Give credit, when and where credit is due
Shy not from appreciation.
Neither in giving nor taking.
If you see something that makes you feel like appreciating…
Do so immediately, don’t wait for another day.
For authentic appreciation can transform the world for the receiver.
Words matter, a great deal
Say words that mean well
Let there be no ambiguity
When you mean well
Let your words drive the message home.
All is well in clarity of communication.
Savvy
My friend Ali Anani from Jordan proposed an interesting question last evening.
“As a poet dear Savvy I just wonder how much do you trust planning?”
Here are my musings…
Poets and Planning
A poet has a lot of structuring to do…
The poet steps out of the box
Knowing only too well that thoughts needs to align in time.
Without trust in the divine plan there is no way the poet can create.
And without a plan that visualizes the bigger picture as much as the little details, the verse will not make sense.
So poets and planning have much to do in trustfulness.
Now speaking personally,
Spontaneity seems to surge
In the throes of a thoughwave.
Yet much is happens in following the flow.
Synergies are sensed
In the amalgamation and associations.
Of thoughts into verses.
As words then fill the void spaces
Making meaning out of matter.
Spontaneity too then is preordained in the divine plan
And poets are simply messengers
Enriching thoughts in a meter of sorts.
To make the ordinary words come alive!
Savvy
Creativity flourishes in moving beyond the box stepping out of the emerging collages in the interpretation, time and time again.
Every creative endeavour is rooted in a dance of the energy within and around us … the dynamics of integration embodies the creative output.
Savvy
A share one morning from my friend Pamela De Luca got my attention.
Love the dedicated writing of Thich Nan Thich.
In the awakening to the truth of the being
There is an acknowledgement in gratefulness
As much as there is awe and wonder at the magnificence of creation itself.
Subtle becomes strength
Strength senses subtlety
As we swim through the tides of existence
We realize our strength is best in being one with the flow
As there is deepest connection
Such is the power in the realization.
Savvy
Life reflects itself through the things you do, the people you meet as well as in your passions and perseverances, in so many intriguing yet enthralling ways.
One such beautiful reflection I experienced in my travels earlier in France.
A sense of deja vu, a throwback to the fond memories of teaching dances to people in the different places, all thanks to the Dance & the magic of movements.
While visiting France I met my colleague from the world of dance, Celine Maheo who resides in Rennes
Celine is a practicing clinical psychologist and an Argentine tango dancer.
What’s beautiful is that she is a dedicated professional who uses the dance therapy for helping Parkinson’s patients with their movements through Tango dance sessions.
My interest was piqued, as earlier I had been conducting very similar dance sessions as well, especially remembered our Seniors Dance for Wellness workshops back in India.
So over a beautiful meet and greet sipping cups of hot herbal tea at the Les Grands Gamin at the heart of Rennes, ensued a free flowing conversation where we exchanged notes on each others life. Our passion for dancing was the visible to see as we hardly knew how moments passed by.
To dance is to sense connections beyond the dancing bodies.
To dance is to honour life and its unique expressions in the movements.
Savvy Raj
And when Celine invited me to her next Tango Therapy Workshop, it was an offer I could not refuse. I was actually keen to understand whether and how the cultural differences change the way of conducting and experiencing workshops here.
Dancing can improve the mobility and balance in senior adults.
Adapting the dance to suit the requirements of the group, like simplifying the steps, the placement of the feet, improves their coordination, mobility and balance.
The dance session was deeply engrossing & truly inspiring to witness and participate as well. The music played that day stayed with me well after the session.
So the next step turned out to be me conducting a Chacha session for them. The challenges of language barriers were surrmounted easily as Celine offered to translate my teaching from English to French.
Everything fell in place beautifully and voila time flew again.We danced a bit of Chacha that day and also some more in the next few sessions as well. I was told later by the learners how much they enjoyed it!
It was an amazing experience sharing the joys of movements and I thank Celine for her inclusivity in requesting me to conduct the dance sessions as well. And I deeply appreciate all her beautiful learners that I met,connected and danced with. It was a truly warm and wonderful time spent with them all.
