Even after all this time,
the sun never says to the earth,"You owe me."
Look what happens with a love like that.
It lights the whole sky.
-Hafiz
ahh! synchronicity (nerd alert: "synchronicity" was first described by Carl Jung in the 1920s). :) I started writing this post last night. 2 nights ago, Lizzy had sent me a video by a hooper that goes by the name, "Spiral". I'm a nerd about hoop videos and have seen lots of them, but had never seen this lady. In my opinion, she really brings hooping and hoopdance to a new level. After watching the one that Lizzy sent me, I went to the lady's YouTube page and found this one. Her fluid motion, spinning, and long dress reminded me of some sort of feminine, contemporary whirling dervish. The traditional Turkish dervishes are part of the Mevlevi Sufi Order that was founded by the mystic and poet, Rumi.
"Sufi whirling is a physically active mediation which originated among Sufis, and which is still practiced by the Sufi Dervishes of the Mevlevi order. It is a customary dance performed within the Sema, or worship ceremony, through which dervishes aim to reach the source of all perfection, or kemal. This is sought through abandoning one's nafs, egos, or personal desires by listening to the music, focusing on God, and spinning one's body in repetitive circles, which has been seen as a symbolic imitation of planets in the Solar System orbiting the sun."
"Rumi believed passionately in the use of music, poetry, and dance as a path for reaching God. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine, and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected. It was from these ideas that the practice of "whirling" dervishes developed into a ritual form. His teachings became the base for the order of the Mawlawi which his son Sultan Walad organized. Rumi encouraged samā, listening to music and turning or doing the sacred dance. In the Mevlevi tradition, samāʿ represents a mystical journey of spiritual ascent through mind and love to the Perfect One. In this journey, the seeker symbolically turns towards the truth, grows through love, abandons the ego, finds the truth, and arrives at the Perfect. The seeker then returns from this spiritual journey, with greater maturity, to love and to be of service to the whole of creation without discrimination with regard to beliefs, races, classes, and nations."
What a beautiful concept and way to practice. Rumi and Hafiz both have influenced me a lot with their unbelievably beautiful ecstatic poetry. I took a break from writing and thinking about dervishes to check my messages and have breakfast this morning. My friend Lauren is moving to Japan for a year and posted a goodbye message with some lovely thoughts and a link to a video by Kate Bush. Kate has inspired me since I was about 14, when Jim introduced me to her stuff. Her songwriting is so unique and it always hits me. If you can get past some of the super '80s instrumentation and epic effects, the heart of every song is wonderful poetry. Hounds of Love, her 1985 release is still one of my favorites of all-time and, even though I've been listening to it for over 15 years now, every listen feels like the first.
In her message, Lauren had posted a link to the song, "Moments of Pleasure". It's from Kate's album, The Red Shoes but I didn't remember it and I had never seen the video. So, aside from corresponding with friends, it's the only thing I clicked to watch today and, lo and behold, she's spinning through the entire thing, remembering special moments from her life and, at the end, honoring family and friends of hers who have passed. It hit me in a special way today as I keep spinning out the threads in me that are made of sweet memories and little parts of hurt, to build a rope to my grandmother as she gets closer to her passing and also to connect more with my brother who is experiencing an even larger time of reconciliation. I also love the mustachioed "Bill" (my Dad's name) of the video, who whirls in at the end. Here are the lyrics.
Some moments that I've had
Some moments of pleasure
I think about us lying
Lying on a beach somewhere
I think about us diving
Diving off a rock, into another moment
The case of George the Wipe
Oh God I can't stop laughing
This sense of humour of mine
It isn't funny at all
Oh but we sit up all night
Talking about it
Just being alive
It can really hurt
And these moments given
Are a gift from time
On a balcony in New York
It's just started to snow
He meets us at the lift
Like Douglas Fairbanks
Waving his walking stick
But he isn't well at all
The buildings of New York
Look just like mountains through the snow
Just being alive
It can really hurt
And these moments given
Are a gift from time
Just let us try
To give these moments back
To those we love
To those who will survive
And I can hear my mother saying
"Every old sock meets an old shoe"
Isn't that a great saying?
"Every old sock meets an old shoe"
Here come the Hills of Time
Hey there Maureen,
Hey there Bubba,
Dancing down the aisle of a plane,
It's Murph, playing his guitar refrain,
Hey there Teddy,
Spinning in the chair at Abbey Road,
Hey there Michael,
Do you really love me?
Hey there Bill,
Could you turn the lights up?
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