Atlanta InterPlay: Spirit Play and Balance

Saturday, January 28, 2017

Spirit Play and Balance

written by Christine Gautreaux, LMSW, Certified InterPlay Leader

Dear friends,

Friday I was privileged to co-lead InterPlay Atlanta's Spirit Play Class with Deb Heirs at the Shambhala Center in Decatur. (Jennifer Denning who usually co-leads this class was traveling)

On this day we started by centering ourselves with singing bowls leading into silent sitting. We then played with introductions and what we could talk about...

We babbled about Grace and Grace making.

InterPlay warmed up our bodies and guided us into a walk, stop, run where we played with ease.

Deb brought the poem "Balance" by Alice B. Fogel for us to read and respond to.

Balance

Related Poem Content Details

BY ALICE B. FOGEL

Balance is everything, is the only

way to hold on.

I've weighed the alternatives, the hold

as harbor: It isn't safe

to let go. But consider the hover,

choices made, the moment

between later and too late.

Hesitation is later, regret

too late. You can't keep turning

and turning, or expecting

to return. This earth

is not a wheel, it is a rock

that erodes, mountain by mountain.

And I have been too soft,

like sandstone, but there is a point

where I stand without a story,

immutable and moved, solid

as a breath in winter air.

I have seen my death and I know

it is my neighbor, my brother,

my keeper. In my life

I am going to keep trying

for the balance,

remembering the risks and the value

of extremes, and that experience

teaches the length of allowable lean;

that it is easier — and wiser —

to balance a stone as if on one toe

though it weigh a hundred pounds

than to push it back against the curve

of its own world.

I thought this was timely considering Jennifer's last blog.
We had time to write our own poetic responses and share. My body was filled with grace and gratitude as I listened to everyone's voice.

Here is Deb's poem that came out of our time together:

Balancing, as if

riding a bicycle

into the rain--

careful, aware.

That same care

could be guidance

for the good days,

the sunny days,

the lazy days--

could be the grace

that grows a garden.

d.hiers, jan 2017, atlanta, ga

We finished our time together with a contact dance since several of our poems responded to the line in the poem, "...and that experience teaches the length of allowable lean."

It was an hour and half that was so soul soothing for me and according to the noticings of the other 7 group members (who I forgot to take pictures of) they concurred.