It’s been a horrific fire season in Northern California and yesterday I had a speaking engagement in San Francisco where I knew that some of the participants would be evacuees from the fire. (So far the death toll is 40 and 90,000 are homeless. Wildfire has consumed people’s homes, entire communities, schools, businesses…)
I didn’t know what I would say to these people…How can I speak to men and women who right at this very moment were at risk of losing their homes? Who were not only grieving the community they loved, but also the lives of people they knew?
The message that came through in the Doorway session was for all of us, I believe. Because not only is California on fire, but the entire country has been going through crisis this year.
Your dance is more fierce than the fire. Use the fire to fuel your dance.
“I am dancing and the fire is near me. I’m afraid of it, but I know my dance is more important. My dance is fiercer than any fire. I will keep dancing even if I am consumed in flames. I will use my terror of the fire to fuel me…it will only make my dance fiercer. This is not about the fire, this is about the dance. And I will keep dancing.”
“The dance” of course, is metaphor…each of us have a dance that’s ours alone. “Using the fire to fuel your dance” might seem naive and simplistic in the midst of a tragedy. But on the other hand, no matter what is happening in our external world, we each have a dance to express.
No matter what happens…may you keep expressing yours. Fiercely.