Teacher Wu dance class

All throughout class, we pay attention to our breathing, especially our exhalations. We let out our exhales with a loud "Ha!" during warm-ups and cool-downs. At the end of each class with Teacher Wu, we bring attention to our breathing again, and pat down our whole body. We're saying thank you to our bodies for the hard work of carrying us through our lives, and thanks for all the exertion we put body through during class, and all the opening... and patting down the body to close up our pores again, and really seal the gratitude into our system... and integrate all the gifts and lessons of class. A brief moment of silence as we're down to our toes, (and I'm rooting and grounding myself with much joy), and then, BA! back to life outside of Teacher Wu's dance class... and I will carry all this with me through each inhale exhale and movement through all my walking waking being moments of conscious existence.
And then, sleep?
My dreams are blessed. 100 trillion cells at peace, at rest, and slowly slowly slowly gently making love with themselves as my muscles release, relax, and shavasana enfolds me in bliss.

我愛我的細胞 - we are 100 trillion dancing cells

We've got about 100 trillion cells in our body.
There's over 200 different types of cells.
They are all unique, like us humans are all unique… yet basically the
same composition.
The cells come together like humans come together… to make something
larger than themselves.
They live and do their thing, they reproduce, they get old, they die.
Each cell will reproduce/ split about 40-50 times…
And then?
We die.
So, I asked my anatomy teacher…
How do we make our cells split/ reproduce slower?
My teacher laughed, and said…
Well, we are in a constant state of action, and movement. We are
alive. This is just how we are. We can't just spend our whole day in
rest mode.
So, rest mode means slower cell splitting?
Yes…
Dear friends, may you rest well, sleep enough, meditate often, breathe
deeply, and practice the shavasana yoga asana daily (corpse pose---
lying supine with consciously relaxed muscles)!
May all 100 trillion of your cells be happy, relaxed, and slowly
slowly slowly reproducing!
Love from anatomy-student land… : ）

samadhi- 早上

今天早上， 我翹課。 我沒去上我的畫人體課。 我快樂的躺在床上享受給我自己空間和時間來好好的閱讀我的英語中醫書， 聽聽aaron
以前給我的音樂， 和吃自己煮的豐富早餐。 生活過得太快了。。。 讓我特別的感謝給我自己呼吸和休息的時間。 雖然我今天翹課了，
但是我感覺我做了個很好的決定。 以後有可能不上那堂課了。 時間太趕了。
This morning, instead of just inhaling a pomelo and rushing out the
door to get to class, I skipped class… and I actually cooked up a
scrumptious meal, ate it slowly, and then laid belly down on my bed to
read my Chinese Medicine book, with soft morning light pouring into my
window, the soothing pit pat of rain outside, gentle bluegrass music
from Aaron playing, and a handmade clay cup with steaming sweet red
flower tea.

samadhi

life is bliss

今天晚上是第一堂針灸科。 好有趣哦！但是， 我感覺有點兒overwhelmed。。。我在上兩個不同的人體解剖課。 兩堂課都聽不太懂，
趕不太上。 我們需要念很多書， 但我都還沒念。。。 我也要學英文， 和死背中文字。 好難。。。 我也要陪朋友： Tara, Marina,
Kider, 阿紀， 阿格， 阿福哥。。。 感覺像怎麼樣， 時間都不夠！也要陪家人。。。 也要練按摩，陪針灸豆腐老師和曾老師， 練舞蹈，
練太極， 和參加這個這個那個那個活動。。。 台北真熱鬧哦！ 我已經六年多都在野外， 來了台北才回來城市。。。 半年以前回來， 好不習慣！
但這次， 朋友比較多， 活動也比較多。 我雖然感覺忙翻了， 但也十分滿足！我好愛我的台北家人與親朋好友！

today

We are rotating our hips and opening up the core center of our bodies. Teacher says to move from this core. I remember Kider say for Feldenkrais workshop, they say to move from spine, like led by spine. Different ways of movement. Lead by core, or lead by spine... posture like a little invisible rope from the sky holding me up, suspending my body in the air. Held up by sky, held down by gravity, suspended right in the middle, both floated and grounding. And this is how our dance and our movement has power.

