Hey y’all!
It’s been awhile, I know! I missed this. It feels good to be writing this, in this very moment. I love the community we’re creating here, and I’m so grateful for it. But I’ve been a shitty friend — just MIA, leaving y’all high and dry with no explanation! I’m sorry. It won’t happen again! …Well…I’ll do my best, not gonna lie. I am human. And I have a disability and shit gets real sometimes.
Anywayyyyy…I left for the University of Florida on Election Day (don’t worry I voted), and it was a weirrrrd day to travel. I finally checked the results during dinner with an old friend, it was a moment of…COOL…here we go again…
But I thought…this is an opportunity. I was lucky enough to be going to the University to share my documentary film, Move Me, speak with a couple different labs doing spinal cord injury research, and teach a couple classes in the Dance program as well. The screening was beautiful. It was a great turnout, with so many thoughtful, intelligent and sincere questions. I’m so grateful for the brilliant minds that showed up, shared, and that dedicate themselves to making change in this way.
On day two, I made my way to the dance department, something I haven’t done in a while, but this time to teach. I took the opportunity to talk about identity — something that for many of us during this sensitive time, feels threatened. It’s such a powerful thing for all us, in our own unique ways, and in shared ways. We’ve talked about this before, you and I…
Identity can separate us or connect us. It can be oppressive or liberating. It’s a tricky thing. But nevertheless, it’s essential to being present with who we are, to contemplating our place in the universe, and to healing and creating community. So many things. I love thinking about identity as we change throughout our lives. I think it’s an important thing to check in with it as we evolve.
I was so grateful for another Substack account, Mystery Cult, and the prompts that writer (and my favorite witch), Amanda Yates Garcia had shared with her followers. And so I used them as I taught the Dance Improvisation and Composition classes, as well as the Dance in Medicine class at the University of Florida in Gainesville. Alongside about 25-30 dance majors, we circled up and sat down together, and got real together — mind, body, and spirit. I asked the students:
JOURNALING
How are you understanding your identity right now?
for example, if you used the statement “I am…” how would you finish it? How would you describe yourself in relation to your identity? For example:
I am…
a dancer, a storyteller, a lover, a crier, a badass, a disabled person, a feisty woman, a pleasure-seeker, a daughter…and so on…
What wounds are coming up in relationship to your identity? For example, is there a mother wound, or a father wound? For me personally, I was feeling fear around my disability during this election, and during this big move — with Medicaid, switching care agencies, switching caregivers, feeling safe and supported, and all of that…
What medicine or healing might be pouring through these wounds? For example, I feel as though the more I share my story and write about my truth, that is my medicine. Or when I connect with my dad on the other side, I feel healing between he and I, even though he’s not on this earth anymore. My connection with Spirit, and with my angels and guides, is my medicine.
EMBODIMENT
And then, I like to integrate this into the body.
How can we move in relationship to identity?
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