People assume a lot of things about me. I would say a lot of it is inaccurate. I have heard that because I appear flirtatious and sensuous, that I must be some sex kitten. I am the farthest thing form a sex kitten. Meow. I bathed in my soggy underwear until I was flippin’ 15 (due to growing up in a Mexican Catholic village where we bathed communally in the river). Others think I am super outgoing and always full of energy. Not true. I am shy at parties and intimidated in kick ass yoga classes. I have a hard time asking for what I think I deserve. I love to sleep a lot and sometimes I need a whole day where I don’t utter even one word.

As I drove in my free-upgraded luxury car from Kahului along the Hana Highway to Congolese Dance Camp near Hana, I couldn’t help but cry.

Tears of utter appreciation.

I had done it. I had brought myself to a long-time-brewing-dream that had been living in my heart. I had made a dream come manifest!! I did it! If I could only go back in time and tell my 10 year old self that when I was 31 I would raise enough money to fly myself to Maui Hawaii for 10 days to dance at the juiciest Congolese Dance Conference in a luxury car! My 10 year old self would have stared at me wide eyed and would have asked if the car had automatic windows and if it would start even if you didn’t park it on the steepest hill one could find. A 6-CD changer? what’s that? Air conditioning? Now I know you are not for real, my child self would dismiss me and not believe 31 year old me.

But it’s true. I manifested abundance and took myself to my Dream place for a Dream Dance Conference. I was driving the fanciest car I had ever driven in without even asking for it. I was getting 10 days of dancing every day to the N’Goma drums and to the traditional, juicy and 2nd chakra realeasing Congolese dance.

Yes, I believe in abundance folks! Do you?

Both times I went to Guinea West Africa to study dance, I returned with this same feeling: something shifts in my body and in my emotional center when I have been dancing for over 4.5 hours a day for many days in a row. Something expands in my heart and pure joy releases from my energetic Spirit. The thing that was different about dancing days straight Congolese style instead of Guinea style as I have in the past, was that the Congolese style led to a massive freeing of my 2nd Chakra. I noticed this freedom upon my return from Maui because my dancing while I was teaching the other night had changed! I am now so much freer in my hips and waist and my low back pain is puff: gone. I feel the Fire…

If you know anything about the 2nd Chakra, you would think that I AM the 2nd Chakra. It’s fire-orange in color.

“If you have ever felt ‘fire in the belly’ you have felt the 2nd Chakra. The 2nd Chakra is like the engine of the body, providing the power to move forward in life. A strong 2nd Chakra is the key to a strong body, mind and spirit.” -Healing Chakras by Ilchi Lee.

I have also read that the 2nd Chakra is where “sexuality is born”.

People assume a lot of things about me.

And Maui footnotes:

I have come to be danced. Not the pretty dance. Not the pretty pretty pick me pick me dance. But the matted hair flying, voodoo mama, shaman sakin’ ancient bones dance. I have come to be danced. Not the self conscious shuffle, but the shout Hallelujah from the top of my thighs dance. The everyone is welcome to my heaven dance. I have come to be danced. (words from Jewel Mathieson’s poem tweaked a bit by me).