thank you/ obrigada!

Monday 22nd November, 2010
by Alexandra

A big thank you to all of you who turned up to celebrate the opening of the Yoga Barn last night!

Thank you for bringing lots of non-perishable food and clean un-used blankets, i`ll be taking a trip to the local shelter-home very soon!

Thank you for all the beautiful and beautifully noisy children who came along with their percussion instruments and put the acoustics of the barn to test!!!!

Thank you all for being there, for being PRESENT.

It`s a great pleasure to be able to share that space with you.

Here`s something I found and explains a little how I feel about celebrating special events in life:

A couple of years ago, on the stunning Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, where the mountains march into the water, my companion and I were drawn by the sound of drumming. Walking north along the beach, we came to a phalanx of samba dancers, about 10 people abreast and at least a block long – members of a samba school practicing for “carnaval”, we were told. There were people of all ages, from tots of four up to octogenarians, men and women, some gorgeously costumed and some in tank tops and shorts that constitute Rio street clothes.

The samba school danced down to the sand in perfect dignity, wrapped in their own rhythm, their faces both exhausted and shining with an almost religious kind of exaltation.(…) Here, for a moment, there were no divisions.As they reached the boardwalk, bystanders started falling into the rhythm too, and, without any invitations or announcements, without embarrassment or even alcohol to dissolve the normal constraints of urban life, the samba school turned into a crowd and the crowd turned into a momentary festival. There was no “point” to it – no religious overtones, ideological message, or money to be made – just the chance,which we need much more of on this crowded planet, to acknowledge the miracles of our simultaneous existence with some sort of celebration.

Why not reclaim our distinctively human heritage as creatures who can generate their own ecstatic pleasures out of music, colour, feasting and dance?

From Dancing in the Streets by Barbara Ehrenreichs.