The Dream

Following a tough day in January 2006, deep into the night, I had a mysterious dream. I was in the Earth, in a roomy cave, looking toward a further smaller cave ahead of me. When, emerging from that smaller cave, I saw a very old woman, an ancestral Grandmother.

As soon as her face caught some light, she began presenting the 10 reasons why dancing is so important. At first, I wasn’t listening well. I was more interested in this person who wore colorful but faded clothes, simple and rough, with curious handiworks attached. I assumed she was a farmer and likely a healer as well. She was Native American, very connected to Mother Earth, and there was sacredness all about her.

I don’t specifically recall the wise woman’s first 5 reasons for the importance of dancing, but she expressed her enthusiasm for family, full receptivity, healing, rejoicing, and breakthroughs.

As the woman began her sixth reason for the importance of dancing, her disciplined, orderly approach caught my attention. Right away I started ardently focusing on remembering what she was sharing and repeating her reasons in my mind as best I could. As I share her gift now, I will state her reason for the importance of dancing, share what I can remember about her explanation, and add my reflections.

Touching the Earth

The ancestral Grandmother’s sixth reason is that dancing puts the dancer in touch with the Earth. Much of what she said was over my head, but I was picturing beautifully unrestrained, barefoot people reveling in direct physical contact with the Earth while dancing. Additionally, she was describing how dancing places us into a stimulating, collaborative union with the Earth – a communion.

I’m a thinker, a chess player. I teach computing. I’ve never been much of a dancer. But I’m learning that when we touch the Earth, we become connected with a Reality far more real than the world of our making – real as in what makes us rejoice and cry – real as in the root, core, and heart of our being. Dancing can be a tremendous remedy for hard times.

I am learning too that no one owns the Earth, and that no part of the Earth should be wasted. The Earth can fill all our needs, can provide all that we need to share, and can renew her gifts bounteously for future generations. We are part of her, and she is at the core and heart of our being.

With the Earth, we, every day people, can do astonishing things. By way of illustration, if each person planted and cared for a single fruit tree, then in just 10 years our cities and lands would be filled with many diverse fruits. Or, if each person would learn one skill to generously teach others, we could all become incredibly skilled. Or, if communities, especially larger communities, would commit themselves to preserving the heritage of one of Humanity’s diverse cultures, particularly one of the many endangered cultures of smaller communities, then so many wondrous treasures of Humanity would be saved and shared.

Spinning and Circling

The Cave Grandmother’s seventh reason for the importance of dancing is the health and energy we receive from spinning and circling together. Her further words prompted me to think of having Oneness with the Universe and with all its spinning and circling objects like atoms, swirling waters, hurricanes, moons, planets, stars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, etc.

When we dance, we become dizzy and lose our self-centeredness. While circling, we admire each other’s beauty, listen, adapt to the many beats around us, stretch ourselves, remove negative labels, support each other, soothe each other’s anxieties and hurts, smile and laugh, dispel loneliness and despair, and enjoy each other’s gifts. While spinning, we sometimes fall, try again, forgive each other’s missteps, turn around, re-approach one another, reaffirm each other, embrace, lift each other high, and break free from all that holds us back. When we dance, we strengthen each other in innumerable ways.

Eagles, Bears, and Dolphins

The vibrant old woman’s eighth reason is that dancing helps us to transform ourselves into various awe-inspiring beings such as Eagles and Bears. While dancing as new Beings, we can change the character and direction of our lives. Likewise we can overcome our individual limitations and step by step grow into ever more splendid persons.

I saw a transformative dance like this in the summer of 2010 not long after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. I was walking on the Dauphin Island beach and spotted some dolphins jumping into the air. Pointing I showed them to a mother and her two children. The children, a boy and a girl of about 4 and 6 years old, were thrilled to see the dolphins, and their mother and I began discussing the oil catastrophe. Soon the two children started wildly running in tight circle around the mother and I. Faster and faster they went. Soon, full of life, they were jumping like dolphins and mimicking the dolphins in other ways as well. Next, they started yelling, “Mommy, Mommy, we have to save the dolphins!” Exuberantly running, spinning, and jumping, over and over again yelling, “Mommy, Mommy, we have to save the dolphins!”

Dancing can awaken our hearts to others, especially to those who are most needy. Like children dancing with Dolphins, our hearts can dance with those who living without reasonable access to water, food, land, and shelter. Our hearts can dance with our sisters and brothers who are suffering from wars. Our hearts can dance with our companions who are dying from pollution of their air, water, and land. Our hearts can dance with our friends who are being expelled from their homelands. In doing so, we can share in the character of Dolphins, Eagles, and Bears – drawing on strengths we never knew we had – transcending our self-boundaries – sharing in the Collective Spirit of the Earth – running, jumping, and yelling over and over again, “Everyone, everyone, let’s join hands, let’s save each other, let’s dance!”

