for these musings :-).  I don’t want to fall off the line on this side or that!

And dancing is so splendid.  I love to dance!   Feeling it, doing it, reflecting on its qualities, can help cultivate the skills needed to “walk the line”, to navigate the challenges, and also to celebrate the journey.

I take a moment right now — spinning, moving, lifting, lowering, flowing…sensing into the both/ands of life.  I feel the vitality course though my veins, the joy in movement and I notice my creaky muscles and joints (seized up from sitting at the computer, and a morning roller blade without adequate stretching!)  I feel the pure pleasure and miracle of being alive, the miracle of sun and breeze — and recall the scary windstorm that felled a tree on our street and smashed a parked car — death and destruction are literally seconds away; I experience the wonder of the heron fledglings in the rookery out our window (see the Heron Cam right near our building!) and the stench of the guano of same!

I am, and I am indeed moving, flowing, feeling…and I am not in charge, not calling the shots.  Responsible yes, and accountable, but not the key mover I sometimes take myself to be.

If I let go a little bit more, I can sometimes even feel and hold the paradox of my autonomy and my interdependence — my capacity and my absorption in something larger, infinitely large… and this all the way up to, and including, the Core Wound, that ultimate paradox (as it’s referred to in Waking Down, a spiritual path that resonates with me):   we are finite, limited beings, incomplete, messy, struggling… (you know the drill!), and at the same time we are limitless, expansive, and not separate from All that is.

Holding paradox is what I really need for dancing the line, and not falling off to one side or the other — in my life, and when larger than life things approach overwhelm and threaten to swamp.

I once wrote Dance! There’s no tomorrow.  It is good advice!

When I dance, my perspective expands, I take in so much more than in my normal, focussed (or distracted!) modes; dancing brings in all my senses, and this is so needed for me to be fully in the world, holding the paradoxes, celebrating the mysteries and the mundane.

A little side note: dancing has multiple benefits as well!

In closing, I invite you to enjoy these Dancing Rhodos, the Red Maples in the wind, and the Nodding Crimson Tulips and Pansies…out our front door.

As always, your sharing and comments are most welcome.