Do it now
I dreamt of being in an underground prison dreaming of sailing on the open sea. That was my father’s dream. To break out and sail from the UK to Israel. He didn’t. He died just before he was 57. I wonder sometimes how he would have been as an older man. What the passing years would have brought to the space between us. At the same time, he’s there at my shoulder, reminding me that today is the day.
It’s been a good day today as I sit down to write to you all. What’s a good day? I woke before my daylight clock had done its imitation of dawn. I felt rested. We drank our warm lemon and apple cider tonic and walked up the hill onto the moors. It was full cloud and mist in our favourite meditation spot. We sit and breathe and then get in the water and say our morning prayers. Our sprocker dog Moxi makes every walk a joy. She’s so happy when we reach the stream and even happier when it’s time to walk again.
Back home for a good sweat on the peloton and a weightlifting session, green smoothie and some good protein for breakfast and then a couple of hours of design and admin before three 1-1 sessions with our upcoming Professional Trainees. If those 1-1 sessions are a good measure of the commitment, style and humanity of the next cohort of Movement Medicine Professionals to start sharing our work, then I’m so glad for the people (maybe you) who will get to dance with them.
Lunch was a leftovers affair – a kind of good old-fashioned throw it all in the pot with a little garlic and, salt and pepper – yum!
I then had a meeting with Fundacion Pachamama to talk about our upcoming Dancing with the Heart of the World Amazon Rainforest immersion in January and to tell them the good news that $20,000 from this year’s Summer Long Dance is on the way to them. The ceremony was a fantastic success on every level from the sublime to the mundane and actually raised more than £105,000 for a whole bunch of brilliant projects around the world. Tickets for next year’s Long Dance will be on sale in October and with our payment plan, you could take advantage of the early bird and spread your payment over 10 months. An excellent investment if you ask me. The Long Dance is the essence of what Movement Medicine is all about. It’s a ceremony like no other and this year, Manari, our brother from the Amazon, and we, all felt that the power of the prayer and the healing and nourishment of the ceremony was deeper than ever.
Today was also apple picking time. We planted our little orchard 7 years ago and this year, one of the trees has really produced. It’s a slow process finding the right variety of trees for the particular conditions here. Most of those apples will be special treats for Susannah’s ponies but if we kind a good recipe for a keto apple pie, you never know.
Connection
At the same time as being committed to enjoying my days as much as I can, no day goes by without an awareness of the many other kinds of days being lived. Susannah just told me about another young person she heard of who tried to end their life. The polarity of the majesty and the misery are part of our everyday and Movement Medicine continues to be our best response. Recently, I had the mixed blessing to work with a group of Palestinians and Israelis at Medicine Festival. I knew some of them from Combatants for Peace. The group is called Ripples. I say mixed because their invitation was to feel more deeply the fury and the deep grief so many of us feel for what continues to happen in that part of the world. May peace prevail!
Someone asked me today; ‘How do you keep going with so much suffering in the world and after so many years of teaching?’ I told them that I’ve seen a dream of the future in which our human presence here on earth has matured. We have found our place inside ourselves, with each other and as part of the living biosphere. I am committed to enjoying the miracle of every day and making the most of my manifold blessings live. And that dream of what this world can be is all the motivation I need. For our descendants, every step is worthwhile.
That’s the story I live from. And I’m sure like you, some days are better than others. I came back from the joy of teaching with Reuben, our son, at Medicine Festival with a good end of summer cold. Sometimes the body just says; ‘Stop!’ So I did. They say a cold as the season turns is a good work-out for the immune system. And I enjoyed a little Netflix binge with Those About to Die –not for the squeamish – a horrific but well told tale of Roman power, corruption and cruelty.
Time Stops for No-One
They say time stops for nobody. And they say it speeds up the older we get. And so it seems to me. Like sand through my fingers, the days and months and years keep on passing by. Autumn is coming and in all its beauty, there is always for me that tinge of melancholy. The slow turning of the leaves, the bracken losing its summer shine, the blackberries appearing on the brambles and disappearing so fast – and my father on my shoulder. Now, he tells me. Now.
