Open Roads Meeting The Feet

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acceptance, allowing, becoming, beleif, Believing, changes, Conscious Living, courage, courageous heart, Courageous Vulnerability, Creative Flow, faith, heart, hope, humanity, inspiration, journey, joy, learning, lessons learned, light, listening, Magic, observations, sharing, Soul to Soul, spirit, spirituality, thoughts, universal consciousness, universal heart, Vulnerable, well being, Wonder

Throughout my life I have had the wildest belief that I would always be ok. I never really questioned how I would make it or get along for myself. Faith just seemed to be something that was akin to the essence of who I was that to question never crossed my mind.

Living in the moment with the belief that life would take care of itself has always worked out even if I had no idea where I was headed. As a young adult I just followed my heart in everything I did and fell into roles, opportunities and career paths. Because I listened to my heart, the path listened too.

I had no idea dance would ever be such a big part of my life. No clue that I would end up where I am today at this moment helping other movement lovers find their bliss in a body falling through space. Not to mention helping folks find their voice in the creative art of dance making. But somehow, by listening to the heart and believing in life and therefore myself, I am here.

Most of the opportunities I fell into were simply because I chose love over someone else’s path or traditional professional trajectory. Not in the least bit. On the contrary, I just fell. And when I did fall, all I did was learn to listen. Despite the challenges or hardships; listening was the way I was able to make sense of it all.

And fall I did; on my face, my hands and knees, my back, my front and tumble upside down at mind numbing speeds. I fell and was always caught by love. The heart always seemed to land me on my feet and just before the landing being the path underneath me once again.

I never dreamed I would be in dance. Never dreamed I would be a healer. Never dreamed I would be an artistic director. Never dreamed I would be a professor. Never dreamed I would travel the world because of it. Never dreamed I would create an alignment system that would profoundly change so many peoples lives. And yet, I continue to choose to fall.

And now, it seems like it is time for another fall. It feels as though I am on the edge of a release to once again change my own world simply by having the faith to say yes and to once again accept that the universe will always care for me and surround me in love. I have always walked with angels by my side. This I know.

And so it is with this fate that I open my heart to say yes to whatever opportunity might come my way. Whatever will fall into place and into an existence that is so unexpected and so undeniably right now; then so it shall be. I choose to fall and I choose to once again be placed on a path that will most certainly change my world and perhaps others as well.

Fear Not The Sharing of Your Heart

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acceptance, allowing, becoming, Believing, bliss, courage, courageous heart, Courageous Vulnerability, dreams, Ecstasy, Existence, faith, fear, forgiveness, growth, heart, heart path, hope, inspiration, journey, joy, love, Magic, sharing, soul, spirit, universal heart, well being, wellness

Fear not the sharing of your heart, it is what the heart is made to do.

The heart itself has its own protection due to its magnificent design. The pericardium surrounds the heart encasing it to let it do it’s work.

So fear not the need to hold back out of fear or rejection; your heart is safe.

Since it’s very first beat, it has been sustaining you and pumping energy, breath and life. It keeps you in the flow and pulse of being simply by being itself. It has never given up on you.

So fear not the hearts fortitude and it’s commitment for keeping you well.

Throughout all of your early relationships, your heart automatically knew how to make connection as you entrained and grew its own magnetic field.

So fear not the hearts ability to connect and draw those close with whom are willing to listen.

Despite the conditioning of your journey; cultural, systemic or human dogma, your heart has always instinctively known who you are, dreamed to be and known you could be. It beats as your own innate drum.

So fear not standing out from the crowd and making the noise of your creation; the unique vibration, your unique vibration of love.

Even if folks have come and gone and life has not blessed you with the love you dreamed, there has always been love and will always be love surrounding you. In fact, love is the pericardium of your life. Love us in fact a magnetic field surrounding and connecting and protecting your very physical and energetic self.

Fear not that you have hurt and felt the pain and sorrow in which often is sustained by deep heartfelt connection; the heart is never scarred, only the ego.

Know that the heart will always beat in your favor welcoming the best for and wanting to connect with others. Know that it is up for another journey with a spirit who is willing the adventure of joy, bliss and ecstasy.

Fear not the sharing of the heart, it is the gift of connection that we are given to speak our story and change our world.

