I am drawn to wonder about two axes in interaction:  

One axis is the continuum of Healing and Play.  I experience healing in play and vice versa—they are not opposites.  There are aspects of healing that need to be serious.  Deep sadness and mourning cannot be bypassed.  Critical times of healing literally bisect life and death.  Yet there are also moments, even inside of such times, when it serves to drop the seriousness of healing, wounds, or trauma.  There is great benefit in the lightness of play.  Another way I think of this dynamic is a balancing between darkness and light.  Each has its time and phrasing, and like yin and yang each is held in the other.

I hold a lot of spaces for embodied group healing and play through open Ecstatic Dances and guided BraveSpace® workshops.  (Please check out 4 day New Year’s BraveSpace Playshop) As I’ve been feeling my movement along the Healing/Play axis and in speaking with my community about it I’ve also wondered at the relationship between Pleasure and Pain.  Once again each may be held in the other.  On the surface Pleasure seems to affine with light and Play; Pain with darkness and Healing.  However, in dance, sports, and even video games exertion and pain form a texture within the play.  Conversely, there is also great healing offered through pleasure.  Sometimes the four qualities of these axes seem to meet simultaneously:  A moment in the intimacy of meeting another’s gaze can simultaneously bring me tears of sadness and joy; our eyes meeting both playfully and in deep healing.  Analysis inherently fails to do justice to these lived experiences—I share primarily as a supposition that there is a great mystery within these relationships.

The axes do help me embrace a diverse set of physical, social, and emotional experiences.  Below is the grid these axes form.  What is described by the entire grid?  I have yet to name it, but for me it has something to do with acceptance and spiritual capacity.  What does the grid describe for you?  What experiences might fall in each quadrant for you (A, B, C, and D)?  Are there some quadrants you resist or prefer?  Let me know what’s there for you and I’ll share responses in a future post.