Inn of the Wandering Dragon

Some friends and I were recently in Chapters the other night, just browsing and passing the time until the movie was set to start. I normally do not pay much attention to the music piped in over the speakers when I am out in stores. However during one song, there was a single line that jumped out and caught my attention. I do not know the artist or the name of the song. And to be honest I have no idea what came before or what followed this little snippet:

Are you human, or are you a dancer?

At least, that is what jumped into my brain. I may have part of the lyric wrong. For now I will run with this as it is. It is an interesting question though. To me it implies a difference. As I hear it, are you fully civilized, contained & wrapped comfortably in the trappings of your society? Or do you still harbour a wild spark that steps outside to take joy in movement and expression?

Both sides are necessary to survive in my opinion, but how many of us could honestly start jumping up and dancing on the street corner or in the office? I think most people would not do this out of fear. Fear of ridicule, fear of condemnation, fear of tripping on our own feet and falling, fear of the people around us thinking we are "weird" & "immature" in the most negative sense of the word. But like it or not our bodies are meant to move, that's why we have this amazing system of muscle, nerves and bone (to be overly simplistic).

We dance at weddings, sometimes. We jump up and down at sporting events and concerts, occasionally. Some of us even go out to a night club and dance, once in a while. Others take part in various dance classes and groups. Some of us have started moving to the music while in the house, only to get the "just what are you doing?" look from family or partners.

For myself it has been too long since I have had a good night of dancing. When I have gotten out and let loose to move on the dance floor I have always felt lighter afterwards. Not just physically nimble, but mentally lighter as well because for a time I have dropped my cares to just enjoy.

It is not my imagination, I actually am walking a bit differently today. I enjoyed my third yoga class a couple nights ago and I have been stretching muscles I had no idea could be stretched. Or if I thought they could be stretched the notion of how I was going to contort myself to best effect without hurting myself had not yet materialized. Thankfully almost all of the people in my class are at the same level as myself - complete newbie! This means the instructor is taking time and care to make sure we are all learning the poses correctly. After my one attempt at a drop in class last year I definitely appreciate this pace.

To be honest I only had a passing interest in yoga in the past, although I have always enjoyed the feel of a good stretch. Last year I purchased a DVD of belly dance drills, which included a 20 minute yoga warm up. I watched through the warm up section repeatedly and I can follow reasonably well but it is made for those who know what they are doing. I always had a suspicion that I would hurt myself if I was not very careful so I have usually done my own warm up. Now that the opportunity to learn has presented itself I felt I could not pass it up. I can see and feel that yoga practice compliments my ongoing dance practice. It strengthens the core and I am learning how to really stretch out and relax those areas that do so much of the work in belly dance. Eventually I will be able to take full advantage of the DVD contents as well.

Of course, reaching that blissful feeling of relaxation after stretching out tense muscles is a great benefit no matter what your other activities are. Just be prepared to walk a little differently.

I think I am finally starting to feel human again. This past couple of weeks have been pulling at my nerves until I am snapping and snarling at just about everything. There is no major single reason for this state. Rather a bunch of little ones that have been compounded with the lack of some real decompression time. For myself I need some time completely alone to really unwind and re-charge. Given that the boyfriend had the same time off for the holidays as I did meant that I really did not get any time to myself. Yes I could relax and do stuff but it is not complete in the same way. Yesterday I enjoyed a full day of peacefull solitude and I am feeling so much better for it.

Today has been a relatively quiet day with the exception of the arrival of the newer appliances. The oven in my suite had become completely unreliable for temperature. Christmas baking gets a lot more interesting when the temperature spikes an extra 25 degrees between tray #2 and tray #3 of cookies. The landlord has brought in a stove and fridge (the existing one was pretty old) and everything has been swapped over. So now I can feel happy that I no longer have an approaching fire trap for an appliance. The kitchen is cleaned, the house is swept and vaccuumed, the laundry is done and I have had some time and space to breathe.

Life really isn't so bad.