Possibilities Abound

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acceptance, allowing, becoming, beleif, Believing, bliss, body knowledge, change, compassion, Conscious Living, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, Creative Flow, Creativity, development, Dream, Energy, faith, heart, heart path, hope, humanity, inspiration, journey, joy, learning, life, light, love, Magic, Mindful Action, peace, sharing, Soul to Soul, spirit, spirituality, universal consciousness, universal heart, well being, Wonder

Since Covid I have found myself giving over to healing from so much of my past that I never allowed myself the time to heal from. Despite the horrific tragedy of the pandemic and all of the lives lost and devastating heartbreak, I committed to choosing healing the heart as a way of taking time to honor the space of this moment.

A few years into what I have deemed my heart work, I am so grateful I made that choice and stuck with it as life returned to a new normal. What didn’t return was the man I was pre-pandemic. And for all of this I am able to see the immense change in who I am, what I desire and what is truly possible when one begins living from the heart and unconditional love.

As I diligently engage my meditation practice, my affirmation practice, my running practice, my waking practice, my movement practices and even my hypnosis; I see the abundance of possibilities that are there for me. Not a day goes by or a dream expressed that I don’t see the potential for a whole new life, mind and way of living.

Decisions have been made for huge shifts and transformative opportunities which slowly begin to reveal themselves in so many synchronicities and ah ha moments. I have returned to so many instinctual remembrance’s that all whisper that this is the right direction and path for my voice of the heart to begin speaking and literally singing once again.

This is the time and I realize, now more than ever, that the work I do, share and creates are needed now. My sensitivity, empathy, compassion and love is needed now. In these challenging and very turbulent times, I am needed now. As are you.

If we are going to move the world into the space of love, we all are needed now. In all of the many different ways, being and becoming; we are all so desperately needed for a time of healing for ourselves and for one another. The earth needs us. Our hearts need us. All that you love needs us.

In acknowledging that you are needed and putting the energy and focus in that loving space; possibilities will abound. You are capable of magic and miracles. We all are capable of magic and miracles. I choose magic and miracles each and every day. And let me tell you, it is divine.

Duality

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allowing, Believing, Conscious Living, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, faith, heart, heart path, journey, Magic, Soul to Soul, spirit, universal consciousness, universal heart, well being

Duality, rather the extreme of duality, is significant and yet insignificant. It’s own nature diminishes any division by encouraging, and perhaps welcoming the unification of all things. We are taught this and that. Light and dark. As if these things are separate and somehow different. Yet, truthfully, they are on a spectrum within a field of multiplicity of no right or no wrong. Everything just is.

This is not to say that complacency is our present, but being present washes away complacency itself and promotes action for equality and balance. Walk in the presence of your heart and speak with the hearts greatest truth and desire. The solutions to your perceived division will present themselves through the magic of truth.

The spells we cast on ourselves are the ones that bind us to the differences between us. Perhaps it is in accepting the true nature of reality in that all things are one is the only way to break the spell of condition and oppression. Allow for the unification of all things and you will allow yourself to walk as one with the world.

Dancers

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a life well lived, artists, choreographer, Dance, dancers, devotion, honor, love, Magic, owe, passion, soul, spirit, teacher, the arts, Wonder

Dancers are a rare and beautiful thing. They tirelessly push themselves and their bodies to press back the boundaries of their physicality exhausting themselves simply for the love of movement. They willingly give themselves over to a dance to unselfishly submit to the voice of the work. They map the dance with their bodies so the audience can see, for one brief ephemeral moment at a time, the vision of the choreographer.

This ecstasy is what drives each and every dancer. This bliss is what carries dancers through a lifetime relationship their kinetic lover. It doesn’t matter what style or technique, what matters is a body in motion. This is what reminds the dancer time and time again that they are alive and well. This is what means the world to them and what they give themselves over to time and time again.

I admit I am partial to dancers. Perhaps because I fell in love with dance and changed my entire life to pursue the uncertainty of this lifestyle. When I say I chose it, I should really say I finally started listening to the omens that were there before me for so very long. But like most of us, we are not always listening to the voice of our hearts and our bodies and often miss our calling. I am grateful for my awakening and thankful for one of the most beautiful lives imaginable.

And so I cherish dancers. I do. They are to be admired, respected and revered. I owe dancers my life really. Because they need training, I have a job that I love. Because they need dances to immerse themselves in, I have a company. If it wasn’t for them, I would be lost as to how to express my kinetic vision and voice. For this, I am grateful.

I love my dancers. I trust my dancers. I believe in them fully to embody the concepts and humanity within the work I lay asleep at night contemplating. I believe in them enough to give them the dances we create knowing that they are the keepers of the ephemeral magic that is my work. I couldn’t imagine anything else as dances must be a shared responsibility of the community so as to honor the fullness and richness of the art form and the dance.

