Bodypsalm for Bodyrest

Posted in BODYPSALMS on August 23rd, 2011 by Celeste

Reach by Dobee Snowber

You have gone through
a massive shift, your body is calling
you to bodyrest
 time to take in support
beneath your feet
encompass your world
from every small and large place –
friends, family, beloveds,
practitioners: medical and alternative
and the wider embrace of the divine
 the great Love.

We are each called to surrender
to change
 inhabit your bodyspirit
for strength runs through the ruptures
builds from the bends – of life transitions

Now is the time to lean
into the love that is with you
let your body receive
a transfusion of beginnings
here in the invitation

to a new chapter of health
altered from before
an honored passage to a season of clarity
where you will

be free to archive the beauty of your life
 venture into the dawn of desire within
your loss will be your entrance
to a new way of being.

Drink in the support of care

trust  in the landscape of your own heart
beckoning you
to the shore of wellness
breathing you from the inside out

and most of all –

be patient towards all that is not known
rest your head in the pillow of comfort
where you are held
from a much deeper place

and know your pain is stitching you to healing
where you are being
re-created to enter
the magnificence of your own life.

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Bodypsalm for Playing

Posted in BODYPSALMS on June 30th, 2011 by Celeste

What ever happened
to the sheer delight of
p l a y i n g
where your fingers and feet
touch the earth
and you play in the mud
let sand run through your palms
and sea, salt and dirt glide
on the edge of your skin

remember the joy of
rinsing your hair in the rain
and running through an open field
and dancing on the shores
of the body of water
you knew as a child

Why does Jesus say
you must be like a child
to come into the kin(g)dom of heaven
fresh and fragrant
is the place
to play and pray
in dusk and dawn

Now is the season
to call back your heart
to live with lightness
and cherish the chance
to take back what you deeply know
find the joy in movements
which sweep your being
into first utterance

the sound of words falling from breath
the touch of wet sand on arms
the scent of sky
the dance of wind

Reinhabit
the ecstatic pause
where play takes up its vital cause
and you answer
YES!

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Bodypsalm for artists, performers, dancers, poets, arts-based researchers & creative ones…

Posted in BODYPSALMS on June 18th, 2011 by Celeste


You are living an accelerated pace
where there are as many arts-based ways
of expression and research as there are art forms
and emphasis is increasingly on survival
in this strange, complex, wondrous and complicated
organism called higher institutions
budget cuts are happening at every turn of life
and competition is brimming at the helm of this journey
marked by a plan to dance through one hoop or another

It is time to return to your first loves –
where curiosity and wonder
color, texture, sound, movement and voice
nurture your very essence
and it is your deep beautiful life
which is your re/search
life and art, art and life
are a glorious partnership
and let paradox and mystery find their way to your inquiry
trusting the place of surprise in this path of bridging worlds.

Take other ingredients on
this road of bringing your
artist, performer, poet, researcher, educator
ones which don’t have
the weight of fundable options
but will give you gravity and levity.

Take the sweet silence of solitude
the ability to taste beauty
in the winds and hues of the natural world
allow for the ecology of your own soul
and befriend your own body
trust the inward place
which fuels you in
artmaking  & scholarship

Live your own precious life
as no one else can.

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Bodypsalm for not-knowing

Posted in BODYPSALMS on June 5th, 2011 by Celeste

You know what you know
what is it that you don’t know
the delicious place of unforeseen
this is the call to living as in improvisation

you may yearn for a sense of security
the familiarity of what is known
but it is the unfamiliar which
holds the exotic
you don’t have to travel
to a tropical climate
or leave the country

the unknown is a bed of petals
anticipating your arrival
waiting for your agreement
to make peace with the unpredictable
asking you to soften
into a different destination

you have departed from the known
and you are on the runway of new starts
here are no forgotten wings
only material to glide

this is the province of trust
s i m p l y
s e r e n e l y
s o f t l y
s e n s u o u s l y
a riot of color
for the life you are living
and who you are becoming.

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Bodypsalm for Mother’s Day

Posted in BODYPSALMS on May 8th, 2011 by Celeste
Artwork by Dobee Snowber

“Harmonic Clash”  by Dobee Snowber

Mothering is part of us  
being mothers, daughters or sons 
dwelling in the questions and
 in the land of thanks
where mother’s have given us
a garden to grow in.

There can be rocks or blooms
in the landscape of mothering
sprouting from the mystery of life
loving, loosing, loving.

A flesh of intimacy
an intimacy of flesh
Closeness with muscles 
 whether we are physically mothers,
have mothers, or are spiritual mothers
we are invited into

 The great sea of mothering ourselves
breathing compassion to each part of us
love ourselves with a mamma’s love
letting vulnerability have its way

Give yourself what you crave
fire or gentleness, passion or rest
rejuvenation or respiration

Tread softly in your journey
and know this:
the Divine Feminine
is beneath your feet
and loving you
with the whispers of stars.

