With hearts and windows wide open, we welcome Spring here in the Northern Hemisphere. This year, it comes as a relief. We made it through a winter entrenched in ice on many levels. Things are thawing. Birds sing with each sunrise. Bright colored flowers bravely pop up all over our gardens. It is a miracle how brilliantly orchestrated life’s cycles are … when we allow them to unfold just as nature intended. Spring really does come, even after such a brutally cold winter.
In that spirit, we dance. Each time we gift ourselves with time on the dance floor, we return to our most organic ways of being. We find ground. We let go and allow our flow to return to our breath, our blood, our ways of relating to all of life. It is such a relief to remember that there is more to these lives than computer deadlines, the next community or global crisis, or our next big idea. There is this rich pulse of life that nourishes and rebalances it all. There is the unfolding of life’s universal and enduring cycles, inside and out.
This Spring, our community aims to drink in this organic nectar of creation. We hope that you will join us along the way.
Our next community gathering is for the women, Shakti Sisterhood in Ojai, California, April 10th – 12th. This mythic time of working with some of our inherent archetypes through the life cycle is profoundly healing and renewing.
Describing her experience of this work in Boulder, one young woman shares …
“Shakti Sisterhood was a time for me to transcend the limits of my current consciousness and travel back to my maiden, and forward to my crone. The receiving of wisdom and truth from young women, women, and elders in Shakti has broadened my knowledge and capacity to move forward and endure.”
In Maiden, I was able to mourn the lost days of my childhood and adolescence where I was abducted from my truth and my light. I weeped for the 13-year old whose innocence was ripped out of her by circumstance. And I was able to dig deep within and acknowledge the indomitable strength that bursts forth in times of adversity.
In Mother, I was able to nurture my wounds and find comfort in our natural instinct, as women, to heal ourselves. Mothers are the epitome of unconditional love – we must learn to listen to the mother in all of us.
Queen is our highest self. She is the one who has fully acknowledged and is not afraid of shining her own light. The queen is empowered, respected, self-possessed, and confident, yet empathetic and compassionate. She is the one that shines through in times when we are in our best selves.
Crone gave me the unique ability to travel into my mind’s deepest consciousness and unlock decades of wisdom. It felt like an 80-year old me was giving wise counsel to the confused 23-year old and telling me that everything will be ok.
In addition to the wise counsel of our souls through movement, the community of girls as young as 13 to our elders 65 and older, has given me so much great support in this weekend of intense healing of years of wounds, and hope for incredible discovery in the years to come. There is something so special, so unique, and so rare, to have a room full of women who are essentially strangers, loving, supporting, and holding space for one another. It feels like I have been rejuvenated and reborn with my sisters in Shakti. … thank you for the opportunity to dig deep within and express with my body what my words cannot.”
Melissa with Shirley and Navasha, our mighty sisters from Baltimore’s Youth Resiliency Institute
Another woman speaks of her journey …
“Shakti, thank you for entering my body, cleansing my soul, and rejuvenating the feminine within.” ~ R.C.
And, it is not only the women who are dancing! This summer, Golden Bridge will offer two opportunities to participate in our time-honored Surfing the Creative® (STC) program.
One in June for young leaders 16-28 years old, Surfing the Creative International Youth Leadership Rites of Passage and …
The Intergenerational Program for those of you over 18 who would also like an initiatory experience through this process.
This will be the last STC Intergenerational offered in Boulder for a number of years. Consider dancing with us, honoring your life transitions.
These are life-changing events. Fun. Rigorous. Liberating.
Bless what is natural and whole. Let’s keep our faith in that.
Peace.
Melissa