Hip Update: I am writing to you from my big puffy bed with the pink leopard sheets, sparkling chandeliers surrounding me, with a large ice pack on my hip. It’s been six days since my hip replacement surgery, and every day I get a little bit stronger.
It is an interesting journey to replace a hip as a belly dancer. My hips have been the source of so much luscious beauty and pleasure over the decades. Wrapped in silks and jewels, my hips have been a volcanic source of power for me; a juicy hip circle swivels, a slow curve traces a shape in the air, a vibrant shimmy raises the energy to a fever pitch until I feel like I’m sizzling with a slow burning tantalizing fire, but not a fire that burns and destroys, a fire that ignites secret dreams and creates stories where there were none before. My hips have held life like an incantation bowl holds dreams, creating space for souls to grow and dreams to manifest. My hips have been a treasure chest of glittering treasures more magnificent than I could ever dream, full of untold sensual dreams and sumptuous pleasures….
It’s a strange feeling to replace something so integral to who I am, deep in my core. It felt strange and scary to think about surgery, and up until the moment they put in the IV, I was trying to think of a way out of it. I tried everything to avoid replacing my hip, but alas, nothing worked, and the pain was unbearable. So here I am with a new hip I guess, I don’t know, I can’t see it, and I don’t feel very different. The pain is different as I heal.
But I still feel sumptuous glittering treasures in my hips, even with the new one, so maybe replacing the old hip didn’t change who I am deep in my soul at all. My soul holds the treasures, regardless of the hip bones that hold it.
So last night, I dreamed of massive 300-foot tall waves crashing over people, and I was running through them as they crashed over me. I saw some scared children and I turned to rescue them, helping them climb a ladder to move to higher ground. When I turned back to the 300-foot wave, the biggest of them all, it was now staying high in the sky, dancing, and it was beautiful. That will be me.
Soon I will be dancing and swinging my hips, one new, one old, it doesn’t matter, they are mine, and I will find ways to indulge in all the pleasures they have to offer for the rest of my days.
