When I was little, I loved dancing. I went to ballet school first once a week, then, twice, then, by the time I was in middle school, three times. But around age 13, I grew to be nearly six feet tall. The teacher said, "You're a lovely dancer, but, unfortunately, there will never be a prince tall enough for you." So, I quit.

More than thirty years later, when I was nearly crippled with back pain and in the deep turbulence of divorce at the end of a twenty-year marriage, I found 5Rhythms® in Italy where I was living at the time. Rediscovering dance, in the form of this movement meditation, became a way to rediscover myself. I started peeling back layers of defensive strategies to uncover the "real me". And I'm still on that journey.

I am filled with gratitude for the gifts of this practice and for the international community that supports me in it. I'm reminded of the way one of my most important teachers opens a class, "You are welcome here. You are welcome with whatever you have brought and whatever you have not brought. You are welcome here."

These words and my practice continue to point me in the direction of radical acceptance...embracing all that is both within me and outside. And that, in turn, opens me to ever more opportunities for healing, growth and transformation. I am humbled and honored to share my journey with others now that I am on the teaching path.