I was talking to my dearest on the phone today about the concept of closure, and I quickly made mention of “opensure,” ’cause that’s where my goofily mercurial mind traveled… We both had a minor chuckle, but later I got to thinking more seriously about how much hooping & in particular full-bodied hoopdance truly captures both Closure AND Opensure~ and of course how vital both of these contrasting concepts are for helping to balance out our precious celestial earthling selves. As hoopers, we have a head-(& shoulders & knees & toes!)-start over non-hoopers in finding this balance, simply because the *spinpetus* (motivating orbit) of the hoop requires opensure and closure, it requires a certain amount of both protecting and surrendering, both left and right body and brain activity, rocking forward and back, convex, concave, low & high, right and left, thin & wide, fast & slow, big & small, up & down; translating into sun & moon, lightness and dark, work & play. I suspect that most of us feel not quite as balanced as we’d idealize on most days; like we could frequently use a V-8 or other body-aligning beverage d’jour… constantly weeble-wobbling back and forth between too much of this or not enough of that. Of course a certain amount of this wobble is an integral part of living life. However, sometimes the scales tip a little or a lot more to one side for too long for many of us to remain comfortable and we get an ache in our back or our belly or our brain. If we were hooping our way through life in this lopsided fashion, the hoop would be dropping far too often to advance much at all on our path. Sometimes we need to get back to center and ground out in our bodies. When we’re ready, we can expeditiously find grounding and attain high levels of embodiment in the hoop. The simultaneous push and pull around the circular form reflects both our openness to our selves and evolution, as well as our need to feel protected and even guarded within the bounds of the hoop itself. The hoop is our tool, but if it’s not aiding us, if we’re not able to hear it’s rhythm beckoning us with each hug of our core, we can set the hoop down for a moment or few, or simply & subtly move our bodies inside of the hoop as we hold it relatively still in our hands around us. We can try to feel our bodies from more of an internal awareness. We can try to quiet our minds enough to truly feel Embodied~ to let go of our external concerns and worries and doubts, and to circle and circle and circle and circle and c i r c l e~ creating a joyful human-hoop-movement fusion. Fast or slow or mid-tempo smooth~ our moving meditation makes sense across the nation & world, planets & universe… Hooping is orbital be-bop for folks who realize that the speed of the earth around the sun (18+ miles a SECOND!) creates an invisible ring which places all of us earthlings inevitably on a hooper’s path! By the way (as just noted) we’re moving so so fast that it’s OK and in fact necessary, to slow down or even break to play (in other words, Adults: you have a right & dare I say need to hoop or otherwise have fun!). Circularity continued: The moon around our Earth is also a ring. The bits of moonlet around the planet Saturn? Rings. The rest of the rotating planets also form a target of rings around the biggest star this side of what we’ve discovered thus far in our circle-clad solar system. All of these circles and spinners and even hoopless humans, too, ever opening and closing and opening again. The only constant we know is this ebb and flow~ and what a delightfully (whirled) peaceful way to notice as when you’re inside of your hoop! Above is a quick picture I drew in between hooping and marinating on the center of this hoopdance seesaw of life. Please do comment if you have any of your own circular insights or musings to share~ oneLove, noelle