Explore the Penny Polka Daimon Dance
by C. Charis Coyle

Welcome to the first dance routine!

The Penny Polka is a dance geared towards right relationship with money.

Okay - you ask.  If this is about money and abundance why not reach for
the skies?  Why not call the dance the million dollar rumble?

Well, yes.  The million dollar rumble would be an appropriate title for a
dance but not for this one.  This dance focuses on roots, the bottom of the
barrel, the little feather, the minutia that is so small it tends to get
overlooked.   
    
There was a recent survey in my area where people were asked their opinion
on the lowly penny.  Interestingly enough, the majority of respondents felt
the penny to no longer be of any consequence, too unimportant to bother
about. Some even revealed that they preferred to throw away these tokens
of smallness rather then spend the effort required to attend to them.

Amazing -- throw-away cash in a throw away society.

I was troubled for a number of reasons. My first response was to think of
the garbage dumps of Guatemala, home to millions of street children that
spend the entire day scrounging for any trash as inconsequential as the
American penny. They would sort through their trash like Psyche sorting
her seeds in the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche, a deperate affair with
little hope of success.  And yet -- the sorting goes on, because life goes
on. An outworn tarnished penny would light sparks of life and hope in these
children's eyes. Worthless objects would turn quickly from trash to
treasure, just by changing the fingers through which they filter.

Despite my amazement that people actually throw money away, I also
recognize the practical side of the matter.  We can not bundle up our
unused pennies to ship them off to Guatemala. For yes, the cost to do so
(due to their weightiness) would probably be greater then their worth
(at least according to the global market). In our market economy, the idea
of physical money (something you can actually touch, taste and smell) appears
to be headed towards extinction as it is replaced by the bits and bytes of
the virtual. Even so - "a coin in the hand" has not yet completely passed
outside our worldview and as such it needs to be attended to.

The physical world is about bones and matter, about structure and form. 
How can we build a strong house without a good foundation.  Every pebble
and rock that goes into making up that foundation is necessary for this work,
even when we are not consciously aware they exist.  This became shockingly
apparent to me this past year as I was forced into attending to the bones of
my life - both in the foundation of a house that was crumbling to dust around
me, and in the foundation of a body as I struggled with the news that I had
osteoporosis.

Imagine the horror - a dancer with bad bones.

One can transfer this same thinking to money.  While many abundance
programs concentrate on prosperity, on flying to the heights, very few
address the realm of the depths. As a result, I want to attend to that which
we most ignore. I want to concentrate on the sacredness of the small, on the
enoughness of sufficiency.  
 
When I speak about being sufficient, I want to stress that this does
not mean lack. It means having enough. Think about it!!

If you have just enough (just enough food, just enough money, just enough
friends) to fulfill your life quest, meeting and attending to your needs along
the way, then where's the lack.  Llooking from this perspective, the term
abundance seems to be the notion that is off kilter, out of balance. To be
abundant could imply to have more than your share, to have more than enough,
in which case that wealth has more of a chance of being dishonored and
squandered, used in ways that are not sacred to one's inner dance. But if you
have just enough, then you will care for and nurture that wealth with loving
attention, protect it and cherish it, treat it as the sacred gift that it is.
 
With this in mind let's return to our lowly penny.

As the smallest building block of our physical monetary system, I want to
suggest a use for this often unwanted companion.  I want to recommend
a dance that might help turn a sadly neglected entity into a talisman of
sacredness.  Never forget we all have god sparks hidden deep inside, and as
a result, when used with right attention and right action, even a penny can
become a god filled token of gold dust.

The Dance Steps for the Penny Polka

• Take a faded, darkened coin - the older the better.
• Sit with it for a while.
• Ask it about its story, about its purpose.
• Ask what it wants.
• Listen for the answers.
• How can you help to make it shine? 
• How can you turn it from trash into treasure?
• As you listen you might consider giving it a massage with shine-up oils.
• Treat this little feather with the respect it deserves.  

Perhaps you can also take this time to consider the other treasures hidden
in the trash of your life. Use the street children of Guatemala as your mentors
 and guides. They are masters of this dance.

When done, load your pockets up with a handful of jingle-jangle pennies
and really dance the polka as you listen to the sparkling laughter of the
coins as they tango to the rhythm of life.

And always, always, always - remember to stop and pick that wayward
penny out of the gutter singing in gratitude as you welcome it into your life.
 
Intestingly enough, when we attend to the little feathers of life (As the saying
goes God is in the details), the Universe attends to us.  By celebating these
little steps of delight we can relase thousands of joy sparks out into the world.
I have no doubt they will return on wings of gratitude a thousand fold.

How much is that lowly penny worth to you now?

I wish you happy dancing.

PS - This dance was suggested by my Daimon (inner partner) who sometimes
answers to the name Pennae (Latin for feather).  Does your Daimon have
feathers?  They tend to be a useful commodity for someone in the Daimon
Business. 

P.S.S. It's interesting to note how easy the two sounds (Pennae, Penny)
might be interchanged, interconnected, rooted to and through each other.
Hmmm!  Something to ponder when the dance is done. 
 
C. Charis Coyle is a soul dancer.  She is a life coach, author,
storyteller, mythologist, performer and all around choreographer
of the eclectic and unusual. The Daimon Dance (website and
newsletter) is her praise song dedicated to the inner partner,
her way of re-membering the soul’s inner dream. The purpose of
the Daimon Dance is to gently remind each and every one of us
the importance of periodically recharging our connection to our
inner dancing star. www.daimondance.com

Copyright 2006 Charis Coyle.  Please feel free to pass this
article on to your friends, or use it in your ezine or
newsletter.  It's a shareware article.