After the sessions we would gather together and discuss opening many facets of the learning and imbibing. It was a beautiful way of empathising and understanding each other.
Some of the beautiful souls I got to interact with in the few months I was there.
Dance has a way of soothing your entire being and bringing forth and connecting you with the depth of who you are. That is when dance begins to feel meaningful and transforms life.
The dance connects established, in those sessions is a beautiful memory etched in my heart, that I will cherish forever.
I chanced on these beautiful moments again as I found the photos I clicked back then and I decided to give them a little artistic effect.
All across the world April 29th every year is celebrated as International Dance Day, although every day is a great day to dance!
I dedicate this post to all my dance friends and colleagues and all the dance educators in the world who are making the world a better place, with every step in time.
Savvy Raj
Art often shakes up the statuesque
Of possibilities in perceptions.
Chipping away the apparent notions Chisselling to reveal what is yet to be seen
It’s an acknowledgement
Of the myriad expressions in the illusions
Between the you and I
As much as the imagined beyond
Art makes forays into the unfamiliar
Unfolding new vistas from familiar
Opening new doors of understanding.
Envisioning the magic in & around us.
Savvy
Your cells are intuitive and have memory bank of information that is stored both inately and experientially .
How they synthesize and process that information may depend on many factors, especially on how healthy they are and what kind of nutrition they continue to have.
However they are continously in communication with you. Your sense of intuition is a part of their communicative process.So is your gut feeling and even a deja vu.
There is always much listening in to do if you wish to decode these flashes of thoughts and feelings. In fact they are your inbuilt guide and gifts of life. Acknowledge them for what they are.
That familiar feeling of knowing someone or something before even meeting them.
The rush of emotions amidst certain memories may be your intuitive sense of your cellular being getting a higher intensity of messages.
Here it is important to differentiate between fear and intuition… most often fear as a reaction is driven by attachment and led by insecurity, whereas intuition is a calm knowing from an inner voice of guidance and an almost unattached feeling although at times they may overlap in certain situations .
The tense feeling before a certain situation or place person or thing. Can be, you are getting a message across from your survival mechanism .
Your clenched fist or the butterflies in your stomach, the knotted feeling deep within at times, or even a voice screaming from within of lurking danger ahead are all perhaps are a forewarning to be more present in this now that you actually are.
Your intuition sense comes from both the heart and the gut brain. While the gut feeling comes forth to protect you, the heart is expansive in nature for it is known to radiate an aura around you. So no matter how the intuitions come from you can learn to make it work for you as you begin to develop your understanding of it.
The trick is in discernment of what comes from the place of fear and why or from the space of love and why.
A few tips on developing and harnessing your intuition.
1.Acknowledge your sense abilities for they are more powerful than we understand them to be
2.Try an pay attention to the first feeling you get in situations. There may be more to the vibes you get.
3.Work and develop your creative skills it helps to strengthen your intuitive sense of awareness starting with your own breathing patterns.
4 Try to work on being grateful of the gift of life and trust it to be your guide along the way. .
5. Most importantly avoid over thinking simply, be alert and yet receptive as it is always a work in progress.
How much do you value your intuition?
How much do you allow it to manifest itself?
Do you care to nurture it ?
Do you care to listen when your intuitive sense talks to you ?
Or do you choose to ignore it and move on .
Do you recall any instance of how you listened to your intuitive self.
Do share your thoughts…
Savvy
Having a passion may help you succeed.
But having compassion will enrich your meaning of success 🙂
Savvy
In the vividness of imagination
At times there is a turbulence of thoughts.
Of emotions entwined in the sensing.
Moving beyond, patterns forming…
Inspiration & ingenuity births itself
In the very uniqueness of individuality
Yet the source of creativity is infinity
Such is the divine artistry of creation
Savvy
If we were to only reach deeper
Than we know see or believe
Is the truth and begin to accept
And acknowledge the yet unknown
The unfamiliar & the unexplored
Structured to the unstructured
The understandable to the inexplicable
Sensations in our emotions.
All vying for our attention
Or even the patterns manifesting itself…
In space continuum
We are opening ourselves
To the spectre of multi dimensions
Possibilities are infinite
Fractality of creativity.
