Cure-ations for Sensitive Souls
Music, Word, Poetry, Wisdom for the Moment from Marla Durden, Angela urata, Aisha Badru, Kaira Jewel Lingo, Natasha Godfrey, Martha Beck and Green-House.
I need a lot of rest right now, given the unrest in the body politic, taxes, and minor medical stuff I am navigating. How fortunate am I to be in community with wise, creative folk? Deep gratitude to Art of Ensoulment colleagues, InterPlayers, and artists who play to live and keep love alive—sourcing the power of connection. The following eight offerings nourished me this week.
I was moved by Marla Durden’s piece, Dancing will Save Us, and her shout-out on InterPlay. Subscribe to her Body of Joy Substack and check out her offerings.
I’m excited to zoom in to see Angela Urata perform Slaughtering of the Mink on Zoom. A tribute to her Alaskan grandmother, Chiyo, at SF Marsh Theater April 14 and April 28 Zoom opens at 6:50 pm | Show begins at 7:00 pm Click here to stream the performance for free Angela says, “dance, song, and storytelling are my birthrights — sacred practices that guide me through spiritual and ancestral rites of passage. I create from the borderland, that liminal space between imagination and lived experience. Through these movements and stories rooted in my body, I reclaim and restore parts of myself long exiled. This is the dance of the shatter — transforming dissonance into meaning, celebrating the border dwellers, and naming new heroes.”
Gift yourself and listen to Natasha Godfrey’s poem, Divine on Purpose, her response to an Art of Ensoulment prompt on finding purpose in our name. Natasha is a UK actress, writer, auto-ethnographer, theologian, and educator with an MA in theology and transformative practice. A Jamaican lineage womanist on the Margins, Natasha is a soul sister.
Hear Aisha Badru sing “Inside" "One day you will find that the greatest love story is unfolding inside. Learn how to stand up for yourself.
The movement is with us! Kaira Jewel shared Jessica Angima’s experience of InterPlay at a BIPOC Day of Mindfulness in Brooklyn. Powerful intersection of body wisdom, current events, and how InterPlay attunes and helps us metabolize our experience. See What is the shape of our nation's current moment?
Significant insights if you navigate chronic illness or distress in Is it Shaman Sickness? The Stillness Cannot Be Beaten: A Conversation with Martha Beck, Part I On health, anxiety, shamans, sleep, animals, money, belief systems, and, of course, love.
In traditional cultures all over the world, Shaman sickness anthropologists note that the healer, mystic, psychologist, naturalist of the tribe receives a call toward healing and "is therefore given the gift of an illness that makes it impossible to take life for granted or to stop paying attention to what's real and true for us.” With shaman sickness, you have to find your integrity and stay in it to be happy while you've got symptoms. You become much better than other people at finding happiness, because you have to do it just to tolerate the pain; they don’t have to do it, or they can do it with a drink, or whatever.” "The cure for a Shaman sickness is to be trained as a shaman, and then to serve. That is a medicine person, a healer, someone whose life is spent helping others. If you are a shaman and you start to live that way, the disease strangely lifts and allows you to do this one work. But if you stop doing it, it’ll just come crashing in and make your life a hell.”
Reset to Sunflower Dance and Find Home from GreenHouse on Spotify. Their music has become a favorite for stabilizing my nervous system.
The Hidden Monastery private Facebook Group has a flow of music and soul-sensitive wisdom if you are interested. Here’s a link to join.
You are invited to any of the weekly Dance Chapels where you can move, gather yourself, and dance on behalf of others. Feel free to explore and email a leader.
Thank you. If there’s something that you find nourishing, put it in the comments or message me for a future list of cure-ations.
Thank you for all of this!!!