We need dancers in our communities, our cities, our culture. They bring to us a vast richness of being as they are an example of listening to their hearts and fulfilling their destiny. They are models of what it means to be fully human while giving themselves over to something larger than themselves with complete love and passion. They live life never apologizing for following their dreams and the fulfillment of that dream through the vehicle of a heavenly body in motion.

And it is this that we must remember. It is this kind of acknowledgment and support that we must remember. This is the reason why I believe we should honor a dancer this week. I would like to ask you to join me in helping to honor my dancers richness and beauty by helping me to support their energy and efforts in space and time. If you have ever marveled at these gorgeous creatures, wondered how they do it or stood in awe of their majesty; join me in my goal of raising $3000 this week to sponsor their performance fees.

Just 300 people donating at the Forerunner level of $10 can make this possible. If you do the math, the numbers diminish if the amounts go up. And even if you have never experienced much dance in your life, know that these beautiful beings are remarkable and inspiring and deserve to be paid what they are worth. Truth be told they are priceless, but being paid is a small way of honoring their being.

Thank you for letting me share these thoughts and this request. If you can’t support, please share. If you can’t share, send your love and kindness. Momentum comes in many ways. And lastly, be sure to mark your calendar for September 11-13 to see the magnificence of these kinetic beasts. They will steal your hearts as they have mine.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/amaranth-arts-2014-fall-season/x/8298622#home

Misplaced Bag

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Believing, Conscious Living, contemporary dance, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, Creative Flow, Creativity, Dance, Energy, heart path, journey, Magic, Mindful Action, modern dance, Teaching, universal consciousness, universal heart

I made it to Paris with only one hitch. My bag somehow took a flight to Charlotte instead of Philly with me. As I was the last one standing at CDG, I soon realized I had an issue. All my clothes and toiletries were still in the states as I stood at carousel 3 waiting for my bag. Calmly. I waited.

I then went to the baggage claim area attendant to make a report and file the missing luggage. This was when I was told that someone in Richmond put my bag on a plane to where I was not. Isn’t that against TSA regulations? I digress.

Anyway, on a positive note, I only had my bags on my shoulders to carry on the RER and Metro to find my apartment. So I started my journey a little lighter than expected. The good thing was that if all went well, someone would hand deliver my outfits,  unmentionables and toiletries directly to my door. Yet, I admit I was nervous that there was no real way to contact me and since I was staying in an apartment rather than a hotel, it would be a little more difficult to actually get the bad delivered.

At present I sit waiting in my apartment. I do know the bag made it to Paris and is supposedly on its way to being delivered. I have stayed at the apartment save the time I went out shopping for coffee, breakfast goodies and a few other nash items. Still no word or call. They do have the land line, but I know they didn’t call while I was gone as there were no messages left and no record of incoming calls.

The rest of the day has been full of classical music wafting throughout the apartment with much writing and reading on my part. I have been forced to take a day of quiet contemplation and rest. Much needed rest and much desired quiet time as well. I often forget how much I like quiet and alone time. As I mentioned before in my writing, I do like embracing my introvert behaviors and often do not honor them enough. Clearly someone at RIC decided I needed to get reacquainted with that part of myself.

None the less, I am here and in perfect bliss. Staying in an apartment in the 3rd Arr. in Paris while I have time to think and to expand my current understanding of time, I am in a Scott heaven. It is so nice to be back here and in a place that is congruent with my pace of life and with the workings and wirings of my being.

I am often in a position where I question myself within the confines of my culture and feel as if the way in which my brain works, I process, and desire to walk the path of my life is somehow not as good as others. Yes, I often feel as if the way in which I am put together is oddly enough not acknowledged or honored.

Living a non-western life within a western culture is a little difficult at times. Being an introvert in an extrovert world is also challenging as introverts are seldom recognized for their thought process or quiet and contemplative ways. As if it wasn’t enough being a second class citizen who is a dancer and gay at that. Adding up all the marks against me I often wonder why I haven’t given up all together?

Yet, I know the answer to that. I do. I realize that I am making choices in my life that are right for me. I have taken the heat for it over and over again, but still make the choices that are congruent with my heart speak. In doing so, one is often labeled as the mean one or the one who speaks out when he shouldn’t. Even though it needs to be said and everyone knows it, still the ass for saying it. Which is also odd being that I prefer not to speak in the first place. I hate public speaking.

But is it any wonder that I prefer the art of dance where I do not have to speak in public at all? Not at all. I like the abstract world of contemporary imagistic ephemeral moments that take people deep within their own reality to suggest questions that sometimes do not get asked. Yes, I like to pose a question without speaking words but by merely crafting an image to plant the seed of thought. Even if it needs attending to or gets trampled on, I like that way of communicating the best.