Savvy
A beautiful share
“She sat at the back and they said she was shy,
She led from the front and they hated her pride,
They asked her advice and then questioned her guidance,
They branded her loud, then were shocked by her silence,
When she shared no ambition they said it was sad,
So she told them her dreams and they said she was mad,
They told her they’d listen, then covered their ears,
And gave her a hug while they laughed at her fears,
And she listened to all of it thinking she should,
Be the girl they told her to be best as she could,
But one day she asked what was best for herself,
Instead of trying to please everyone else,
So she walked to the forest and stood with the trees,
She heard the wind whisper and dance with the leaves,
She spoke to the willow, the elm and the pine,
And she told them what she’d been told time after time,
She told them she felt she was never enough,
She was either too little or far far too much,
Too loud or too quiet, too fierce or too weak,
Too wise or too foolish, too bold or too meek,
Then she found a small clearing surrounded by firs,
And she stopped…and she heard what the trees said to her,
And she sat there for hours not wanting to leave,
For the forest said nothing, it just let her breathe”
-Unknown
Speaking of opposites at play
Between the expansion and contractions.. Between the conflicts and clarity
The dance of the heart and mind goes on
Only to meet somewhere midway in peace
And adjusts itself in the circle of life.
After all there is a place and space
For every manifestation
Somehow everything aligns in the flow
Savvy
A little bit of freetime and a mobile phone art app in your hand can make the moments come alive…
I started to paint the screen with all my favorite colors… but then somehow somewhere in between I sensed a face pop and I continued to sketch away at leisure and found a face staring righton .
Now the face was somewhat serious and I just could not gel with that, as the moment was anything but that, so I just had to play with my fingers on the screen just a bit and lo and behold that face was more appealing to me now.
It’s a work in progress…Yes I could have gone on refining this piece,there is a lot of room for it, but somewhere I just stopped adding more to it ,perhaps I might pick it up in posterity and paint some more.
P.s Must mention I used no stylus, just my fingers for this one. I thoroughly enjoyed creating this piece of art.
How did you like my mobile art ?
Which face resonates with you today?
Savvy
Throwback to last week when I recorded a demo and forgot about it
Shown here is one of the riskiest parts of the process — removing myself from the fragile balance without disturbing it.
In order to balance something like this, I usually need to basically wrap my body around it while sitting and building.. using knees to hug / stabilize the lower section(s) like a scaffold. But once I find zero, I need to remove my body without causing the structure to collapse.. on my body.. it’s when I’m most vulnerable.
But as seen here, I keep my gaze firmly on the structure while maneuvering my body away. It’s like a weird hyper focus where I’m spatially entranced on the relative positions of the rocks, and if any data point deviates from the whole, I have maybe a second to react before it becomes dangerous, especially for my left hand here which is planted on the stump I was sitting on, hoisting my body away.. if that top decides to fall on that hand, bones would likely break… not a situation where I can afford to break focus.
Some self removals are easier than others — it really just depends on a firm hold for my right hand behind me, the sensitivity of the structure itself, and what the wind is doing..
https://www.facebook.com/100044215910223/posts/456853939131799If
This post made me think further on
The Art of Self Removal
In any creation
The creator is inextricably
Interweaved in the tapestry of creation
And yet the Creator detaches the self
To step away from the creation
Distinguishing the completion
Of one phase of the creation
For it to begin it’s own journey of being
Savvy
To a true artist
The medium is immaterial
Everything is association
The elements converge
Every thing connects
Subtlety emerges distinctly
Dancing to the winds of change
Inner motivation leads the way
To find meaningful expressions
In the myriad manifestations
Even in the seemingly banal existence
Creativity sparks from everywhere.
Such is state of fractal flow
Of Art & Artistry.
But then is there a true or fake artist?
For beauty is in the eyes of the beholder
And possibilities of creativity infinite
Art is a moment of reckoning
Of acknowledgement and appreciation
Evoking critical responses & feedbacks
In support or diversity of emotions
Forming new patterns in the experiences
Invoking the spirit of creation
Once more…
Savvy
Savvy Raj 