Let’s begin…

This poem came to me during a Biodanza session, as if an object had fallen from the sky and into my hands. Creativity is one of the 5 Lines of Vivencia in Biodanza (the others are Vitality, Sexuality, Affection and Transcendence). I must say that creative power is truly alive in this context, which is a bright celebration of life.

Let’s begin with words

which then become thoughts. 

Thought rises in a song 

and the song descends in a whisper. 

The whisper inspires a dream 

and in dreams we can fly. 

In flight we let ourselves go,

and sooner or later we land.

Landing wakes us up,

and upon reawakening we open our eyes. 

With eyes open there is the gaze 

and the gaze ignites desire. 

Desire spreads into touch,

and the touch becomes red. 

Red recalls green 

and green slowly grows. 

Then it all turns white, 

an infinite white,

an infinite freedom.

ITALIANO

Questa poesia mi è venuta durante una sessione di Biodanza, come se un oggetto fosse caduto nelle mie mani. La Creatività è una delle 5 Linee di Vivencia nella Biodanza (le altre sono Vitalità, Sessualità, Affettività e Trascendenza). Devo dire che il potere creativo è davvero molto vivo in questo contesto, che è una luminosa celebrazione della vita.

Cominciamo con la parola
che poi diventa pensiero.
Il pensiero si alza in un canto
e il canto scende in un sussurro.
Il sussurro ispira il sogno
e nel sogno possiamo volare.
Nel volo ci lasciamo andare,
e prima o poi ci atterriamo.
La terra ci fa risvegliare,
e al risveglio apriamo gli occhi.
Con occhi aperti c’è lo sguardo
che accende il desiderio.
Il desiderio si diffonde nel tocco,
e il tocco diventa rosso.
Il rosso richiama il verde
e il verde cresce piano.
Poi diventa tutto bianco,
un bianco infinito, 

un’infinita libertà.

Healing of love and the dream of a new world

Con voi! My most recent journey in Portugal has been very rich with events and connections.

Evora

After landing in the Lisbon airport, I immediately took a bus to Evora and after changing into my temple dance costume in a refined hotel bathroom, I found myself standing on the Temple of Diana and doing a Sacred Dance performance. It felt very powerful to claim the honor of catalyzing millennial sacred space there. The temple is usually off-limits to anyone, and it felt transgressive on a human level yet very welcome on the divine level to step up and awaken it.

I sensed the deep layers of history, the primal and elemental energies still breathing underneath the projections and oppression of religion over the centuries. A sense of reclaiming, for the feminine and the goddess. I danced a prayer for the temple and opening to intimacy and union through the public art performances that followed: blindfolded hugging and eye contact with strangers. Locals, travelers from northern Europe and Chinese tour groups stopped to observe, and some were brave enough to come in and participate. A feeling of love and magic all around.

The next day Paula S. – the Portuguese art professor who had organized the temple dance and performance piece, who came to Damanhur for the first Ecovillage Design Education course we held in 2011 and is now the organizer for the Path to Spiritual Freedom (new Damanhur School of Meditation path) in Portugal – took me around to meet different people and places in the spiritual and alternative world of Evora. She explained to me that there is a tight network of people who bring light to this city, although it takes determination to keep going because they can still feel the repressive resonance of the inquisition days. Despite this, I sensed the lightness in the hearts of the people in this area of Alentejo.

Then, I went to Tamera and participated in two events, Global Love School, along with Betsy and Eddie, and the World Council.

Global Love School

this and the following photos from Tamera by Ian Mackenzie

The intention of Global Love School is to explore the theme of love within communitarian, spiritual and political perspectives. There were a hundred participants or so, diverse individuals involved in community, communications, activism, healing of the body, soul and earth.

azafrán y alegría

entering into the dining hall,
I feel the Iberian heat.
an atmosphere of intimacy and festivity.

a journey through flavors
that open the doors of the heart.
appetizer spices stinging the tongue
mixing with wine on the lips.

conversation,
flirting,
red dress,
black heels.

paella made with secret ingredients
beyond the saffron, which
adds its enchanting flavor as always.

on a journey…
riding horses through the Andalusian hills
crossing la tierra
a land of freedom
a people in movement
dancing until dawn
flamenco, bolero, jota

passion.
dance.
it’s serious here.
swirl of lightness and grace.
senses alive, sweating.
men, proud and spontaneous
women, elegant and alluring,
entwined in spiral movements,
united in one joyful open heart.
hips hitting the rhythms,
ole! with rousing claps.

what a delectable country
alegría, vivacious eyes
in love with life,
a life saturated with beauty.

