Meditations on dancing in the presence of holiness, themes from 2 Samuel.
This dance is spontaneous creation, a jazz … skillful relationship to change … effortless presence in action. We cannot change the nature of change, but we can choose the way we relate to it. — Dancing Freedom dancers, Dharma Dance
Ghost Dance Songs of the Kiowa
The Father will descend,
The Father will descend,
The earth will tremble.
The earth will tremble.
Everybody will arise,
Everybody will arise.
Stretch out your hands,
Stretch out your hands.
The spirit host is advancing, they say.
The spirit host is advancing, they say.
They are coming with the buffalo, they say,
They are coming with the buffalo, they say.
They are coming with the (new) earth, they say,
They are coming with the (new) earth, they say.
That wind, that wind
Shakes my tipi, shakes my tipi,
And sings a song for me,
And sings a song for me.
Source: James Mooney, “The Ghost Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890”
Great music opens doorways into eternal presence. It educates and refines your listening; you begin to sense your own eternity in the echoes of your soul. Music is the perfect sister of silence. — John O’Donohue
In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art. ― Rumi
Life is the dancer and you are the dance. — Eckhart Tolle
We dance for laughter, we dance for tears, we dance for madness, we dance for fears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams, we are the dancers, we create the dreams. ― Albert Einstein
In the monastery, we fill the chapel with flowers and dance the alleluia down the aisle over and over again and end every community prayer period with alleluia so that it begins to dance in our hearts as well. We sing to Monday mornings, alleluia; to washing dishes, alleluia; to friends and work, alleluia; to dawn and dusk, alleluia; to old things and new, alleluia. — Joan Chittister
Whatever is going on in God is a flow, a radical relatedness, a perfect communion between Three—a circle dance of love. God is Absolute Friendship. God is not just a dancer; God is the dance itself. — Richard Rohr
You will lose someone you can’t live without, and your heart will be badly broken, and the bad news is that you never completely get over the loss of your beloved. But this is also the good news. They live forever in your broken heart that doesn’t seal back up. And you come through. It’s like having a broken leg that never heals perfectly—that still hurts when the weather gets cold, but you learn to dance with the limp. ― Anne Lamott
And she is going to dance, dance hungry, dance full, dance each cold astonishing moment, now when she is young and again when she is old. ― Anne Lamott
Dancing in the Dark — Bruce Springsteen
And I ain’t got nothing to say
I come home in the morning
I go to bed feeling the same way
I ain’t nothing but tired
Man I’m just tired and bored with myself
Hey there baby, I could use just a little help
You can’t start a fire
You can’t start a fire without a spark
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancing in the dark
Radio’s on and I’m moving ’round the place
I check my look in the mirror
I want to change my clothes, my hair, my face
Man I ain’t getting nowhere
I’m just living in a dump like this
There’s something happening somewhere
Baby I just know that there is
You can’t start a fire without a spark
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancing in the dark
There’s a joke here somewhere and it’s on me
I’ll shake this world off my shoulders
Come on baby this laugh’s on me
And they’ll be carving you up alright
They say you gotta stay hungry
Hey baby I’m just about starving tonight
I’m dying for some action
I’m sick of sitting ’round here trying to write this book
I need a love reaction
Come on now baby gimme just one look
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancing in the dark
You can’t start a fire worrying about your little world falling apart
This gun’s for hire
Even if we’re just dancing in the dark
Even if we’re just dancing in the dark
Even if we’re just dancing in the dark
Even if we’re just dancing in the dark
Hey baby