Thread

So many changes in my life now: one of those times when everything feels like waves cresting and breaking. Beloved places are shuttering and with it, acquaintances I may never see again. Letting go seems to be the order of the day.

I prefer the company of my own strangeness nowadays. I am an elder who slips deeper and deeper into the forest, making a home there. If people want to see me, they must seek me out; everyone and no one knows how to find me.

Even dance is growing ever more silent for me--not finished: sometimes I think I might very well dance my way out of this life. When I dance by myself these days, the moves are not the bold, powerful motions I usually like. These days, I move, by deliberate design, around a central axis, everything proceeding from the center, as if I am attached to the cosmos with a thread thin as spider-silk. My gestures are slow, quiet. In these troubled times within and without, it is important to find the center.

I've been fortunate enough to find music that really works well with this type of dance. Ozgur Baba is a Turkish singer and musician. In the following video, he's playing the cura baglama, a traditional Turkish stringed instrument. I highly recommend his YouTube channel. Here is a sampling (I danced to this last night, alone in my living room):