On the front landing of Karuna, I approach the bear costume Joe’s left to us. It’s a somber thing—of the things in this life that are clear, it was clear Joe’s nature was bear, while his body was man. A few weeks okay that man’s body traveled to San Juan de La Laguna where he made a seamstress’ day by having her make a bear costume. Locals gathered around—this was no typical order—in a world trumped by a need for shirts, skirts, and pants—Joe’s bodily needs all fit nicely into a bear costume.

I messaged Joe, who’s now in Mexico, “I’m going to wear your bear costume to the ecstatic dance at Gaia Dance Temple.”

“Be careful,” he responded, “Other animals might want to fight you.”

Then Joe went on to detail the safety features of his bear costume: “The head has some chicken wire that never got fixed properly I wore my cotten sun hat and it held the head in agood position and prevented me from getting poked at the top. So anyway, you may want to put it on for a test run before you go to the party and discover you need something to make it work.”

Bears—even costumes of bears—can be hazardous to man.

And so I donned the bear garbs and Erica, one of Karuna’s resident artists, sparkled herself up and guides me through the rough patches on the trail. Bears don’t see so well you see…

And so, a bear rocked up to the ecstatic dance and started cutting loose. Behind the dancing bear costume was me—glancing out at the world, feeling in the moment a convergence point for so many things—this is more felt in that dancing moment and later reflected upon to articulate within this writing.

I’m dancing on Joshua Param Sevak’s dance floor at the Gaia Dance Temple. Joshua was Mario’s Kundalini teacher. Joe Parnell was Mario’s family friend, whom I met last summer at the Aquacencion gathering to honor our late friend’s life and further his missions on earth.

As I’m dancing, I can feel this realization, that without Mario’s life, without the unique circumstances of his death, this bear would not be dancing on the dancing floor right now.

When Erica asked Joe why he made and wore a bear costume, he said, “Because I’m a nice guy, and everybody wants to see a bear. So I wear the bear suit and they can see a bear and then they’re happy.”

And so in the happiness of others at seeing a dancing bear, I basked in the converging moment at hand, feeling my body move freely, ecstatically, feeling a dear friend’s joyful spirit dance on through the jiving situation at hand.

***

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