The Joyful Path

This last week has reinforced how important movement and play is in cultivating joy. I have been traveling a lot lately for work and hiking is one of my favorite things to do. Add some mountains and I'm in bliss.

But movement is more than just getting from point A to point B. It's also how we express ourselves with our physical body and connect with the world around us.

On a whim (or so I thought), I joined a West African dance class and found myself not only feeding my curiosity of learning about other cultures but really listening, feeling, and being present with the vibrations in my soul, in the earth, in the instruments, in the other people around me, and how it all weaves together.

Before we even learned any steps, the teacher had us shout out childlike qualities... uninhibited playfulness, curiosity, creativity, joy. Then he had us connect to those qualities as we moved across the room and got familiar with the ground beneath us... the texture of the floor, the bumps, the edges. Then he had us move faster around the room as we became aware of each other and our energy. Then he had us move backwards to build our trust in each other so that we didn't collide. Then he had us play a game to defend our backs as we tried to tap each other out.

Then and only then, after we had connected to the threads that weave through us, around us, below us, above us, among us, did he teach us the dance. You can tell by the smiles on our faces and the way our bodies moved so freely that it didn't take us long to learn it, but more importantly, to enjoy our collective vibration.

I thought I went to this class on a whim. But somehow I think I was guided there. And what a gift it was to be truly present for it.