Uniting Past, Present, and Future

Our faithful Grandmother’s ninth reason for the importance of dancing is its ability to unite people and to unite past, present, and future. By this time in the dream, I had a sense that she was a real person from the past coming to teach me things that I needed to know.

Today, we have many reasons to fear for the future, but our days together on this Earth are not coming to a close. As one witness to this, see the 2012 The Mayan Word video on the right.

Our days of division and injustice, however, are ending, one way or another. We will either be united in an Awakening of generosity or we be united in a crash of global suffering. These two choices are already embedded in our lives. The crash is real in all the disheartening aspects of our world and in all those who are suffering greatly now. The Awakening may appear small now but it is budding vigorously. Already our hearts are being moved from within by our growing compassion, and already the seeds of positive, communal endeavors are being sown.

Our Awakening toward generosity is not an Awakening for individuals acting alone. It is even more universal than the current moment. Our ancestors and others too, who have gone before us, are ready and willing to support us with their presence, strength, prayers, and love. As our ancestral Grandmother says, “Dancing unites us! Dancing energizes us!” Many dancers among us are being lifted up by our ancestors now. A wondrous future is reaching out to us too, extending its hand to us, ready to lead us into a new dance.

The invitation is before us all to join hands with our ancestors, to celebrate their hopes and dreams, to reach out as well to our wondrous future, and, with our strengthened, outstretched hands, to offer ourselves in dance-filled service to our present moment generously and gratefully! “Would you like to dance?”

Waking Revolutions

I remember our generous Grandmother’s next words almost exactly, “The tenth reason for the importance of dancing is making siege, a very compelling, non-violent means of creating social change and of winning revolutions!” This tenth reason was so striking that it woke me up. At that moment, as is my habit, I picked up a pencil and paper and recorded the dream as best I could.

Right now I’m thinking of Martin Luther King whirling around with his heart so alive – no longer afraid to die – so happy to have seen the mountaintop – reminding us that it “is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it’s nonviolence or nonexistence.” As he and so many others from so many cultures have taught us, “Do not return evil for evil!” As he and so many people have sung: “Ain’t gonna let nobody turn me around” and “We Shall Overcome!”

I’m thinking too of Isaiah, the prophet, who spoke of doom, yes, but more importantly encouraged us to journey together to God’s holy mountain where the “wolf” is the “guest of the lamb,” where “the leopard lies down with the kid goat, and the calf and the young lion browse together, with a little child to guide them.” We are being invited, “Come and let us go up to the Lord’s mountain,” let’s “beat” our “swords into plowshares,” our “spears into pruning hooks,” and let’s “learn war no more.”

I’m thinking too of the satyagrahis (meaning “those insisting on the truth”) led by Mohandas Gandhi during the Salt March of the 1930s. The satyagrahis faced horrific violence, many died, and over 80,000 were imprisoned. They made siege non-violently by marching together to the sea and making salt. In doing so, they revealed the scope of Great Britain’s injustice on the Indian sub-continent. They convinced the world of the rightness, and with great patience and further non-violent efforts gained their freedom from Great Britain.

I’m thinking of all of us too, not as overburdened laborers faced with new tasks, but as dancers waking up in this wondrous moment in history and becoming exuberant, joyful, energized, enthused – even healed – and in the near future gratefully dancing in streets for the collective victory of the whole Human Family!

Thanks be to God!

People dancing on the beach with Matt – see bottom video – Miami, Florida during 2008.

This incredible video about Mayan culture, calendars, and prophesies is representative of people around the world who are currently experiencing terrible crashes while maintaining a strong hope in the future. This video is particularly important to those of us who are living a relatively comfortable life in this world. We may not agree with everything in the video, but it can give us a growing appreciation of those who are suffering much but still living nobly.

A wild poem about real dance:

Jewish-Arab song of vibrant peace:

Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round Praise Dance:

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech was the last speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr. This is a speech about his moment and our moment in history. He gave this speech on April 3, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, where the next day, he was assassinated. In this speech, King calls for reconciliation between all people, communal actions for progress, and nonviolent resistance. He also calls on all of us today to straighten our backs, to follow our ideals, and to not accept injustice. He concludes with a reflection on the possibility of his upcoming death.

