Today is the full Hunter's Moon.
This moon carries the image of animals stepping out into open fields after the crops have been reaped. The open ground changes what can be seen.
Choose one tool you use often. Clean it, return it to its place, and leave the surface around it ready for its next use.
In my own life, my attention is on another kind of open ground.
The kind that appears when you watch an animal move.
Watch an elephant walk for a little while, and you may find yourself paying attention to your own feet.
I love this about watching animals. You become interested in something so ordinary that you have almost stopped noticing it in yourself.
How does weight move through a body? What takes part in a step? How much can happen while a creature appears to be still?
As a movement teacher, I could spend a very long time with these questions.
And in South Africa, we will have time.
After our morning drives, we'll return to the lodge for breakfast and then gather for practice. Something we have just seen may still be with us: the ease of an animal turning, the alertness of its resting body, the way a whole herd responds to a sound.
We bring our own bodies into the room with all their habits and histories. The places that move easily. The places we are careful with. The movements we enjoy and the ones we have almost forgotten are available to us.
My teaching draws on the Axis Syllabus, which explores movement through an understanding of anatomy and the forces acting on the body.
We pay attention to how we carry our weight, how our joints move, and how a movement travels through us. We try things, notice what happens, and give ourselves time to follow what is interesting.
Sometimes a small discovery is enough to keep you curious for the rest of the morning.
You feel where you have been bracing. You find another possibility. You begin to recognise the difference between pushing through a movement and finding a way through it that feels good.
I want us to have ten nights in which that curiosity can grow.
The practice continues to be there when we go back into the bush. Perhaps you notice something in an animal's movement that you would have missed before. Perhaps you become aware of how you are sitting as you watch.
This relationship between what we witness and what we feel in ourselves is at the heart of the retreat.
There will also be shared meals, naps, tea, conversation, and the pleasure of having somewhere beautiful to return to. Our evenings grow quieter as the day comes to rest.
You can arrive completely new to this work. Your own body gives us somewhere to begin.
We'll be in Greater Kruger from August 28 to September 7, 2027.
If you are feeling drawn to come and want to speak with me about it, book a conversation with me.
The full invitation is here.
For a full list of upcoming events, go to bronwynayla.com/events.
With love,
Bronwyn