The fact that I turned 60 earlier in the year gives this particular Autumn a slightly sharper edge. Time is of the essence. The demand to pay attention to every turn of the wheel of human suffering in our 24/7 coverage of everything cruel and agonising is way too much for anyone. We weren’t designed to be doom scrollers. And I’ve come to recognise that there just isn’t time any more to pay attention to everything that social media influencers and news editors decide I should be paying attention to. I don’t turn away. But I do balance the ongoing pain of life on earth with the ongoing miracle. Our morning walk up the hill is s precious, come rain or shine, those rocks and trees, the wild horses and moorland birdlife, and that precious freshwater stream that wakes me up every morning become more and more precious to me.
Living in the Real World
The real world is many, many things. Just like mother nature herself, there is kindness and cruelty in equal measure. Life and death is the cycle we belong to. And, I know what I’m here for. And perhaps that’s the gift of aging. I have shed the fantasy that I can do everything I may want to do in this life. And so I’ll do the things I came here to do that matter most.
I receive the miracle that I’m still here every time I am blessed to wake up in the morning. I am continuing to learn how to love my wife and be loved by her a little more each passing moon. And the living Space Between Us continues to fascinate, challenge, and amaze me. Our relationship and where it takes us is the source of everything good I can bring into this world. Watching our son and his wife develop their dreams is another source of happiness.
And then there’s this thing called Movement Medicine. This body of work is a holistic, holographic renaissance and re-invention of connection with life through embodiment. It’s real, engaged, no bullshit, everyday shamanism for the modern world. It’s a finely structured space that invites liberation and the taking of responsibility. It’s a teaching in becoming indigenous. We are still learning so much about all that’s hidden in plain sight within it. And the way our work is respected by the indigenous leaders and healers we encounter, who understand what it is we have created, gives us confidence to continue.
So as we prepare for the first module of our 6th Professional Training, I know I’m in the right place at the right time, doing what I’m supposed to be doing. And that’s what I mean by blessed. My routines and my practices are all aimed at supporting me to be able to hang out here in good health for as long as possible so that I can continue to teach, develop and pass on our work, write my books, create the Movement Medicine Oracle deck, work with my brother and sister shamans and medicine people that I in touch with, and keep on feeding the unimaginably beautiful future I know is possible for us all and all our descendants.
Incoming
In the more immediate future, I am now in the deep work of preparing for our third online version of the Phoenix Process calledPhoenix Rising. The Phoenix Process is a core Movement medicine practice. It’s an embodied do-it-yourself shamanic soul retrieval practice that will support you to strengthen your self-knowledge, your embodied soul, and put that essential and evolving Self in the driving seat of your life.
We are also so glad to be sharing our couples work again, both as an online weekend and as a deep dive residential intensive in Costa Rica. If you’re in partnership with someone, don’t miss this work. I can honestly say that we’ve cracked the code of relationship as a spiritual practice that is fiercely, gorgeously physical and increasingly intimate. If you want to find out more, bring your partner along to our Free Fireside chat and ask your questions.
We will celebrating our 35th wedding anniversary on October 5th (38 years together) and we are committed to sharing the passionate peace we’ve found with others on the relationship path.
Our Study Hub continues to grow from strength to strength. If you haven’t checked it out, in all honesty, what are you waiting for? It’s an absolutely brilliant resource for anyone wanting resources to support you to stand up, grow up, develop your unique contribution to life and to DANCE. Right now, we’ve just started September’s lesson with Guest Teacher, Maaianne Knuth, live from Zimbabwe. The motherland is calling. Here is a brief preview!
Finally, this year’s Returning Home in Switzerland is going to be a family affair. Reuben will be with us offering his Fundamentals of Wellbeing work and his beautiful wife, our daughter Hae In, will be with us too to offer early morning yoga and cacao for our ceremony.
Ah ceremony, the place to return to remember, to shed, to resource, to renew and to plug in to that great source of life through the ecstasis of movement. See you online or in a room somewhere soon. Prayers up. Can you hear the quiet insistent song of the sands of time falling through your fingers. And my father’s voice – ‘do it now while you still can.’ Thanks dad.
YDK. September 2024.