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Bodypsalm for Bodybeginnings

Posted in BODYPSALMS on May 5th, 2011 by Celeste

Each day the petals
unfold their face to the sky
an act of surrender
open hearted to breathe
for a new day

Await each breath as if it was pristine
your lungs living in the glory of
inhabiting air for the first time
everything is old today
everything is new today

all your issues remain
family, finances, relationships, work details, and
endless domestic disasters
but there is a spring
rising within your torso
you know it by its pulse
the energy where you cry yes
to this tiny alive moment

let the morning birds sing inside your chest
and cultivate body beginnings
new ways for fingers to touch earth
glances for being a lover in the world
finding ease through baby steps

the big deals – the big problems
will be with you
but there is something else arising
a ripe heart – a softened soul
an eternal arm embraces your weariness
and calls you back once again
to body beginnings.

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Bodypsalm for Empty Nests

Posted in BODYPSALMS on April 18th, 2011 by Celeste

You have given them roots
and they have taken wings
now it is your time to re-root
make room for your body
dive into the soil you need
nourish back again what beckons

you have held up the world
for a l o n g time
the cosmos of children
traversing each glorious stage of life
and it is not over
there are many stages to still come

Now is the time
for you to not hold but
Be-held
in the arms of a larger love
one which has infused you
all along, but asks
to carry you into the
land of the blank page

these are fresh practices for your soul
s h e d d i n g
all that holds you back
disappointments or lost expectations
journey to the country of no regret

this is the time of
the massive decluttering
recycle your life with a clearing
there is more unwanted
paper, plastic, clothing, pots, mugs
broken objects, books, old computers
to build a landfill

Choose only what you need for the journey
be on a mission of emptying
and cease from replacing what you let go of
This is a season of de-cumulating
you are being called to a quiet elation.

You will go through
many emotions as you ponder
objects which symbolize
the last decades and
now you can hear the bone truth –

nothing can be taken with you
and leave only love
the pristine tenderness
of unfettered joy
a scent of lavender
wrapped in blue and orange
to those you touch.

It is called empty nest
but it is a time for you
to make a reprieve
in the new passage before you.

You will not know
where this will lead
but know this:

it will invoke
not only a clearing of material things
but a clearing of the heart
an invitation to the deep softening
a time to not hold
but Be-held
in the one who has
known you from the beginning.

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Bodypsalm for the earth

Posted in BODYPSALMS on March 17th, 2011 by Celeste

Rebecca Lux Parks, Celeste Snowber: site-specific dance work, Hawaii, 2011

 

The earth is shaking within its core
and our cores in turn are shaken
now is the season to wake up
from the inside out
proclaim the interconnection
to all living beings –
neighbors near and far
sun, stars, sea, plants and plankton
and most of all
the fertile earth
which both gives and takes away

May we return to humility
where humus, humans and humor are born
and taste the mystery and beauty
beneath our feet and bellies

May our limbs stretch to the sky
our soles/souls kiss the ground
and may hope soak
our minds and bodies
through changes of weather
both of the heart and land

May we bear grace in our bones
and be rebodied to the truth –
our flesh is the earth
and the earth is our flesh

May compassion arise from our well
as we return to the fire of love
which has the capacity
to hold more than we know.

Photo of Rebecca Lux Parks and Celeste Snowber by Gary Bandzmer.

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Bodypsalm for Valentine’s Day

Posted in BODYPSALMS on February 12th, 2011 by Celeste

One size fits all by Dobee Snowber

Now is the time to love yourself
the way you’ve loved others
with fire so bright you can crease the sky

Be a kiss to your sweet self
take yourself out at home for valentines day

Be the love that you have given
you may or may not have a sweetheart
 what is important
is that you are a sweet heart
you are love in many colours –
tears are love – joy is love
meals are love–resilience is love
and so live boldly &  creatively
in this paradoxical passage of being human

Dance on the skin of time
caress  wildness & tenderness
Witness the ripeness of your own heart
this is no sappy pink
but the passion of deep being
broken open in your body 

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Bodypsalm for the New Year

Posted in BODYPSALMS on January 4th, 2011 by Celeste

Out Any Window                            Dobee Snowber

 

The New Year is not outside you
inside is a thousand new years
built of syllables and sentences
of a new way of seeing

It is not the weight on your body you need to lose
but the thoughts which carry far more gravity
than any pounds or kilos of extra flesh
you are being called
to a flesh of heart – a heart of flesh
where body, mind & soul
usher you to a season of compassion

for everything and everyone
you could imagine or not imagine
your own unmet expectations and judgements
unfinished projects and dashed hopes
your untidy home or heart

Now is the time to eat and drink
the small beauties within and beyond you
become wide awake to the life you are in
so take off your socks or put on your socks
and step into this New Year
with the only life you have.

Live the glorious imperfect.

 

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