When I was 12, one of my best friends was a square dancer. Twice a week, her family would pile into the Country Squire station wagon and head to the Grange Hall, where they gather with their square dancing club for an evening of music, friendship and do-sa-do.As a regular guest, I was fascinated by the form, but in the height of my coolness-conscious years, strongly aware of the overwhelming loser factor. These people have lived square dance.They beaten around for two or three hours at a time, twirling and smiling and dabbing at their foreheads between dances.
They hunted for holiday-themed fabric months before special dances to whip up the perfect ruffled dress and matching shirt for every occasion. They grabbed their coats and went to Penticton, British Columbia every summer for a regional convergence.The square dancers, square dancing girls were as crazy as my regular guy friends, but they had built a way to hold hands with the guys they wanted . As for me, I had a big crush on my friend's older brother, who at 15, was an articulate and ambitious student president with piercing blue eyes and blond hair to his shoulders (it was 1972, after all).
In one of our (for me the way) excruciating conversations involving much blushing, he told me that square dancing was like meditation. "It is a way to forget everything but what now. You need attention to what the caller says, and let your body and mind of the meaning naturally, without trying too hard." Currently I pay only a fleeting familiarity with meditation, and I have not much similarity between these suburban, gingham-clad dancers and the Hare Krishnas who presented carnations to passersby on the street center corners.
Years later, I admire his insight.Square dance Is Like meditation. There is no focus on memories of the past or concerns about the future. Instead, a square dancer remain in a state of acceptance and anticipation. The caller provides the next step, and no amount of second guessing or outsmarting will help you become more efficient – or more popular.As a square dancer, you're surrounded by other dancers, but not really a special one – your – matching outfits notwithstanding – because you are constantly moving among the others.
Your attention is focused on what is – in this case, your command of the caller and then focus on that commitment, but brief.There is a continuous stream of opportunities, and you state, cheap rockport shoes, that the willingness of relaxing, without opinion. Unlike the moment your loved ones happens to your hand to hold, there is no partner or move that is better than a other.The beauty is in the power of this and the awareness of the full there.
For the square dancers, their Wednesday-and Saturday-night gatherings provided fellowship, fitness and a chance to really let go. Despite the hopelessly unhip pointy white shoes and the Hee-Haw environment, the dancers had discovered a way to create attention, well, if not exactly fun cool.Perhaps never crossed their minds that they are guilty of anything other than entertaining exercise. But as a 15-year-old boy – cute or not – could see it, I guess that others recognized the sense of connection they gained in an evening full current partner swinging.
We tend to think of attention as something to be experienced only through meditation. WRONG. Mindfulness is our 100% in the present moment, but we do not need a pillow, maple bench, or incense to get there.In conscious moments, we are our finest and most human – open, forgiving, focused, compassionate and connected. Sitting, standing, or swinging your partner, that is a good place to be.Yee-haw! Maya Talisman Frost is a mind masseuse in Portland, Oregon. Through her company, Real-World Mindfulness Training, she teaches fun and effective eyes wide open alternatives to meditation.
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