Rhythm, drumming, singing and letting the body move as it knows to, are all the wisdom of the body that is imprinted in us from birth and through time.

Like the cooking classes that we have been holding for the past couple years, so many elements of healing community and our disconnected hearts is rooted in coming back together and reclaiming these innate healing practices, together.

Coming back into relationship with Mother Earth/Mama Tierra, and each other in community is also the vision behind our milpa (mesoamerican farm). So what better place to bring us back into ancestral rhythm than with Mama Tierra and our beautiful Corn Mother/Mama Maiz. She is a blessing to us and we can bring the blessing of our joy and reclamation to her.

And then there is the innate medicine of moviendo las caderas/shaking the hips! Just as is discussed in our Rewilding the Nervous System workshops, the practice of tremoring or releasing tension from the pelvis and psoas muscles where our trauma/tension are stored, is something many ancestral/indigenous cultures attune to. When we are connected and integrated with all of life/all our relations, we connect to our intuitive healing release patterns and learn from all of our mammal siblings.

As a child growing up in foster care, moving from home to home, I learned to navigate my depression by finding a small corner, often a bathroom, then playing music and dancing. I see that little girl with such tenderness and awe that she found a way to release and persevere drawing from that innate impulse of resilience, before ‘somatics’ was a common healing modality.

And now, as I lean into my menopausal years, after so many years of giving and tending, my soul wants to embrace lightness, playfulness and the ancestral magic of rhythm and music making that is healing, and to share this with those who are drawn to the same remembering.

In these shifting and uncertain times, it is a potent act of liberation to find ways to heal and remember joy and playful healing in community with the extremely brilliant rhythms of the many latin cultures of the americas.

Dancing, releasing, remembering and returning in the way of our ancestors.

When?

We hope you will join us in the Milpa from 6pm-7:30pm this Friday, April 17th

and every 3rd Friday throughout the season!

Donation of $10-20 requested and no one turned away for lack of funds. All proceeds go to support Milpa Mariposa and Papalocuahtla land sanctuary.

Please bring a water bottle and yoga mat or blanket and comfortable clothes/shoes

Schedule

6pm- Stretching and brief somatic/body wisdom talk

6:15-7:15 Dancing to latin rhythms/ritmo latino

7:15- Stretching or tremoring (if have taken the Rewilding workshop)

Where?

Milpa Mariposa is at 100 Eagle Mill Rd., Ashland

Park on the street and walk down through the small gate.

You will see and hear us :)

I shared how at a recent wilderness skills gathering, a dear amiga and I were contrasting our awareness of earthly drama with the magnificence and magnitude of the cosmos. We were sharing some, even juicy drama, recognizing that we have to process this at times because we are complex humans having a complex experience. And yet, every time we looked up, the brilliant stars sparkling in the vast desert sky, helped us remember how small and invented our dramas are, and that what is essential is timeless and enduring.

It’s all about where we put our attention.

And it’s important to remember that our attention is the current capital.

(and everyone is vying for it)

So while it is so tempting to stay plugged in to figure things out when an onslaught of chaos is projected, it is very helpful to turn our attention inward and to our spiritual connection.

One of our community members asked me what this looks like in my days. And it dawned on me that my version of this inward and spiritual focus has been with me ever since I read a small sweet book years ago called, Practicing the Presence with Brother Lawrence. He was a monk and chef in a monastery and throughout the day would talk with Jesus, explicitly asking for His guidance from moment to moment, throughout the day, on even the most mundane things.

As a young person, I resonated with this, because this was what I intuitively did as a foster child. The humans in my life were ever changing, so I always leaned on my connections with Jesus, Mary, Creator and Mother Earth.  I felt the potency of their steadfast presence with me even as I moved from home to home.

And as I have embraced ancestral ways, it is clear that this ongoing presence is our birthright.  When humans are surrounded by the magnificence of the starry night sky, the brilliance of the Sun, the gift of life giving water as rivers, streams and ocean, by verdant plants, instinctual animals and regenerative soil, we cannot ignore that we are being held and guided by so much love and  perpetual creativity.

After the gathering, we drove south and  visited a friend in a remote town near the Mexico border that is designated as a dark sky area. I was blown away to see the billions of milky white stars in the wide bowl of pitch black night sky, not just above, but all around us. In my 50 years of life I had never seen so many, never knew they were there.

And yet they have been there all along.

The stars that have guided our ancestors

are more obscured,

but they remain.

Steadfast.

And we are meant to be fully alive, listening and unfolding with it all.

All week at the skills gathering, humans sat around fires, had conversations, laughed, sang songs. Children climbed boulders like wildcats. Drumming always in the background… it was a glimpse into the sparkle, aliveness and connection that we are all meant to have. A reclaiming of the village westerners have often lost due to the real hardships of life in nuclear families, with financial stress, oppression  and family dysfunction, etc.

And yet what I knew then, and what I know now, remains that

when everything falls apart

(or feels like it is falling apart)

we can hold ourselves

and pray actively,

engaging in conversation

and listening for answers.

And the listening part is key.

I intentionally do not engage with many podcasts or media, and largely live unplugged so that I can be in this conversation throughout the day,

and have the quiet necessary to hear the still small voices of my inner child and God/Love.

Lately, I have been asking myself, ‘If I lived in a pueblo (pre-media) what would I be focusing on?”

The answer is generally my family, friends, community, food, land tending and relationship. It’s a compass that points me back to what I actually have some control over.

And it calls us back to this moment,

this moment where our life actually is.

When we are heavily distracted and disconnected, it can also be helpful to engage in this conversation out loud.  Talking out loud and listening to all the guidance available to us, helps to repattern our neural pathways toward connection and peace.

For my inner little girl, when I speak to myself with love and care,  I am not just thinking and staying in my mind. Speaking words out loud with compassion and care drops us into our heart.  It helps to shift from a mental process to a lived experience of  being present with her and immediately I feel less alone, confused, scared. (and I often hear reports from those I support, that this is a game changer)

I let her know that ‘no matter what happens, I will be there for her, loving her and getting the help she needs.’ Daily, I ask how she is feeling and what she is needing, and pray for guidance on how to most lovingly tend to her. (which always ripples out in a good way)

We can mother/parent ourselves with this steadfast presence. Knowing that no matter what happens, we will be there to respond and tend to her. It is this inner commitment that creates a deeper sense of safety.

And when we reach to our spiritual connection,

we also remember that there is

an unending steadfast presence

to hold us.

Far far greater than any little dramas

or man made chaos

and something much more

like the million, billion shining stars in the sky

and beyond

Far Beyond.

xoxo