Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Movement

Today I was reminded of why I love my Applied Plant Biology teacher so much. We are doing this huge project designing a landscape or garden of some kind. I was stumped, I didn't know where to go with it, I knew I didn't want to do a classic fantasy garden or a maze or something everyone else would do. Being me I automatically wanted something different. I didn't know how though. So today my teacher comes over to me and asks "What are you passionate about?" and my response was almost robotic with the immediate "dance". He told me to create a garden of movement, a garden of dancers or an outside pavilion or something. Of course then my idea hit me. It would be centered around a stage for dance performances, but I wouldn't stop there, the paths would look like a giant tree if you were to look down on it from above; and within the garden and the way the plants were laid out, it would look like a soring bird. The theme of movement with a bunch of trees with long branches and flowers of all kinds; things that could be blown in the wind and gazebos.

After school I was lucky to go to a yoga class which was amazing. Just to be in tuned with your body and aware of your breath through each movement. It makes me feel alive, just as dance makes me feel alive. To feel my muscles moving under my skin. Just honoring the body God gave me by experiencing it and admiring the ability of it. How miraculous it is in itself, that it is completely functional when there are so many ways it could go wrong yet it doesn't. We were doing handstands and the instructor went up into a handstand so gracefully and I let out an admirable "you're so pretty" then immediately said "not in a creepy way just the way the body moves" and then he replied "of course I understand, life is beautiful, being human is beautiful" and he hit it on the nose. Life is so beautiful, moving, experiencing life, is beautiful. So my passion isn't just dance, but it's movement. The beauty of movement, whether if it's the stroke of a paint brush or the brush of the air on your skin when you leap into the air, or the feeling of flexing your feet in a handstand and clawing the mat.

Today it really brought to my attention how grateful I am to be alive. I was so close to just give it up, to just end it all. I forgot the beauty of life. I couldn't remember how to live fully with out dancing. But God brought it to my attention that I can dance in His Wonderland, and I would be alive in a whole new way. I am alive in Christ, which makes life so much more beautiful. Now the simple breath I fill my chest with every minuet impresses me and makes me recognize the amazing craftsmanship God put into my being, into our being. God gave us the gift of movement, and I love it.

Draft of garden, BASIC BASIC:

1 comment:

  1. Beautiful Meg! I am so glad you are here and enjoying life with us the way you should. Can't wait to see your garden grow both on paper and in your soul.

    Love Aunt Rachel

    ReplyDelete