I have spent this summer, like every summer for the past fifteen years since I came to this land, barefoot in the garden, running to and fro from thing to thing. This year, in the hours when my daughter is not staging a coup, declaring her independence in all manner of things, she has been humming along beside me, her hands and lips berry stained, her arms full of cucumbers, saying, “I picked two for you Mama and two for me, and four for Daddy, because he’s the biggest.”  To be honest, I have lost track of how many cucumbers we’ve all eaten this summer. In the afternoons we are cooling down in the river, or sitting on the front steps shelling bowls of peas, one bowl for us and a tea saucer for Raffi, our dog. And as we harvest and munch, and pick and shell, the concept of nourishment has been turning in my mind.

I recently learned that the etymology of the word nourishment has its roots in the Latin nutrire, which means "to swim, flow, or let flow" and translates literally to "she who gives suck" (as in a nursing mother). Over centuries, this concept of "flowing milk" expanded to broadly mean sustaining, feeding, and promoting both physical and spiritual growth.

What I am recognizing as life goes on, is that nourishment is not just about physical sustenance, and although I have always had some awareness of this, it has become much clearer to me as I watch my child grow. Nourishment is not only about what we feed ourselves, it is more expansive than that, and includes the mysterious inner realms of the soul, as much as it does the body. It has to do with growing life in the deepest sense. 

And so the question I have begun to ask is: What feeds, nourishes and supports life to grow and expand, to adapt and regenerate? And as life goes on, and we move into different stages of our human experience, how does the concept of nourishment change? What nourishment is required for the body/soul to grow, heal, and flourish even? What is the “flowing milk” that grows new life, and how does it differ from season to season, both literally and figuratively? And as I walked through the summer with these questions, I began to notice the places in my own life where I have been feeling a lack of nourishment, a hunger even. 

And then, one evening, my daughter came to me carrying an illustrated version of Hansel and Gretel. “Let’s read this” she said, and as I began to read, I knew I had landed upon the story for our next session. For this is a tale that begs us to seek true nourishment, not only individually, but also collectively, culturally and globally. I know I am not alone in recognizing the poverty of the soul that plagues our modern world; the systemic starvation of our time. There is a collective longing for something of greater substance, a global desperation for meaning and purpose that acknowledges the profound mystery of life itself, for that which feeds the spirit and honours the cycles of death and rebirth. 

To me, AI, screens, social media and capitalist expansion, are reminiscent of the Gingerbread House, irresistible temptations, illusions of false nourishment. Like Hansel and Gretel we have all experienced times in this life when we have been cast out into the dark forest to find a new way. During such times the allure of the gingerbread house is all the more seductive. There is no denying that we are living in a time of great unknown. If ever there was a time to forge a new path it is now. Like the characters of our stories, we too must root down into our own instinctual and intuitive knowing, perhaps then we can look directly into the face of what terrifies us most. 

And so, for 6 weeks, I invite you to join me in the dance as we explore the fairytale of Hansel and Gretel, asking ourselves: what nourishes this life, our bodies, our souls, our needful earth? Together, through the dance, we will consider the traps of poverty consciousness and the ways in which the soul hungers. We will get curious about the tempting illusions of this world as we peer beneath the metaphor of the witch and her gingerbread house. We will observe the patterns of the dark and repressed feminine, alongside the wounded and passive masculine. We will enter into the instinctual forest within our own psyches to seek the new life that is calling to us there. 

Class 1- The Famine 

Class 2- The Bread Crumb Path

Class 3- The Dark Forest

Class 4- The Gingerbread House

Class 5-The Witch

Class 6- The Treasure