The Robin was in a bush on one side of the lane making a series of distressed alarm calls.In one hand I held a jam jar containing a featherless Robin chick. In the other hand I had Miss Chivers.Miss
Chivers is next door’s cat and even though I had her by the scruff of
the neck she was doing her best to scratch and get free.Beside
me I had two rather shocked 8 year old girls, Katya from next
door, who is the owner of the cat, and her friend, Phoebe.Katya
had a second slightly more feathered chick in a gloved hand and Ann had
several small worms they had dug up in an attempt to keep the chicks
alive.
“I won’t be long.” I said to the Robin “I have to deal with this cat first otherwise she will take your chicks again.”
Last weekend I was on module 4
of the Family Constellations training I am participating in. We did an
exercise in which we chose someone to represent each of the important
fields of work and study in our lives, and asked them to stand side by
side in the order they had appeared.
I’ve
been asked three times in the last month what a sigil is. We had our
Movement Medicine medicine wheel printed on material so that it can be
part of the alters at our workshops and I was trying to describe it to
some of our crew of wonderful workshop organisers. So, I looked it up
and this is what the dictionary has to say on the matter:
Sigil: an inscribed or painted symbol considered to have magical power.
• archaic a seal
• poetic/literary a sign or symbol.
Mmmm,
well, interesting. In this context, I would take magical to mean a
symbol that has the power of intent behind it and the power to tell a
story.
When the image came of what I really wanted to share about the
Alchemy of Stillness workshop, it wasn’t as expected at all….not a tidy
summing up of what happened last May at Croydon Hall but the picture of
myself two weeks ago, an hour or so after hearing from London of my
Aunt Annie’s death. Having battled breast
cancer three times since her early twenties, she was diagnosed with
inoperable tumours on her liver and lungs in late October.Her condition worsened rapidly and I received news of her death by phone.In her late forties, she left behind a very loving family and her ten year old daughter.
Man or Woman? Bold or Shy? Dreamer or Action-(wo)man?
All invited!
Would YOU like to share your dance experiences in an anthropological research?
Wherever
I walked, I danced. My bones have danced always. Over the course of 23
years I came in touch with many different styles and techniques. In
2006 the 5Rhythms™ and Movement Medicine became a fundamental part of
my life, offering me a compass and many wonderful maps for exploring
myself, and the world around me.
This
Awakenings is my first workshop with Ya’cov and Suzannah, their energy
blends so beautifully together, like sumptuous dark chocolate and
deliciously roasted coffee! (Sugar free and decaf if necessary of
course). Seeing them working together reminds me of the completeness in
the union of the male and female principles. Working seamlessly
together, both offering all they have to the whole with their unique
expressions. The offering now super powered from both expressions
giving themselves totally. Thanks to the wonder of this union the
workshop was filled with wisdom, practicality, nurturing, humour and
love.
"The
brain does not play devil’s advocate." That is the way Stephen Johnson,
author of ‘Mind Wide Open’, describes the way our brains tend to
re-enforce our point of view, our feeling and our experience. Whatever
you are experiencing, thinking and feeling the brain will pull up the
information which endorses and consolidates it and says to you “yes,
this is true.”
THE BIG FAT GREEK GARBAGE GROOVE, OR DEAL WITH YOUR OWN POLLUTION!
by Jan Lee
Here in
Crete, the bin men have gone on strike, along with a lot of other workers.Poor
pay and pension cuts and a greedy government. Perhaps too they feel
un-noticed, un-rewarded for a trashy but valiant job. The people who
take away the waste do us a great but humble service. I always thought
at festivals, the unsung heroes are the portaloo lorry men. It’s
always when the mess is in excess that we really notice what happens
when they DONT arrive, and start to notice them when they DO come!
I can never resist an invitation to create a playlist ...
My favourite 3 dance tracks (today):
The Way You Dream - One Giant Leap
I
love tracks that build in energy within themselves. I'm impatient -
sometimes I get twitchy hanging out with three, four, five or more
tracks of gentle flowing before the musical energy rises - I want to
get on with it! I first heard this, or first noticed it, at a class I
attended immediately after attending The Alchemy of Stillness, I
believe the same that Roland wrote about last month.
This month's winner of £100 School of Movement Medicine workshop voucher
by Lunia Gaia
This
is the story of a vital, mortal battle. It happened many years ago,
when I had only just started wondering if I was a child. Somewhere deep
in South Wales, in a hostel for extreme sports youth groups, it began.
It was past my bedtime and my body had just finished the toughest week
of its life. Everyone else was at least six years older than me, and
light-years more cool and confident. They had done this before. They
knew how to do it, and, more importantly to me, they knew how to do it
with style.
Well, Susannah…
there’s no stopping the woman! As well as running workshops (I just did
Awakening and it did wake me up rather a LOT) she’s managed, with a bit
of tuition to turn herself into a computer geek too in her spare time.
So
in practical terms what this means for you is that there are now some
of the music clips I mentioned in my last article ready and available
for your listening pleasure, or displeasure which at least will be
clarifying…
The views expressed here do not necessarily represent the views of the School of Movement Medicine.
We have a MONTHLY
ONLINE NEWSLETTER with news and stories
from the Movement Medicine Community. See right
for the contentsa page of the current issue. To
view old newsletters click on the month below.
Before January 2007, our school was called The
Moving Centre School UK so the newsletters before
that date will refer to our old school name.
