butterfly metamorphosis

During the weeks of my Dad's passing there were so many images of metamorphosis that kept appearing, including the card that was placed on his door by the hospice staff right after he passed - two butterflies in flight.

So many times I reflected on how in life we have to surrender to the natural cycles of life, no matter how desperately we may may want things to be a certain way... life, and death, unfolds in a way that ultimately, we have no control over.

Since then, I had been wanting to honor his passing with a dance of metamorphosis... of honoring his transition from this realm into the realm of spirit... and the courage required to enter through the doorway into the greatest mystery of all...

After dancing spontaneously in this Mazama field while hiking amongst butterflies, I found this poem recently from Mary Oliver, and once again, as she often does, felt so moved by her sentiments... providing such inspiration for my imagination and nourishment for my soul...

One or Two Things ~ Mary Oliver

1

Don’t bother me.

I’ve just

been born.

2

The butterfly’s loping flight

carries it through the country of the leaves

delicately, and well enough to get it

where it wants to go, wherever that is, stopping

here and there to fuzzle the damp throats

of flowers and the black mud; up

and down it swings, frenzied and aimless, and sometimes

for long delicious moments it is perfectly

lazy, riding motionless in the breeze on the soft stalk

of some ordinary flower.

3

The god of dirt

came up to me many times and said

so many wise and delectable things, I lay

on the grass listening

to his dog voice,

crow voice,

frog voice, now,

he said, and now,

and never once mentioned forever,

4

which has nevertheless always been,

like a sharp iron hoof,

at the center of my mind.

5

One or two things are all you need

to travel over the blue pond, over the deep

roughage of the trees and through the stiff

flowers of lightening—some deep

memory of pleasure, some cutting

knowledge of pain.

6

But to lift the hoof!

For that you need

an idea.

7

For years and years I struggled

just to love my life. And then

the butterfly

rose, weightless, in the wind.

“Don’t love your life

too much,” it said,

and vanished

into the world.

Mary Oliver

Feeling grateful for this practice of dance / embodiment as taught by Momo and for our connections here. I hope this dance of metamorphosis may inspire you in some way...

Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggn-rJIdJjY

Music: Stefano Bataglia

Photos of dance by Brooke / photos of nature and edits by me :~)

frogs, seaweed, birds, shells

After completing a water ceremony at the delta of Oyster Creek just before the sun set, the frogs were croaking loudly in the nearby pond.

The sun had such an incredible golden glow, that I wanted to capture the inner feeling tone of interconnection to this magical place and it's inhabitants with a dance practice.

Connecting here to the earth, the seaweed, the shells, the sun, the birds... with the symphony of frogs to move my spirit into movement of body....

Toad

I was walking by. He was sitting there.

It was full morning, so the heat was heavy on his sand-colored

head and his webbed feet. I squatted beside him, at the edge

of the path. He didn’t move.

I began to talk. I talked about summer, and about time. The

pleasures of eating, the terrors of the night. About this cup

we call a life. About happiness. And how good it feels, the

heat of the sun between the shoulder blades.

He looked neither up nor down, which didn’t necessarily

mean he was either afraid or asleep. I felt his energy, stored

under his tongue perhaps, and behind his bulging eyes.

I talked about how the world seems to me, five feet tall, the

blue sky all around my head. I said, I wondered how it seemed

to him, down there, intimate with the dust.

He might have been Buddha— did not move, blink, or frown,

not a tear fell from those gold-rimmed eyes as the refined

anguish of language passed over him.

Mary Oliver

Grateful for this practice of deep connection to significant others... and for all the inspiration from Momo and Company <3

Lee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rmVuK3NBnFA

Music: Mountain Man

See our collaborative blog here: Momobutoh Dance Company