Nia, Journey Dance Equals Joy

I've been in a southwestern corner of Colorado all week. I've seen double rainbows, streams and rivers, smoke on the mountains, and about a million different ways to experience the word: Cloud. All of this reminded me of a book I read long ago called The Cloud of Unknowing. It was my first taste of the truth of mysticism -- to what the experience of living as the beloved inside the beloved, imagined as a cloud of unkowning. I am a secret mystic and have decided to not have that be a secret any longer. I see "signs" of the sacred everywhere. This week I've been flooded with sacred images. To be in a place where nature is still nature, disconnected from the Internet, and where the sky is as open as a love letter I've been longing to read is . . . well, to be at home in this world and to be connected to all worlds. 

While walking in a mountain stream, I stood still and felt the current of the river swirl around my feet. The image of river is central to Nia. As white belts, we learn to ride the river of sensation and slowly we begin to experience Joy in all our cells, bones, ligaments, joints, in the beat of our heart and in the beat of the music. This Joy is good medicine. It heals shame and restores life. So as I stood in that mountain stream, I decided to do a little dance. The music was the water and the rocks and the experience was luscious. Cold water on my feet. Belly at ease. Palms of the hand touching clean air and finally . . . the cloud of unknowing. In the current is the joy.