since I was a child, my closest friendships
have always teetered on the line
between what I was taught was indicative of “romance”
and what was appropriate for “just friends” territory..
I think a social construct that’s actually
highly detrimental to our primal, human health
is the idea that we can only be deeply, intimately,
vulnerably nourished
by those [“the one”] we engage sexually with,
or choose in partnership
here’s the thing –
there is a way to engage in
genuine, transformative, respectful intimacy
with a beloved friend
and even feel your creative “sexual” energy
turn on
without it “meaning” anything
or betraying anyone else in your life..
that “turn on” is just a signal you’re being true
to the very core of y o u r s e l f,
you’re connected to your [and maybe also their] creative power,
and hence I hope it can become a call
for celebration among people
– rather than an assumed gauge for sexual interest –
no matter what any particular relationship entails..
we get into messy territory when we don’t understand
the nature of our own turn on
– our life force –
as fundamentally independent of sex,
but of course, an exquisite fuel for sex
if we so choose..
I love
almost nothing more than to dance
in radical celebration
of those I hold closest in my life;
to honor the breadth and depth of
honest, integrous, conscious
h u m a n individuality and relationship
in all of its forms,
in all our forms..
and, when gifted permission
I’ll often choose to be stripped naked
– to the truth of my essence –
while I kiss the hands of those I love
and laugh til our bodies ache with
full knowing
that we could never truly l i v e through
definitions, labels, stereotypes,
cultural expectations or interpretations,
but we can choose ones that serve us..
life and healing often await at the edge just beyond
what is deemed “proper”, “appropriate” and “normal”
by a repressed and control-addicted culture..
so how much are we willing to let
relationship exist on a multi-dimensional spectrum
of infinite variability?
I invite my close friends to be pioneers with me
of what is true, organic, natural
moment by moment, season by season.
for me
friendship is that
sweetly, playfully
simple.