Live Circle Dance with Brian Steere

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Dancing with Brian Newsletter: 28 December 2009

Dear Dancing Friends

I haven't kept in touch as much as I'd anticipated, and in large part this has been due to works being done in extending our house.

This has been full on since June until about a week ago – and is not fully finished – though it is all liveable now.

Part of the work is to make a dance room of our new living room. This will be small for a hall but largish for a home. We have made it with 'sprung' joists so as to be kind to dancing legs – but the final oak flooring is waiting to last so that no other work messes it up. (It has a ply underfloor on the joists at present). It is our trust that we can begin to host small gatherings and events at some point in the New Year.

Just at present, we are somewhat weary of the work and are taking a period of resting into just being in the new home – which is spacious and light and with a sunny and pleasant southern prospect.

Events

This is very very last minute – but our 28 Dec eve in The White House in Norwich is running today from 5pm to 10 pm with shared supper.

You are welcome to come for part or all of the evening.

I don't get as many opportunities to share dance as I would like – but a recent trip to Newcastle to run a day of dance was – if I say so myself – consciously heartfelt with a focus that drew a large group into a shared presence and appreciation. 'Dancing in the heart'. The awakening of the heart is my starting point and its fulfilment – with the dance as a vehicle through which such experience can be simply shared. Wherever we are, we can discover relatedness within our self that is then reflected in a relatedness with each other and the world. It can be as a sudden spontaneous shift from a thought based and rest-less sense of self and life, into a living now – felt in the heart – yet at rest in the flow of our being. Articulating such experience with words isn't necessary – but valuing the glimpse so as to nurture and grow its expression is – if we do not want the ongoing experience of joy being 'snatched away' and a sense of life and love as weak and undependable in its stead.

I am likely to be tied up in some degree with work on the house for a while yet - but this is also within a sense of desire to share a calling to use our dancing as a way for renewal and encouragement in our lives – and into our larger society.

Inspiration

The 'company' we keep will reinforce the habits of mind we employ – which in turn create the experience and opportunity of our day. This applies primarily to our thoughts! It isn't so much positive thinking as noticing the intent and action of our mind. Simply looking – without further involvement in its activity, grows the conditions of a simple peace of awareness. And in such a light it is easier to discern and embrace the truth of what is here – without the obscuring and distorting filters of 'old habits' of thought.

The experience of connected joy is a resource that is inherent to our being and yet something 'the world' has denied and forgot - and yet seeks in futile and destructive ways. Even the problems thus generated in ignorance become a further call to fear – until there is a willingness to re-evaluate everything. From such a willingness, life can reach through to us – in its terms – and guide our steps to restore a true sanity in place of confusion. Not just to recognise the true nature of problems and their solution – but to live and share life more abundantly.

At the cusp of a new year, without an idea as to what the future brings – excepting that the current of desire will see all things in its light – so I see opportunities for peace, joy and love – perhaps through learning and accepting more in the nature of acceptance and forgiveness. Acceptance of the fact that I do not know – and forgiving all things for imposing what I thought I knew upon them – and upon myself! Yet the emptiness of a self certainty is full of the living movement of being.

The hands we hold, the dance we share, the music we feel.

Too much talking now – time to dance...

Heartfelt greetings for the New Year. May the flowing moment of joy weave itself ever more consciously in your day.

in Gratitude

Brian

PS – our Christmas Card online had some messages and poems and is at:

http://www.livingcircle.net/amerrychristmas.html