Everything has changed – March 2020
Since the last newsletter, everything has changed. In the shaking of these times, I feel myself and the human web vibrating with adrenaline as we face the power of this unprecedented global situation and the deep unknown. At the same time, I feel a gentle presence in the midst of the craziness which feels like a powerful nudge from mother earth to get with it and make the changes we need to make.
In saying this I am not wishing in any way to belittle the very real challenges for the overwhelmed health services, now or in the future, and all the people suffering as a result of coronavirus, on so many levels.
In these unusual circumstances, we are offering special event FREE Movement Medicine dancing zoom webinars as a way to stay connected to the pulse of life, to the power of dance and to the sustaining joy of community and connection. They are every Tuesday evening throughout March. The last one in March (31st) will be the launch of Ya’Acov’s powerful new book Shaman. I am sure it’ll prove good company for the time to come.
We have been very touched to see and feel the response and how it feels to be able to see each other and dance together. We’ve experienced and had fed back to us the surprising power of grooving together in this way and letting our hearts unfurl in the warmth of the collective vibration of energy and community. As Wiebke Kohn, who danced on the Hamburg “Source” workshop online meet up, said:
“This is a moment to discover how to sense and feel our inter-connectedness (which is real) even when we are in our separate houses, cities, villages and countries- we are still in real reality connected…” Yes.
The sound quality was not great for that first one (or the ones for the people we would have been teaching over this last weekend). Thank you for your patience and understanding. We’ve been working hard on it and we believe we now have it sorted and should be good from here on. For this Tuesday, check it out and get your speakers connected!
The powers of kindness and care are beautifully apparent and at the same time the “me first” energy of panic buying. I understand both and feel both within me. And, as has almost always been the way, we will do better as a species if we co-operate and work together, which is, apparently what the norm for us is, in disasters. Often it is in these difficult situations that the best of us comes out. I love hearing the singing Italians, for instance, or seeing this wonderful caring and creative impulse from a woman in Cornwall. So fascinating to be in a global moment of deep crisis without needing a human “other” for “us” to come together. Could we come together as “us” globally?
Ya’Acov and I were very moved by this TED talk with Alanna Shaikh (global health geek as she describes herself) speaking about two aspects of this disease connected with environmental issues and social justice issues. She was speaking about how our human activities spreading into areas of previously untouched wild territories is meaning that we are inevitably coming into contact with new diseases and that we need to leave those wild territories be. And she was speaking about the need to develop and support health care systems and education everywhere. Yes!
I find that what helps me most right now, is (wait for it……… surprise is) dancing. The high vibration of the unknown, change, fear, excitement and adrenaline that’s coursing through me and the world wide web needs to move. At least in me it does. And I feel so much more grounded, present and here when I have. When I hear the music I’m simultaneously held by the beat and the groove and all the goodness in the music and I can more easily connect with the knowledge that you’re all out there, maybe dancing too. I feel released, I can find my body, my heart and the ground again and my joy.
I feel how I NEED music like never before and I NEED to dance like never before and I NEED to connect like never before, bother with human connection and with myself and with the natural world.
As you probably know, we have been working for the last months on setting up “21 Gratitudes” our online Movement Medicine Study Hub. This is a membership portal through which we can offer our work globally whilst staying home. We knew that this felt appropriate for these times, but we had no idea just how appropriate it was going to be. All of our workshops have been cancelled or postponed for the next few months and so we will be offering our work online. We are looking into changing the price structure to make it as accessible as possible.
The doors open in April (for 1 week only) and on the 18th April the doors of the magical garden open and the first ‘21 Gratitudes’ teachings and classes begin and you can continue your journey of movement, learning, self-acceptance, discovery and growth online as a founding member of this world wide community. We are grateful that we can do this and that we are ready to do this.
On a very personal note, my dear Uncle Arthur has died. Many of you who have worked with me have heard me speak about him and my Aunty Liz, and what I learnt by their sides. Ya’Acov and I were waiting for our bags in Quito airport in Ecuador. I switched on my phone to get a message from my father that Arthur had died. I wrote about him in a previous newsletter and that piece is repeated below. Arthur was buried in his top field and his body was carried to his burial in a wicker coffin in the bucket of his friend’s tractor. Long live his spirit. Exactly as I feel with my mother, I feel proud to stand in his lineage. As my Aunt says, he died knowing how much he was respected and loved by so many people. In this time when our elders are especially vulnerable, it seems a good moment to remember to acknowledge and honour them.
Bless us all as we do our best to show up in solidarity with the life that runs through our veins, with courage and humility and all the not knowing and taking the steps we can with all the kindness we can muster,
For music and guided Movement Medicine journeys we’re here,
Love to us all, and hope to see you tomorrow (Tuesday 17th March) on zoom,
Susannah Darling Khan