Sunday, September 9, 2012

Putting the Fun in Spirituality

Yesterday we did an illuminating exercise at the DTMMS Board of Directors meeting. In small groups we described this spiritual path in simple terms, getting past the jargon and the woo woo and the technicalities of how we do what we do.

In our group, we talked about what the kid inside each of us likes about the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path.  We realized that in the course of the serious pursuit of ceremony and self-development, we get to...

  • stay up all night
  • go swimming
  • dress up in skirts and dance around
  • dig holes
  • wrestle
  • play with fire
  • paint not just our faces but our whole bodies
  • hang upside down
  • dress up in animal costumes and dance like they would
  • have nicknames
  • be in disguise
  • practice turning invisible
  • be blindfolded and go through a maze with people shooting water guns at us
  • tie ourselves up to someone else and walk around as if we’re Siamese twins
  • make a star go across the sky
  • talk to trees, and rocks, and animals, and plants, and other people who like doing all these things, and God, and the wise elder inside of us, and the warrior, and the little kids that remind us every day how fun being alive can be!
As I write this, sitting in a bakery, there is a 2-year-old in the next booth, playing peek-a-boo with me. As if this list wasn't enough to make me laugh out loud, he came along to reinforce the point - reaching for the more can be a blast!