We shape ourselves to interact with our environment.  Defined within Rudolf Laban’s framework of movement analysis there are three ways we change our shapes in relationship with the world.  One is like an amorphous, noodle wiggling and slithering to stay in movement, however subtle, to keep the relationship with self primary.  The second is through acting on the environment.  Chopping, pointing, directing, etc.   It’s transactional and essential for clarity and specificity.

The third way we shape ourselves is through a multi-dimensional holding of another or something we are in relationship with.  Think of the last time you held a baby and wrapped yourself around the gift that was the life in your arms.  This is presence and a dynamic of giving and receiving, yielding and surrounding one another.  We are changed by the experience and affect change through our yielding and holding.  We hold and are held by the relationship we create together.

To navigate these vulnerable waters we find ourselves swimming in, we need to be with one another and surround those we can with our love and support.  Also, and very importantly, we need to let go and be held by those that can hold us  We are not only doers in this world and we are not solo creatures.  We grow through the grace of being held by another and giving support when we are able.  This is love and desperately needed now.  We are a community.  Through the remarkable process of truly holding and being held by others we grow more of ourselves and become what we never could be alone.

Let the shape of your life change and trust you will join within the world anew.

WORKING TOGETHER

By David Whyte

We shape our self
to fit this world
and by the world
are shaped again.

The visible
and the invisible
working together
in common cause,
to produce
the miraculous.

I am thinking of the way
the intangible air
passed at speed
round a shaped wing
easily
holds our weight.

So may we, in this life
trust
to those elements
we have yet to see
or imagine,

and find the true
shape of our own self,
by forming it well
to the great
intangibles about us.