I have traveled many a place wandering far from home. As a child I dreamed of exploring this world to experience places and wonders unimaginable. The work I have chosen has provided that opportunity. Yet, when I started down that road I had no idea the magnitude of what the choice to make a decision to follow a heart fulfilled by movement would be. In fact, most people discouraged that thought as I threw caution to the wind and decided I must choose that which I knew nothing about but that fulfilled my heart.
It has been a journey. Full of both highs and lows, it has been a tumultuous ride. A ride I would not choose to do any differently. It has not been what I had dreamed, but it has been more than I could have possibly imagined. Yet, I realize my actual dreams are still ahead of me since all that has been happening in life has only been the preparation for what is to come. I have not always been ready for my dreams and therefor my life has been teaching me, training me in the ways in which I will be well prepared to handle the success of what is to come.
I realize this as I return to “home”. You see in all my travels and friendships on this journey I have landed in several places where my work has allowed a space of comfort and connection I could have never imagined. Yes, my original home is with my family in the suburbs of Chicago with family and friends who were incredible to me throughout my time growing up as a young adult. This allowed me the courage and confidence to make decisions to move myself along a path of following my dreams. My mother and my friends, my dear loving friends, held my hand with their love and their belief in me even when I had no belief in myself.
This love is home. And now I have found myself in a second home here in Denver. This place has become a space of creativity, love and light. It has become a place where I find comfort and support, graciousness and gratitude as well as love and admiration. In the creative space of the studio students give their all to us allowing an expression of the human condition through movement while being vulnerable and trusting enough to let us expand their movement vocabulary and understanding of what is possible in dance. This is a sacred space of returning that allows us to feel as if we are “home” when we return to the space of DSA.
And once the work is done in the studio, we return “home” to a space where we are loved and cared for for all of who we are and all of who we want to be. We are embraced with laughter and light, with warmth and with friendship, with food and with care. We return “home” to people who embrace us with their arms and with their hearts opening their home to us and sharing their stories with ours furthering the understanding of relationships full of love. This the ultimate humane condition. I am always amazed and honored when returning with some of the same people and some of the new people who have been gathered in the creative net of my life.
For this, I am grateful. For this I send an appreciation of love and light and most importantly, laughter. Laughter has always been the one thing that made me realize how much I love life and love the people in my life. If we have shared through laughter, we have shared through love. This is the way I prefer to show love I guess; the way in which I do love and express love. The loving light of laughter through humility and vulnerability to laugh at myself and at the experiences that bring a better understanding of humanity.
I am reminded of this as I return “home”. I am reminded to reach for more when I return “home”. I am encouraged and inspired when I return “home”. And this time, I realize it is time to reach further and to have the courage to make new pathways and perhaps leave “home” once again for even more fantastic journey’s and explorations. I understand that through this loving laughter it is time to take off to place unknown once again. It is time to “Depart from Platform Unknown” to places unknown with the courage and faith that life will be unfolding underneath my feet, guiding the way under the light of the waning moon.
Coming “home” after building a home has reminded me of my humble beginnings. And so I begin again for another shift in life to move forward into the direction of my actions, and the actions moving me forward into directions of the unfathomable. Thank you family and friends from Chicago. Thank you “family” and friends of Denver. Thank you for being the platform from which to catapult a whole new way of being.
Architecture of the Heart 