"Open cup or closed cup?" Hilary opens a phone call with these words, and I can hear her grinning. I've confessed to Hilary that she's my favorite processing partner, and it's mostly due to prompts like these that invite me to try out the words of my own story.
Nancy chose "Joy" as her Touchstone that very first year of the project, and when I asked after the details, she emphasized the necessity of making a "stubborn commitment to joy."
Majda has taught me about the sacred and the sacrifice. Driving up to a mountain retreat, the Harvest Moon nestled into the valleys between the peaks like an exclamation point, we wrestled with conceptions around time, space, and our own bodies.
There's a lot happening here on the Enrichment blog, where I'm introducing each of the Enrichment Women (only four left!), writing about each of the Touchstones and what they mean to me (this week, I wrote about Compassion), and touching on other questions that people have asked about.
I observed Natalie, watching a hafla afterparty in full swing. She'd just performed, and her kohl-rimmed eyes were still blazing, framed by a large feathered headdress.
When DeAnna's infectious laugh reaches my ears, I am instantly at home. DeAnna and I share so many obsessions for unusual things like skeletons, getting up in the pre-dawn light, having a spreadsheet for everything, and communing with our psoas muscles.
I call Heidi "Tradition's Translator" because she is always investigating the overlaps and intersections between all of her different communities and cultures. Heidi teaches salsa, belly dance, and the canon of ballet, jazz, and tab to adorable kids she calls "her dance nuggets."
When Amanda pins you with her piercing dark eyes, there's simply no looking away. If Amanda had a fragrance, a friend reveals, it would be clove, jasmine, and cedar wood: Amanda's energy does seem to waft out around her, wooded and deep.
"But I'm just not creative!" It shocks me now, every time I hear it uttered. It shocked me when it used to come out of my own mouth.Â
These women are glamorous, articulate, and opinionated. They're dancers, musicians, visual artists, aerialists, and circus performers who capture my very imagination.