And now that I have found the confidence to share my thoughts and ideas through words, it is no wonder that the words are on a page or screen that still keep me at a safe distance in a way that allows a reader to absorb it in the ways in which are best or most appropriate for them. I am finding that communicating in this form is helping me to find the right ways in which to read a different audience than a dance audience. As well as it helps me to even crystalize and create my three dimensional story telling in space.

I have always had a dream that I whispered to the universe of wanting to write a book. And this I am doing. It is taking me time, but I write daily the meanderings of my thoughts on technique and choreography. They are not traditional thoughts by any means. They are rooted in very eastern practices with clearly more unique ways of attending to the art of listening to the process rather than manufacturing a product. I am embracing this as I have embraced the time a lost bag can help a lost heart.

 

Gratitude of Joy

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Believing, Conscious Living, Courageous Vulnerability, Energy, faith, heart, heart path, hope, journey, joy, love, Magic, Modern, Soul to Soul, spirit, universal heart, Vulnerable, Wonder

I know there is pain and suffering in the world. I know that there is much to be shifted and changed in all of our individual and collective lives. I know this. I acknowledge the frail, imperfect and vulnerable lines we walk and that which surrounds us. However, at this moment, all I know is bliss. All I see is beauty. All there is is joy.

I choose, at this moment to see, welcome and embrace what is often seldom seen or folded into our lives. Instead of giving in, I give out. Instead of giving up, I give within. I see between the lines. I listen to the parts of the harmony that allow the melody to be remembered. It is in these unusual places that perfect of moments lives. The most beautiful and sacred magical moments live here.

At this moment I shut my eyes and give thanks for all that is here. This is my moment of gratitude; my moment to change the rest of my life by accepting this life as the most beautiful of all things I could be living. Right here. Right now. This moment. This life. This is the joy.

Grateful Is

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Believing, conscious, Conscious Living, courage, Courageous Vulnerability, Energy, faith, Grateful, heart, heart path, Is, journey, light, love, Magic, pathway, Soul to Soul, spirit, spirituality, thankful, this moment, thoughts, Wonder

I am not sure where this begins or that ends. Actually, the longer I spend focused on the moment; I realize increasingly that all that matters simply is. No beginning, no end. No rules or instructions, just present being.

I am no longer looking at the future head on, I am accepting the present fully while embracing all that is as it washes through me. Yes, my body, as is my life, is porous and open letting time and events pass easily through without being stuck on the fear that used to clog my being.

This is not to say I am giving up mind you, just to acknowledge I am giving in. Giving in to what is larger than the scattered pieces of me, and that which is more capable of sifting through sorrow and pain dissolving it with love. Releasing control is in fact allowing for what is to be yours as you consciously accept all that is possible and all the abundance that wants to be in vibrational congruency with your heart.

I am grateful for a path that has so graciously allowed so much prosperity and joy in my life. I could not have imagined a life so full and so bright. Nor, can I possibly imagine what is in store as I willingly accept all that comes and all that will be shared with others.

I give thanks for all that is. For all that is, is a reflection of all that is inside of me as well as what is inside of others. This energy and light is shining brightly in the heart of the day as well the blue in which this days sky covers our heads and in the nourishment of what we will absorb in our sustenance. May we cycle this energy and light into our matter so that we might matter in our lives and in the lives of others.

A Moon to Exist Under

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Ballet, Believing, Conscious Living, contemporary dance, Creative Flow, Creativity, Dance, darkness, journey, light, Magic, Modern, moon, moon beam, Movement, poetry, radiance, space, speed, spirituality, twilight, universal consciousness, view, well being

moon beams from an eastern twilight sky

glowing magically with a radiance untouchable

floating above a cavern so vast lies an eternity of space

a silence so thick and dense there is to be no movement

and still, time passes through like a speeding train

racing towards no end

breaking all barriers to exist

But By a Dragons Breath

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climbing mountains, concepts, Dance, dragon, journey, Magic, modern dance, New work, power, realization, realization of self, Risk, sacred, self reflection, struggle, understanding ones power

It is but by a dragons breath that we are able to see our future. It is through this fire that we are able to understand our being.

We must stand in the face of the ancients in order to know our own true peace recognizing our reflection in the oceans of their eyes.

One can not comprehend the potential of their spirit if they do not climb the mountains in which these dragons live. It is a journey every person must make and a risk that must be taken.

It is this journey, through the clouds on a midnight sky, when we realize  our connection to the sacred and understand that this quest is to know the dragon is within.