Something totally new, like a blessed accident, has
happened within her. She now dances with mallets. Sticks with earthlike orbs
attached. It’s not bona fide drumming or traditional handbell ringing; it is
both. Tip or tilt or just strike on lying surface. Hands in air, she lets
gravity help and every note ker.thunks.ker.bumps
in almost-perfect rhythm. It is more the beat than the clear crisp note that
she feels growing inside her.
She also dances to another dum.de.dumpt.dumpt.dumpt.dumpt that awakens something old and drunk
and forgotten within her. But this time it arrives without effort or
self-consciousness. It arrives without provocation or purpose. It is pure and
secure; it is vibrant, alive. It happens one night, unbeknownst to her. Even
the tangible memory of it is not enough to explain why. It just was, that
night, and is within her now.
There is a third rhythm – that of the natural world.
This is one she recognizes, that has accompanied her for five decades. Growing,
shifting, but always present. Always vibrantly inhaling, and exhaling, on the
land. Any landscape. But the other day it was her heartbeat that crashed
inside her ba.boom.slam...ba.boom… thunderous
pounding of rhythm, decibels she was sure anybody else could hear – had there
been anyone else to listen. Tawny. Excessively huge, like a child’s painting
with too-large animal for the landscape. Brain catching up with eyes, she
realizes it was a cougar. Turning around to go back, the mountain lion is not
visible headed west. Only toward the east will she rise in magnificent power.
Like the many names and misnomers she is given – puma, cougar, mountain lion,
wildcat, catamount, panther – she does not allow herself to be caught. Although
her stare does ensnare this woman!
Handbells, dance
steps, pure wildness: these beat her heart and animate her legs and arms. These
fortify, entrance, engage, inspire.
All blog images created & photographed by Jennifer J. Wilhoit unless otherwise noted. Please circulate images with photo credit: "©2015 JenniferJWilhoit/TEALarbor stories. AllRightsReserved."
