Coming To The Dance

by Charles Lawrence

Dance For All People Elder Charles Lawrence shares his well-earned wisdom of how to prepare for the next Dance as we navigate the uncharted waters of the world that we now live in. Charles writes:

While sipping morning coffee at my local Donut Pub and remembering how our intentions for the 2001 New York Dance shifted so dramatically on the heels of 9/11, I was reminded of Einstein’s profound wisdom: “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

In a world once again so abruptly shifting, this mind and heart of mine are primed to offer perspectives from the ‘outlier’ frontier of my journey. No matter how tangentially, every one of us has been affected by the swiftly swirling kaleidoscopic spectrum of a World in chaos. I dare to add that in eight decades of my existence, beginning with the early trauma of a World War shattering the way things were in my hometown where I had friends who overnight became the ‘enemy‘, Charlie’s World was vastly changed!

As we prepare for our next Dance, I send forth my voice in urgency and clarion call. As Rumi urged “don’t go back to sleep!” As Gurdjieff demanded with his momentous work of Self Remembering: “Don’t do today what you did yesterday!“. And as Tibetans are taught, “Be deliberate with all Intentions.”

Do consider if you are using ‘old thinking’ in an attempt to conjure a different, greatly enhanced UPGRADE for the coming Seasons of your life. What might be challenging and innovative does require new, detailed deliberateness in the way one conjures their intentions for the Dance and one’s life! Unless one carefully tests and determines what will call for lasting deep inner expansion, the old ingrained habits — comfortable and attention-getting — will win out.

Gandhi has said: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. We need not wait to see what others do.” Does this not call forth courage to be fully honest about what one prefers to experience that is NOT another reworked version of same old, same old? Is the Hunter/Stalker within you eager and hungry for real change? Is the Inner Genius fed up with mediocre use of the Imagination and ready, REALLY READY, for coming out/emerging, as never before?

Escalation may be ever on the increase, testing us all to maintain centeredness, being a still point in a swiftly changing World. Discernment according to examined personal values – not those ‘set’ by domestication nor religion – must be fine-tuned and maintained with constant upgrades, just like the programs in our computers.

And expect to be delighted in the Harvest of what you have deliberately Intended! Practice Appreciation for what we each brought in to our experience that feeds our Spirits and gives us delight in being Creative and Imaginative Beings.

As we each refine our intentions, we constantly ‘step into’ that which is being conjured (what in the Dance is called Kimma-nodeh). Persist in fine-tuning, go over details, become exactingly precise in what one is allowing into personal experience. We are all a part of the ‘changing’. Determine to be effective and delighted, not affected nor resistant. Be the outrageous Solution that no one but YOU can be!

And.. then.. Whether from near or from afar, step into that Sacred Circle, well-prepared, rehearsed, and dance as you have always desired to dance – and now have the clarity and determination to do so!