“… and the Grand Facade, so soon will burn… without a Noise, without my Pride, I reach out from The Inside.. “
Saturday night we were honored to have the High Priestess of Groove in the house, Heather Winia, Groove Master Educator, Holistic Health Coach, and Fitness/Wellness Specialist, leading a super safe, outdoor movement class at The Higher Haven. You’ll recognize Heather if you’ve scratched about a bit on our website, as her unmatched wellness and leadership skills have been well appreciated since our founding several summers back. I love her guidance and classes, as they are always innovative, challenging, and seem as spontaneous as they are well-planned.
In her own words, Heather inspires people “to LIVE, I mean really feel ALIVE, through positive self-care and GROOVEment in their bodies.” I’m happy we are members of one another’s tribe, as Groove is a simple yet revolutionary group dance experience that provides a safe place for INDIVIDUAL AUTHENTICITY (held in high esteem by The Higher Haven) all while building community around functional fitness. We started Saturday night with a guided meditation, and Heather took us from stillness right into a holistically healthy, mindful movement class where every Body can Dance. And did.
We’d had hoped to throw down under the August full moon light, the moon the Anishnaabe People of The Great Lakes call Minoomini Gilzis - the Grain (Wild Rice) Moon. The full moon on the rise out over our front lawn, serving as a grassy Groovy dance floor, is always quite the luminous sight. But cloud cover kept the shining symbol of feminine energy hidden from the eye but not the heart, as our Groove went on unhindered. And the good news is the substantial rainfall, which went on all night long, didn’t start until 10 minutes after the last dance and collective exit, to the delight of every garden in Michigan.
I began this post thinking about the power of dance, the clown in me recalling that Kevin Bacon scene from Flashdance, do you know that one (?), where he quotes Ecclesiastes? It’s funny. “Ecclesiastes assures us... that there is a time for every purpose under Heaven. A time to laugh... and a time to weep. A time to mourn... and there is a time to dance… see, this is our time to dance… It is Our Way of Celebrating Life. It's the way it was in the beginning. It's the way it's always been. It's the way it should be now.” Lol The student in me recalled another great dance story, told by Joseph Campbell in The Power of Myth Series. I’ll close with that below, and know that Heather will soon return for another Fall or even Winter Full Moon Groove, with our Full Fall schedule up this week and ever evolving.
Western Sociologist:
“You know, I have now been to a number of these Shinto shrines and I have
seen quite a few rites, and I have read about it, thought about it; but you
know, I don’t get the ideology. I don’t get your theology.”
Shinto Priest:
(polite, as though respecting the foreign scholar’s profound question;
pausing a while as though in thought; looking at his friend)
“We do not have Ideology. We do not have Theology. We Dance.”