Matt, a wondrous dancer:

“In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide our feet into the way of peace.” – Luke 1:78-79, photograph of a dawn along the Kunene River in Africa by Hans Hillewaert in June 2007.

Hurting from all we’ve lost, we should collectively and courageously have immense compassion for one another. Instead, however, hurting from all we’ve lost, we, as individuals in denial, tend hardly to think of the great sufferings around us. Hurting from all we’ve lost, we, as individuals in fear, run from suffering and run from people who are suffering. Hurting from all we’ve lost, we, as individuals lured by the pursuits of personal prosperity and status, give up on what Humanity has lost.

Still, no matter how hard, fast, or far we run, there’s no escape from great suffering. Yet, as individuals we try to live like this isn’t so. When great suffering comes, in shock we try to hold on to our denial, but sooner or later our illusions are shattered, we can’t ignore what we have lost, and the emptiness of our lives reveals itself.

Crashed and emptied, we may harden our hearts in anger and die inside, we may disengage even more from others, or we may just sweep what has been lost under some rug in some forgotten room and lock the door shut. If so, we’re just moving on as an individual and seeing our crash as an isolated exception to our otherwise “fine” and “normal” lives.

Or, alternatively, crashed and emptied, we can courageously open our hearts in compassion, see the suffering that is all around us, join our tears with the tears of God, and engage our pains and sorrows with all our energy and effort. Being now awake, we can work collectively to create a wholly renewed world where nothing is wasted, every gift is shared, and every need filled – a wholly renewed world on the course of infinite joy, generosity, hope, understanding, creativity, openness, forgiveness, and love (see prayer). We CAN save all that each of us and all Humanity has lost!

Great suffering has come to me too. My daughter, Gina, at 9 months old, was killed in an automobile accident on May 9, 1986. I’m shaking right now as I write about this crash. It still hurts and I’m still struggling for wholeness. About an hour ago, I reread some words from my journal, “Gina died for me. Gina died that my life and its mission might continue. Remember Gina, remember our canoe trip [a moment of incredible unity shared between Gina and I just a few weeks before she died], remember the people of the Bay Minette and Atmore areas [where we lived at that time] and all the people that shared our life then! Remember and live!”

Courage is neither about being perfect nor being a lone hero. Courage is much more about being connected to one another and showing up for one another. I have seen astounding courage and enduring love in others, and these people have inspired me to pray with Gina and pray for Gina every night. I’m still struggling to live and to be the things that I’m writing about here. I hope my simple courage to share my thoughts, experiences, and stories will also speak to you. Moreover, I am gaining the courage and love to be in union with everyone and to join the great collective endeavor to regain, not only all that has been lost, but with God’s healing to live for much more as well, much that is beyond our wildest dreams.

Carl Jung, a renowned psychologist, who wrote much about Humanity’s stories and how they embody our collective nature, also spoke of suffering, “I am not what has happened to me. I am what I choose to become.” Similarly, Brené Brown, a vulnerability researcher, says, “Own your story! Don’t bury it … If you own this story you get to write the ending.” Part of the Good News is that we can all start writing the rest of Humanity’s story!

I must share about another crash too, a particular crash that occurred 38 years ago, today, December 1, 1974. Real people, 92 people who will never be forgotten … children, parents, students, soldiers, runners, artists … all fellow passengers … died in that crash on that day, TWA Flight 514. It is a great sorrow whenever people die tragically, but even in such crashes, like when my daughter, Gina, died, or when my mother died suddenly, their light can shine for us in new ways. The light of TWA Flight 514 and the light of all crashes can lead us toward our great benefit, toward our great hope, and even ultimately toward our great thanksgiving.

As we, fellow human beings, continue on our journey in this life, we grow together step by step, and we seek to support one another as best we can. So today, on this 38th anniversary of this crash, I would like to make the following dedication to all those who died and to all their love ones:

We are never alone!
The Great Compassionate One hears each of our cries and holds us in all our hurt!
Be compassionate!
Shed tears!
Let go of all that holds us back!
Receive compassion and forgiveness!
Our sorrow will turn to joy!
We will rejoice!

We are never without help!
The Great Courageous One hears our cries and raises up all who crash!
Be courageous!
Awaken, the long night is ending!
The past, present, and future are being united!
A new dawn is breaking!
Live and work for the benefit of all!

We are never without hope!
The Great Healing One shares our tears and brings us together!
Together we’ll become as children!
Together we’ll put away our divisions and find our way forward!
Together we’ll live and work for the benefit of all!
Together we’ll recover all that was lost and much, much more!
Together we’ll give thanks without end!