In tai chi (I haven't gone to my regular morning practice for about a week now. Had small cold last week. This week, am dancing instead. I miss my morning tai chi people... and wonder how I can fit EVERYTHING into my schedule... and, I cannot. And, it's more than perfectly fine.) So, in tai chi... also, in all my dance classes: weight transfer from one side to another, then some body part leading the movement, and rest of body following. Effortless and graceful, and relaxing as well. In my Wednesday dance classes with Teacher Wu, we will learn to fly... he says his classes are designed to OPEN OPEN OPEN us up in all the ways we've always kept ourselves closed... and we will become weightless, and fly. Oooooh... and then in jazz class, our movements are "knife cutting tofu": sharp and precise. Modern dance is a combination of gentle opening and ripping openings. When I brush my teeth, gentle force of horse stance: feet apart shoulder width, weight down, knees slightly bent right over feet... and then pelvic circling and opening opening opening...

lub-a-lub-lub Love

I don't have much computer time. But, the days that I do have computer access, I want to write a small blurb each day about something. Anything rather ordinary yet meaningful that catches my attention, and deserves to be remembered and shared. Enjoy. :)

"The English teacher is in the bathroom stall next to you!" a small kid proclaimed to another kid in the bathroom today. I felt rather self-conscious about my large feet sticking out of the bottom of the bathroom stall. And then, they waited for me to come out afterwards, to see if it really was me.
"Hi teacher Osha," they walk by with beaming smiles.
A girl leans against the book shelf. She is singing the song that I've been sharing with them for the past few classes. Maybe this is only my third class with them? She sings it perfectly. I've taken the big-Washington-tree song from Orchard Hill Farm ("uma uma uma yay...") and added words to it adapted from a different African song, and then I fitted it to teaching basic English to small children. ("Hello, hello... how are you? Welcome to my village! Hello, welcome here! Welcome to my village! Welcome to our village!") Today, also taught "standing like a tree" (thanks Teaching Drum, Chelsea, Lety, and all the women of every women's circle I've ever been part of), including the dance... and "round and round we go" (thanks Teaching Drum again, and Two Coyotes and all my Connecticut and other connected families!) I am glad that my night-teaching classes are over. Now, kindergardeners are high energy, laugh a lot, and exude playful loving energy that just sends all the phlegm and cold autumn-transition sickness straight out of my system, and my cheeks are sore from smiles.
Am starting to tutor a little 6 year old who reminds me so sweetly of the Teaching Drum clan kids, and my small Coyotes from already a year ago. I miss my small coyotes... the little girl here started out very shy. Then when she opened up... it is like watching the first rays of morning sun hitting the baby leaves of the plant I just planted this morning. Exquisite, radiant, precious beauty, and miracle of life.
In Sunday Taichi, new friends have a baby named Agor. They want to move into the mountains and raise their child in a natural way and natural environment. They want him to build huts, play with other kids, make his own toys, and plant food and medicine.
Grateful for all my teachers, both academic and non-academic. I have all the best teachers in the world right now! Especial love and joy from past week to Tara, Ah Ji, Fa Ge, Ah Fu Ge, Ah Ge, Kider, my taiji teachers, 85 year old dancer choreographer and anthropologist Liu-Feng-Xue, my dance teacher Wang, dance teacher Zeng, dance teacher Wu, ceramics teacher, Tofu, Marina... big love, inspiration, support, and... grateful to have found all these lovely people. Hoping to wave fear away and deepen connections with all colors of rainbow beauty and ugliness: and that balance makes it all the more beautiful.

