Gum Tree Dance

Artist unknown

Stepped outside to the distinct smell of gum tree leaf smoke - from the dance floor of my lounge to the pregnant scent of my mother’s homeland. Australia. Gum trees, goanna’s and a host of dangerous creatures just across the ditch but not in this, not in my backyard. As I danced out my hearts longing - all the faces of my open floor friends arrived - not their faces but how they moved - their dance signatures flooded through my body - the joy of inhabiting parts of them in my own loose movement.

Dance!

Such joy, such healing, such a salve and corridor for pain and hurt - for all that the heart contains. I moved through the track twice out into this open aired floor - where the birds and river is the soundtrack - where the cold grass and chip paths are the dance floor. This place is made for dance - to revel in the joy and be brought to knee through intense suffering.

It all belongs - just as that sparrow looking at me is saying I’m here - I’m here too - and so are you friends - in this world that has more love than a billion galaxies could hold. That is what I felt yesterday at the end of my 45th year - all your love.