The Dance of the Dolphin and the Hummingbird

The month of September seems to be a mixed bag of aggravation and opportunities. There are moments when you can relax into the new emerging pattern of your life and then other moments when the aggravation and frustration of the world situation will feel as if life is going to get the better of you.

Times like these remind me of that Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.”

We are in a very interesting time. Every generation has its complex moments that are designed to make those of that time stretch into unknown territories. This particular time is filled to the brim with massive shifts of consciousness and global responsibility. Conflicts seem more conflicted. Shifts seem more dramatic. Nothing seems to be done in a small way anymore.

It is the extreme swings that seem to be getting to everyone.

This month you might wish you could just have a break for one moment. I am afraid that none of us will get off this hook so easily.

In times of great stress we find the depth of our courage. In times of great sorrow we find our compassion for humanity.

When the old reality is torn away and you find yourself in the place of the unknown you learn how to make your dolphin and hummingbird dance together.

This is a beautiful metaphor for this month. How does one make two totally different archetypes find the balance to work and flow together?

The answer is to make it a dance.

I use the model of dance because to dance well you have to have some skill, some awareness of movement, some control, and the desire to abandon yourself beyond your minds coaching that you might look like an idiot. To get a dolphin and a hummingbird to dance together becomes a great challenge.

The dolphin is a smart watery archetype that has a playful quality. The hummingbird is a beautiful, quick, fragile, air creature. Yet, they have energies that can find the balance to dance and flow together with practice.

The trick is practice.

Practice allows for strength to come in and give you choice and the ability to adapt. Skill gives you the confidence to know that you can find the way. Abandon is the ultimate goal when you combine the strength of practice and the confidence that comes from skill. Only with both can you create art that takes you beyond the form into the formless.

A hummingbird knows one dynamic, air. The dolphin is the master of the water element. But each has to step beyond their comfort zone to connect. Each has to overcome the fear that they are stepping beyond what they are familiar with. When you are no longer in the flow that is most natural you must rely on instinct and trust in something that is divine that flows between all life forms.

Each archetype has to learn to trust. But what are you trusting. It is not about trusting others. It is about trusting your own flow, your own awareness, and your own body/mind to give you an experience beyond the present constructs of your life.

Each of us has had many negative experiences. But each moment is unique. Each impacting moment is completely different than anything you have experienced previously. It is very difficult to not want to put events into boxes from our past failures.

Instead make the flow a dance and allow more awareness to fill your consciousness. With awareness you stay alert to potential missteps and bumping into things unconsciously. With awareness you connect to the deeper heart within all things and the natural curiosity of nature reveals its many splendored patterns.

That is where the growth is. Not in the routine of mundane existence but in the exploration beyond the known into the alternative realms of universal creation.

This is a month where you can dance spontaneously something graceful and unique if you play the game of conscious intent. If you are the dolphin, try not to get your hummingbird wet because then she will not be able to fly.

If you are the hummingbird try not to move unconsciously because that dolphin jumping out of the water to dance with you might miscalculate where you are. Breathe into the rhythm of each other.

Let go of your patterns and desire to do it your way. Only by reaching out to each other in the language of compassion and play can we find a unique expression that will open us to something new and divine.

We become our best self when we are not paying attention to our wants, needs, or desires but learn to feel into others.

This month is about knowing that our conscious presence is the gift to others. It is not about what we want to give others. It is not about what we think is our gift. It is about becoming so aware that we can see and give what someone else needs. It is then that we are dancing with them. And it gives them an opportunity to dance with us.

We are in interesting time no matter what. It is about what you do with those moments and how you experience them. Will you allow the intense energies to thrash you against the rocks or will you learn how to go with the flow. There is beauty in everything. There is beauty in intensity. There is depth in letting go. There is divinity in reaching beyond the known.

Have a beautiful dance this September!