I wanted to share with you today that “fumbling towards ecstacy” has been a part of my healing from cancer. I started coming here every Sunday since Oct. 2000. I first learned about my safe space to dance and later I started to open up to dance with other without loosing sight of myself. I can’t tell you how many times I came there and cried and danced and danced and cried. Days that I was physically ill yet was happy to show up. I openly asked for health when you suggested to voice our wants. I admitted to myselft that I was scared and confused. 15 years, 3 surgeries and over 5 radiation treatments culminated Friday, March 2 with the first clean whole body scan. I am overjoyed! I am free of this weight that was with since I was a teenager. I learned mmany things this past year and one of them was about sharing my story without the fear that people would look at me diffferently or with pity. It’s not like that at all. I touched and was touched by many lives that were going through similar situations. Last June I started therapy with a person that combines the techniques of post-trauma psychology with our renewed spirituality. Today, I shared my story and danced with you. I thank you for holding a dance class that for the first time in my life frees me from following steps to sharing and discovering them. You have built a sanctuary here.

i hear jo's voice as I move and as i feel and as i breathe i hear jo's voice soothing me stroking my soul comforting me i have heard gentle truths that strike gongs inside i have stripped off i have moved i have felt the tribe i have faced my pain over and over again and it doesn't matter we all dance alone and we all dance together and we all dance alone and we all come together and we walk on alone and in the hand spiral we are together unique gems each one each one has a song that must be sung the rain gave to the land and the land gave to the animals and the river flowed where it had to go and the ducks cried out in the sky and the caterpillar was fat and the goddess is excited and juicy and delighted and the rain fell and the tears fell and the women loved me and my man embraced me and the earth sang out and i saw the colour of the tree and i saw the colour of the sun and i saw the work we had done and i heard the song god sung i am grateful and i am free free to be me free to see what i see free to see what others see awake and free alive and free happy and free blessed blessed blessed be Love Angela

i continue to move about and be silly with whoever will play with me, whether on the dance floor or in my job. i am sssssoooo grateful to have you come here and offer this work. i see the value of it and how opportunities of anything remotely similar for expressing oneself is so missing in the world. i am not sure yet what this has sparked off for me but i know it's closer than before.

Dear Jo, thank you for the amazing weekend dancing. Since I found you, I know that I am not an alien on the earth. I am connected. I enjoy so much those days, it means so much for me, to be real, free and alive. Nothing can harm me, hurt me, disturb me, and disappoint me for long, just because I can go and dance. I love you and appreciate all you do to make this wonderful event happen. Happy New Year to you, and we’re going to dance, dance and dance till we die. Love Eva

i hear jo's voice as I move and as i feel and as i breathe i hear jo's voice soothing me stroking my soul comforting me i have heard gentle truths that strike gongs inside i have stripped off i have moved i have felt the tribe i have faced my pain over and over again and it doesn't matter we all dance alone and we all dance together and we all dance alone and we all come together and we walk on alone and in the hand spiral we are together unique gems each one each one has a song that must be sung the rain gave to the land and the land gave to the animals and the river flowed where it had to go and the ducks cried out in the sky and the caterpillar was fat and the goddess is excited and juicy and delighted and the rain fell and the tears fell and the women loved me and my man embraced me and the earth sang out and i saw the colour of the tree and i saw the colour of the sun and i saw the work we had done and i heard the song god sung i am grateful and i am free free to be me free to see what i see free to see what others see awake and free alive and free happy and free blessed blessed blessed be Love Angela

Since the retreat and Xmas my life has felt more solid and grounded that it has in years. I am attracting many amazing people into my life and things are starting to land in new ways. Mid-life crisis has definitely shifted and the only way now is "UP"!!! yippee!!!! Clarity is coming in ways it hasn't before and after this trip i know more will be revealed.

Before I took your creativity workshop I was not a painter. I felt fearful of trying to express myself. Your exercises showed me it was okay to experiment and not judge the results but also that I was pleased more often then not with the results. After your workshop I continued the process with a workshop in the Artist Way. I have now been painting less then three years and love the process. It has been a great addition to my life and that is why I wanted to thank you for helping me get started. I always love your dancing classes but was resistant to writing or drawing and had to force my self to take your class. The dancing really is an opening for me. In fact I listen to music and dance around while I paint. Frank. (visit his extraordinary art at this website: http://www.wutsart.com/ )

What a truly exquisite weekend spent with all of you in Ojai at the beautiful Casa Barranca. I am so grateful to have shared it with you all. It was a wonderful meeting of new friends and a reconnecting with ones I haven't seen for a long time — a reconnect. We were One in perfect harmony. The music was a Divine Inspiration that transported me to other lands and ancient times. The dance, razor sharp, getting me right out of my brain and it's chattering "needs." — Thank you Gregg and Lisbeth for your gifts of creative genius you fantastic sherpas to Heaven. I have never experienced such incredibly fantastic drumming and rhythm Greg — you were on FIRE! Yes, Kali was in the house to destroy old myths and beliefs, and Angles and Deities were there to embrace us with the new, the purely exquisite. And the beautiful bowls still echo inside. Ahhh....