Blog: Writing after Dancing

Blog: Writing after Dancing

Writing after Dancing

by Dunya Dianne McPherson

During the Tea Chat concluding our recent three-day zoom retreat, Ellen asked about journalling after moving. I am satisfied with my response at the time but this morning I journaled—ha!—and there was more. 

Sometimes we have the great pleasure of Karleen Koen reading to us for 10 minutes or so following our Dancemeditations and moving and deep Rest to conclude our time together. Of late she has brought poetry. 

When Karleen reads to us she bridges the mind-stilled nonverbal realm. This bridge is not so much a rise into our minds and thoughts since ‘rise’ implies experiential hierarchy of self. Instead, we let words and the verbal infuse into the spacious ocean of innerness, imagistic or featureless or swimming with affect, that moving in the Sufi way has opened. That innerness, which can be a non-ordinary state Sufis call ‘hal’, is wordless and timeless. Hearing Karleen, words drop into it like jewels into water.

Our own journalling could do the same, but the transition can be tricky. We might leave the innerness abruptly. We might lose the opportunity to let words come to us, drift to us. Yet, sometimes writing is a relief. And sometimes writing is a balance. Sometimes is it an opening. All these are valuable. Also, wordlessness is precious. 

I am delighted that you are with me and appreciate your sharing these writings friends. Thank you!

My work and writing are sponsored by Dervish Society of America, a nonprofit organization helping people realize their human and spiritual potential by honoring their body and its movement ways using evolutionary Sufi Dancemeditation practices. Thank you for your gift. It’s tax-deductible! Contribute Now