Improvisation is a Divine Love Thing

I spent the weekend in New Mexico with Richard Rohr and Cynthia Bourgeault learning about soul-stirring, heart opening, divine love in real people. How we find the real deal.

In ancient practice three actions lead to Great Love. 1) Let go. 2) Deeply welcome life. 3) In singular fullness, unite with self, other, all.

It hit me. Improvisation is the discipline of letting go. And, it’s hardest when we’re scared, stressed, or upset. In other words, most of the time.

But an improviser loves to play with life and ride it into the big “YES!”  An improviser will gladly flop if the payoff leads to making love with creation. This is why InterPlay is my playground, discipline, and where I feast on love for life.

Clinging is the opposite of letting go.  I need both dynamics to be human, but to get to Love, InterPlay sets up practices that build confidence in the flow of our own voice, moves, stories, connection, and self understanding. Incrementality!

Adult play gives us a “safe enough” place to follow and go with the materials of experience until we can do it for longer periods with all we encounter, even death. We discover we are alive, powerful, and that we are having fun!

In community we get strong enough to merge with a greater field that helps our social body heal from the bumps of daily life. What does this look like? A dance. A song. Drumming. A community sharing the quiet. When we point toward Something Bigger we touch ecstasy. Peace, joy, hope, laughter, tears return.

What is your discipline for letting go? Do you practice as a mover, a teller, a person with voice, breath and stillness?  Is it fun?

What if peace-making required more lovers and fewer problem solvers? Would you know how to play into love?

Are you ready for the disciplines of this strange age: learning to improvise and love? Come InterPlay! Maybe you are called to come learn lead it!

InterPlay: Recognized as a top modality for conscious dance

Since the 1970’s certain dancers have taken on a form of “spiritual leadership.” These pioneers uncovered lost body wisdom hidden in forms of free and creative dance. In dance, music, and drum they found ways to heal splits between body, mind and soul, strengthen individuals and communities, restore balance in every sector of human behavior and do so as artists, entrepreneurs and community organizers. Their followers are equally inspired and growing in number. With practices that have gelled into systems they can be shared in many locations giving rise to a verile, social movement. One magazine shines a light on it, “Conscious Dancer.”

In it’s September 2010 issue, Conscious Dancer Magazine features InterPlay among the top ten of 100 modalities along with NIA, 5 Rhythms, Zumba, Jazzercise, Biodanza, Tamalpa Arts, Continuum, Take Tina, and JourneyDance. We are honored.

Read the article (download here) and celebrate all that has gone in to bringing these modalities into view as resources for healing and a new enlightenment in the twenty first century. If you are an InterPlayer share our pride in being part of something both ancient and fresh that is serving many populations.

For as the Hopi elders say…
“The time of the lone wolf is over.
Gather yourselves!
Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary.
All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration.
We are the ones that we have been waiting for.”

– The Elders, Oraibi, Arizona Hopi Nation

If you know that InterPlay plays a key role in this era, your support has never been more needed. Participate in the Million connections campaign to help Body Wisdom, Inc. continue to be a leader in building health, insight, and connection in the US and with our partners around the world.

I am a Traveler

InterPlayers in India

I am a Traveler. Call me way out there, whatever. I not only travel on planes, but with my amazing human abilities, I “connect” through time, space and over long distances in my physical body. Reaching out to friends around the world, I sense relationship on a physical level. My body kinesthetically “moves” into relation with InterPlayers in India and Australia like a magical tele-motor-conductor. You too?

The bad news? Travel can make me scattered, spacey, till I’m downright outta body. That’s one reason I love InterPlay as a life practice. Again and again it brings me back to this chair, this room, this breath, this little place. If I dance, sing, or create with someone else in the room, I know how good it is to be at home where I am. This chair, dance, breath is ENOUGH! I don’t have to be all over the place, in everybody’s business. Wheeee. Gratefully, I’ve learned that I can move easily between travel and homecoming throughout the day. What a wonderful body. I’m rarely stuck.

And hey, like Michelle Shocked, “I’ve come a long way.”

The web allows similar physical play. Online travelers now meet, greet and conspire (breath with) one another in embodied forms. Nika Quirk has her Powered by InterPlay “Wheeeee, we’re Alive” Monday Morning calls. And, Meri Walker, the Madhatter of Virtual Meetings herself is coaching me and others in the Madhatter’s Tea Party 6-Week Virtual Meeting Camp. Wanna play? It’s APRIL 19-May 24th Monday Pacific Time 3:30-4:30. Meet Meri. The cost is $89.  It’s for anyone who enjoys goofy learning environments involving a tea party and funny hats. What if we could play and achieve our goals without having to drive and fly around all the time? Email for more info: cynthia@interplay.org

Other travel…

Conscious Dancer magazine would love your input for the “Summer Travel” issue. Where have you been and where are you going? What do you dream about? Let our readers know by taking our quick and easy summer travel survey. Thanks!

Minnesotan InterPlayer Sage Lewis, author of JAVA: The True Story of a Shelter Dog Who Rescued a Woman hosts The Pet Playground radio show. Wednesday, April 7 from 1-2pm Central. Six MN InterPlayers will share music, dolphin noises, stories. Call in stories, babble or blurt about animals @ 952-946-6205 or listen to archives of the show at www.DancingPorcupine.com or live at www.am950ktnf.com/listen. Show airs May 2, 6pm Central.

Read about InterPlayer’s Marcia McFee and Karen Foster’s new book, “Spiritual Adventures in the Snow,” about preparing for Holy Week and Passover in USA Today.

Sheila Collins and I are among 60 women launching “Imagine a Woman.” Imagine a Woman International and celebrating the “Imagine a Woman” poem’s 15th Birthday Party at www.imagineAwoman.com. Get your party clothes on, invite your friends, and come on over.