July 6, 2021
Come Dance with me Tomorrow!
By Amba Gale
The other day, I was sitting on the back deck, with my husband, and noticed I was not hearing what he was saying to me. Instead, I was listening to myself talking to myself!
The minute I noticed, I shifted gears and started listening, intentionally. I got curious about what he was saying. I listened for discovering something new in what he was saying, and to be surprised by it, contributed to, by it. Sharing together, our conversation took us to a place that neither of us had been before we started conversing.
Did you know that the root for the word, “converse” is to “turn with?”
I looked up and saw the Cottonwood trees swaying in the early evening wind, entrancing, captivating. The poem, “If I were a tree” came out of me the very next morning.
Sometimes, I get so caught up in the voices in my head, I literally forget that I am not those voices. I start mis-identifying myself with those voices. Those voices are often filled with disturbance; with anxiety, with concern, with analyzing, figuring things out, ruminating about the past, worrying about the future. Like little crickets chirping incessantly inside my head, they are triggered by just about anything, non–stop.
Once I notice those “chirping” voices, I can let go and simply recognize them as internal voices speaking to me. Once I name them, I am free to tune into another conversation that is, also, always present. “You pay profound attention,” poet David Whyte tells us, “profound things happen.” When I am attending, I hear and see amazing things, like trees dancing with the wind.
Of course, this is not a casual way to be but, rather, intentional.
I invite you to move from inside your mind to outside yourself. Walk around. Listen to the details in your environment. If you listen closely, listen deeply, you will find, perhaps, that it speaks to you, tells you something you did not know before.
Join me on our next journey – a FREE Master Class July 8, 10-11:15 am Pacific Time, to discover the five most critical ingredients, one of which is “listening,” for beginning your inner adventure of Crossing your Next Threshold with ease and grace.
If I Were a Tree
By Amba Gale
If I were a tree,
I would be the dancing Cottonwood,
waving at me, at us all,
arms delighting in the dance
of the early evening breeze.
I would not know or care
whose property I’m on.
I would not ask
how long I’m going to live.
Or if God exists.
I would not worry that some months hence
my leaves are going to fall
and my branches will get bony.
I just would wave my arms
in pure ecstasy to be alive,
at one with the wind
who holds me in his arms.
Some of my leaves would be golden
in the setting sun
some green,
some twirling and turning
round and round,
Dancing, dancing, dancing.