(written with gratitude for Spanish dinner night at Prima Stalla)

entrando nel salone
si sente il calore iberico.
atmosfera d’intimità e festività…

birth: creation, autonomy, self-destruction and Renaissance

Birth. the birth of anything, a divinity, a child, a fire, a love, from seed to flower, from an ingenious idea channeled in the night, feverish and awake until dawn, to its completion, the fatigue repaid three times over again by the joy and satisfaction in materializing something… it is always an act of trust. a letting go.

once alive, the creation takes the reigns of its own life. it can gallop, run like a wild horse, fly like a phosphorescent pegasus, sing in every color and form… or burn out and destroy itself, not in the flames of passion and excess which would still be a spark of vitality — even if intensely brief like those that shoot from the bonfire, launching themselves toward the stars, pretending to be shooting stars before darkening into ashes escaped in the wind — but the most destructive destruction is the one that doesn’t dare to fly, dance, not even walk. shut in darkness and silence, in the shadows of inflated fears and ghosts of regret. an illness that I can only heal myself. rebirth. Renaissance. infusion of courage in the blood and pills of artistic impulse coursing through the lines and veins.

life is gifted only once, then it is regained with every breath, movement and creative act.

la Nascita. la nascita di qualsiasi cosa, divinità, bambina, fuoco, amore, dal seme un fiore, dall’idea geniale canalizzata di notte, febbrile e sveglia fino all’alba, alla compiutezza, la stanchezza ripagata tre volte dalla gioia e soddisfazione nella materializzazione… è sempre un atto di fiducia. un lasciarsi andare.

my life

now that it’s finally time,
the only moment that is really guaranteed in life,
I have just a few minutes to think
or stop myself from thinking by chanting,
“intanto, da sempre. rifanno il disegno le stelle…”
and so on, to remember and connect
to prepare to forget…events, ties.

I force myself to breathe.
it’s the only thing to do, the only thing that counts anymore.
with gratitude in my heart for every breath.
I breathe in deeply, hold,
exhale, out…it’s a good thing I practiced all this time
for this moment when breath has become metratura.
all these years constantly breathing
as an initiate, healer, teacher and guide.

have I finished? have I closed everything I needed to?
bank accounts?
books after reading to the last page?
conflicts suspended in the air for so long?
and all the things, everything
there is and that was
that there is and has been
to say, scream, paint, learn and create
dream.
with gratitude for the spectrum of emotion
every feeling from fury to ecstasy
lived fully.
I leaves traces of creations, writings, few possessions.

I am grateful for every fire. the Sacred Fire
the one for my birthday, the nucleo
the one from Spiritual Healers School and Ecstatic Dance
the one to light the bonfire and the ones for every New Year,
Purification of the People, days for honoring the elements,
Day of the Dead,
the one to burn leaves
and the ones of the sun and the moon
offered during Solstice and Equinox,
a chain of moments
fixing my imprint of awareness
in the territory of time.

closed. did I turn off the faucet in the bathroom this morning?
did I turn off the iron after I ironed this outfit?
which I selected as the last expression of fashion and choice
fluorescent kimono and cowboy boots
to express my Texas-Asian ethnic roots
until the last breath.
ah, yes. I need to remember to breathe.

did I say it all?
did I say “I love you” to everyone I love?
saying it while looking the person in the eye without using
the compromise of “ti voglio bene” in Italian,
which doesn’t even exist in English,
either “I love you” or “I don’t.”
then, all the other words aren’t so important.
all the novels that I wrote,
that will live beyond me.
if people will read them, if they won’t,
they will read the stars, which I will become.

did I dance every chance I had?
enjoying the body while it was here
while it’s here.
now with my final breaths,
beautiful trascendental music,
and I dance with the lungs,
with eyes that peek open and take in
clouds and fog,
with the heat and the cold that alternate in my veins,
with my toes, which I don’t feel anymore
even though I move them with the will of my mind.

all this. now. whether I am prepared or not.
I enter into the door that brings me to the threshold.
to fly, onward to the next adventure,
toward enlightenment,
beyond eternity.

la mia vita

Adesso che é proprio il momento,
l’unico momento veramente certo nella vita,
ho pochi minuti per pensare,
o allontanare i pensieri,
attraverso il canto:
“intanto, da sempre, rifanno il disegno le stelle…”