The Stage at C3

We reflect on the progress that we have made towards LGBTQ+ rights, both nationally and in Michigan, while at the same time focusing on the challenges that we currently face, in light of the political attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, particularly the transgender community.

How do we begin to listen and to respond when our soul is trying to tell us that ritual would be helpful? How can we listen to our longings, and then find ways to express and respond to those longings? We explore following the natural world that surrounds us, and find ways to lean into ritual “bit by bit.”

We explore how small, repeatable practices can become containers for growth, healing, and attention. Drawing from traditional wisdom, modern science, and reflections on ritual in the African Dagara tradition, we look at how rituals create thresholds between one way of being and another.

This week, we’ll explore what happens when that way of seeing begins to soften how we move through life. Humor, laughter, and exuberant joy are not distractions from reality. They can be ways of meeting reality with greater spaciousness, resilience, and wonder. Laughter helps us zoom out, unclench our butt-cheeks a little, and better appreciate the strange, beautiful, and often ridiculous experience of being human