Dance by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Tell me a story of who you are, and see who I am in the stories I am living.

And together we will remember that each of us always has a choice.

Don’t tell me how wonderful things will be . . . some day.
Show me you can risk being completely at peace,
truly OK with the way things are right now in this moment,
and again in the next and the next and the next. . .

I have heard enough warrior stories of heroic daring.
Tell me how you crumble when you hit the wall,
the place you cannot go beyond by the strength of your own will.
What carries you to the other side of that wall,
to the fragile beauty of your own humanness?

Take me to the places on the earth that teach you how to dance, the places where you can risk letting the world break your heart.
And I will take you to the places where the earth beneath my feet and the stars overhead make my heart whole again and again.

Show me how you offer to your people and the world the stories and the songs you want our children’s children to remember, and I will show you how I struggle not to change the world, but to love it.

Sit beside me in long moments of shared solitude, knowing both our absolute aloneness and our undeniable belonging. Dance with me in the silence and in the sound of small daily words, holding neither against me at the end of the day.

And when the sound of all the declarations of our sincerest intentions has died away on the wind, dance with me in the infinite pause before the next great inhale of the breath that is breathing us all into being, not filling the emptiness from the outside or from within.

Don’t say, “Yes!” Just take my hand and dance with me.

~

This is a letter from me to you. It is a letter from God to you, imploring you to share, to encourage, to reach out, to recognize the weak and the strong face of Christ in others, and within yourself. This is a letter about loving the light within each person and honoring that light in all persons. It is about letting Love IN and holding it to the light, dancing in life with Love. This is the message of Gabriel to Mary on the night of the Annunciation. "Come dance with me."

The word, perichoresis, is used theologically to describe  the "mutual inter-penetration and indwelling within the threefold nature of the Trinity." Literally perichoresis means "around - contain,' and choresis is related to chorea, from the from the Greek word χορεία (=dance). Perichoresis is commonly used in reference to the Spirit, who is eternally in dynamic, reciprocal relationship with Word and Source. Perichoresis refers to the relationships of our hearts to God and to each other. Our awareness of this indwelling divinity, this Spirit by whom we are all connected, all unified as holy harbingers of Godliness is entirely dependent on our consent, our receptivity, our "Yes."

Molly Marshall, in her book, Joining the Dance: The Spirit, Gabriel "calls life forth from from the emptiness of Mary's womb...The birth of the Son is a collaboration of human and divine. The conception requires the Spirit's fecundity and Mary's fruitful yes. God's creative movement accords with the receptive participation of the human partner." Christ is born through the Spirit of consenting hearts of "Yes" in shared relationships.

May your heart be open to the dance of the Spirit. May you realize the birth of the divine Christ within you and honor God's light within all who share this glorious dance of humanity and creation. Life is a sacred gift from God. Share. Trust. Love. Dance!

Namaste my friends, on this beautiful Christmas celebration of divine renewal! Thanks be to God.
Peggy
Artwork: Annunciation Henry Ossawa Tanner