Today's was more than a small blurb! Tomorrow, I'll write much less. :)

taiwan to china to thailand to taiwan

6 moons have rotated their way on by

i am riding a different bike now

my knees hurt more than ever i've experienced in my life

i am rotating my wrists more than ever in my life

i am taking classes again

i feel like a college student

i am a teacher again of small children

and a follower of old people thru the hills

always have been following these old ones thru the hills

i like the very old and the very young

these are the closest to truth, perhaps

the knowing wisdom of old age, borne of a lifetime of accumulated stories

the innocent beaming of childhood, borne of the freshness of previous lifetimes accumulating into now

i've wandered off from taiwan for half a year, and now back

everything feels the same

it is so easy to return to old rhythms, but now in new ways

i feel fresher, more grown?

and that which i wish to attract into my life

feels like it comes ever faster

life is so very very full

spent weekend in mountains with new friends

by pure chance meeting one beautiful person after another

i would follow you thru the hills any day, and for a long time too

but the question keeps arising

as i keep following one wise beautiful person after another into the hills

and we emerge back out again into the sunshine from the shaded forest

which is my path?

i keep following the path of another

sculpting my own winding path of another person's, then jumping onto another, then another

learning so much thru walking in others' footsteps,

but what footsteps mark my own path?

my grandma says that i jump around too much

some other elders applaud my jumping, saying that without dancing around, i may not recognize my own path

and gradually a general rhythm arises from the jumping and seemingly sporadic dancing

it is not so sporadic

there is rhythm in this

what gifts have china and thailand given me?

what gifts are taiwan giving me?

i have returned

it is rare for me to return to a place, to a people

i have planted seeds on my uncle's balcony

every morning, i brush my hair there, and feed it to the seeds, and watch them grow

this feels very fulfilling

in thailand, we planted everyday

we kept seeds and scraps of plants with roots attached and planted everything

i am doing a bit of the same on my uncle's small porch

a physical manifestation of thailand, a bit of this and that

i am practicing tai chi every morning

i am beginning a slow dive into martial arts and basic tai chi sword play

i want to learn everything!

the sword play music is in my head everyday, right now

a strong rhythmic drumbeat, and a voice wild and free, looping up and down vocals that send mad tingles up and down my spine

after a good tai chi practice, even during, i can literally feel myself rooting, rooting

the chi goes back into the earth and i experience it as a rooting that is oh so satisfying

and yet... question keeps arising

how long to stay, when to leave, where to next... need to plan this already

so i know. so i can tell my family and such

staying present while also being prepared for the future

in tai chi: stance of knees slightly bent.

i can feel this now, this feeling of strength and power

energy rising from earth into my thighs, up spine, into head, back into sky

aligned

knees aligned with feet both for feeling of rightness now, and for health in future

now, sitting and typing

spine straight, head like a string suspended from sky up, floating me up up, tailbone tucked in

sitting like this, feeling of energy flow, but also preparing for future: do not want to be hunchback old woman

staying present while also being prepared for the future

am now drying a gourd for my guitar

one of my new elders is amazing with music

hung out with her this weekend

she suggested i carry around The Stick (my unfinished guitar) and really learn to play it

bring it everywhere, she says

yesterday, ate sweet potato leaves

this morning, planted them into sweet soft soil

rain graced us yesterday in mountains, and now even more grace today

biking around like a wet turtle: happy, but a bit too wet for my taste

will go seek moon cakes, bamboo shoots, and mushrooms with rice and greens at my grandma's house soon

am laying out my schedule... and it begins to look like my college schedule: colorful, and completely packed

so different from thailand forest life, yet somehow satisfying

i wonder about this nature: constantly being so busy

my family too

mmm much to mull, digest, and just be with

love and gratitude aplenty!

answers

Grandma, tell me:
Why, why, oh, why?
Blue sky, green earth,
Huge world, small me?
My sweet darling,
Look in, hear heart.
Breathe deep, walk strong.
Blue sky, for you
All the world, yes.
The world is yours.
Green earth, for you.
All the love, yes.
Love, thanks, here, now.
You're the answer.
Yes, yes, oh, yes.