As We Bear Dance

Kicking up stardust as we Bear Dance. / Our heartbeat beads / threaded by drumsong / connect us to primordial times.

They are right here with us. / The Ancestors come in the lightning. / They come in the wind. / They come in the rain.

The roar of the growler. / The phosphoric chants of our men. / Buckskin rhythms beneath our feet.

Quantum physicists and mycologists / are beginning to catch up with our / electric science. / One part particle. / One part wave.

Tapping into the energy living inside us all. / Footsteps sending messages of relationship / to the underground networks of life. / Ions in the air catalyzed by compassion. / Prayers transmitted at the speed of light. / Through this dance we exist in two places at once. / The stars send their love to us at 3 million meters per second. / The perpetual motion of the cosmos expressed through our feet.

Our minds unlock doorways to the spirit world / with the keys of reverence and reciprocity. / From the Milky Way we came. / To the Milky Way we will soon return.

For now, though, we are teaching the world about alchemy. / The missing variable in all your equations is Love. / We’ll help you understand how / the physical realm mixed with / the spirit of kindness / yields a world of beauty.

This dance is a love letter to our indispensable relative, the Bear. / We dance to teach the children to be humble before Creation. / To sense the subtle energies of the Spring morning air. / Come feel the things English doesn’t have words for, / such an impoverished language. As Greg Cajete says, / Remember what is important. / Remember what is sacred. / Remember what we stand for.

This is not just a dance. / This is our story written into the sand. / A living codex transcribed from the past into our present hands. / A standard curriculum encoded in the songs / in the smoke / in the ceremony of life / for the children today, / for the children yet to come.