Tuesday, April 29, 2008

love your enemy

From this week's Free Will Astrology by Rob Brezsny (click the title link to read the whole thing). This is an excerpt from his book PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA: How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings:

"The 17th-century surgeon Wilhelm Hilden had an interesting theory about healing. He developed a medicinal salve that he applied not to the wound itself but rather to the weapon that inflicted it. Though today we may sneer at such foolishness, the fact is that Hilden's approach has great potential if used for psychic wounds. Jesus understood this when he articulated the revolutionary formula, "Love your enemy." More than any other action, this strategy has the power to cure you of the distortions your enemy has unleashed in you. Try it out."

I had not heard this idea phrased in such a way before, such that not forgiving unleashes distortions in us, whereas love can cure distortions. Wow. That's what makes it incredibly powerful.

Monday, April 28, 2008

austin cycling association

I joined the Austin Cycling Association today. It's got a groovy website with a forum, a monthly meeting, a newsletter, free group rides, and MAPS! They also have a lobbying/political arm, apparently with a lot of clout in the last local elections. That's how I heard of them.

I like that--a local organization that advocates for better consideration of cyclists. Even if they got started to protest mandatory helmets--and I wear a helmet--I like that they keep up with what's going on in the city that impacts bicyclists. Like potholes, bike lanes, bike trails, the city bicycle plan, etc.

I have a dream, that Austin is a safe place to ride your bike--to work, to the store, for fun.

So far, so good. I'm on month four of often commuting to work on my bike, as well as riding it to run errands and just for fun. I feel like I'm in my second childhood. I never got enough of riding my bicycle!

Plus, it's healthy exercise, and it helps move us away from an oil-based economy and what that has meant in terms of foreign policy, consumer habits, obesity, etc.

Viva bicycling!

how to read produce stickers

i'm editing this as of july 28, 2008, after receiving the comment below.

anonymous is right! the 5-digit code starting with 9 signifies the item is organic. i am decorating my computer with produce stickers, and yup, organic is 9. i guess then that if it starts with 8 it's GMO. go for the 9s!

--

I got a newsletter from Serious Eats with an item of interest. You know the little stickers on produce? They have numbers on them that mean something.

4 digits means it's conventionally grown.

5 digits starting with 8 means it's organic.

5 digits starting with 9 means it's genetically-modified (GMO).

This is handy to know especially because I want to avoid GMO produce, and it isn't labeled in stores.

I don't think GMO is a great idea because we don't know long-term effects like cross-pollination or nutritional changes. There could be some benefit, sure, like drought or insect resistance, but I want more information before deciding this is a good thing.

Friday, April 25, 2008

blog neglect, odds and ends, car

I've been really busy at work and at home and feel like I've neglected my blog. So here I am with odds and ends to say. It's Friday! Yippee!

After my car wouldn't start last Saturday, I accepted that I need to get a newer car. I got approved for a loan at my credit union, and I've done some research.

I'm looking for a good used Toyota Prius or Honda Civic hybrid, light in color, clean inside and out, with low mileage, for a good price. I'll consider 2001-2004 models.

So, universe, I'm ready for one to show up! You know where to find me!

I'll keep riding my bike often, but it's nice to have a car sometimes.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

happy earth day!

i want to direct you to two links. one is a short feel-good video by fred krupp of the environmental defense fund, the only environmental organization that i let send me email. EDF does good work, and they are very practical. they're the folks who listed the produce to always buy organic--apples, spinach, strawberries, etc.--and what produce isn't much affected by synthetic fertilizers and toxic pesticides.

http://environmentaldefenseblogs.org/greenroom/2008/04/21/whats-new-this-earth-day-hope/

the other is a link to an article by michael pollan, who wrote "the omnivore's dilemma." he occasionally writes in-depth articles for the New York Times about food, the environment, and lifestyle, and he is always worth reading because he's thoughtful and articulate and solution-oriented.

this article is about what you can do in your life to help the environment at a time when global warming is happening much faster than expected (the rate of the melting of the Arctic ice cap), and we have just a few years to act--if it's not too late already--to prevent unanticipated disasters.

it's one of the most-emailed articles from sunday's Times. click the title of this post to read it.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

joyriding

There's nothing like riding a bicycle. I get a sense of freedom and joy when I ride, especially when I don't have a strong agenda to get somewhere.

I rode today for pleasure. Over to REI for new (cheaper) sunglasses to replace the expensive ones I lost Thursday. Never spend a lot on something small like that that is easily lost! Bought a new non-BPA Camelbak water bottle with built-in straw, blue.

Biked on the north side of Lady Bird Lake over to Deep Eddy and the end of the trail. There's a nice little dock there.

Then to Barton Springs. Sat and watched swimmers and anticipated biking there to swim when the weather gets warmer. There's nothing like an icy dip to cool the body in the pressing heat of an Austin summer.

I lost the rearview mirror for my bike somewhere on the trail to Barton Springs. Oh well! Next time, get one that screws in.

I saw signs for the South Indian New Year Festival at the hillside theater and wandered over there. When I arrived, a Bollywood-type lip-synced dance was on stage. Then some guy played guitar and sang.

Wandered up to vendor booths and bought a red, black, and silver necklace from Jesmeen Sultana, a natural-born saleswoman. She and others were raising money to feed destitute children in Bangladesh through the Sun Child Sponsorship program. For $10 a month "you can save a life by sponsoring a child in Bangladesh". Jesmeen said she sponsored a child and went back to Bangladesh to check it out.

My friends who don't read the news, there is a growing global hunger crisis going on due to the rising price of oil, climate change possibly due to global warming such as a drought in Australia, and the diversion of croplands from food production to biofuel production. We're trying to loosen the grips of our oil addiction, but biofuel can take food out of mouths. The price of staples like rice and corn has gone beyond the reach of many of the world's poorest people. Starvation is happening now in poor countries.

I bought a plate of food--grilled chicken and mixed vegetables--and pondered this. They gave me too much food. I couldn't eat it all. I put what I couldn't eat in the trash, aware that children are starving elsewhere. It seems like a huge problem, bigger than me, bigger than I can do anything about, except maybe donate money and not be so tied to an oil-based economy.

As I was leaving, I stopped to watch a pretty, delicate, young Bangladeshi woman in traditional gorgeous dress do a more traditional dance. The movements were flowing and just beautiful, especially the hand gestures.

I biked home in the twilight, past the Reggae Festival at Auditorium Shores, and caught a big, fat, yellow round moon rising as I turned east on 4th Street. Got home at dusk. It was a sweet joy ride with a tinge of sadness. I wish problems like global hunger were easy to solve. Where is Bono when you need him, I ask? I feel blessed to have enough.

how to live a good life

Thanks to Alec Nicholls for sending me this link. This is a lecture by Randy Pausch, a married father of 3 and prof at Carnegie-Mellon, who is dying of pancreatic cancer. It's about how to live a good life, how to achieve your childhood dreams.

Which of your childhood dreams have you achieved? Which still await fulfillment?

I achieved one earlier this year, when I spent 3 weeks on Maui.

I have an opportunity to go again, in October, with my teachers Tom & Bobbi Best, for a workshop on Hawaiian shamanism. For details, see http://www.nlpoptions.com/the_spirit_of_hawaii_in_han.html.

I'll decide by the end of June, best time to book airfare for October. If I go, I'll go for 10 days, building in time before Hana to watch a sunrise or sunset at Haleakala, hike the Sliding Sands trail, maybe even bike down the volcano, swim with dolphins at La Perouse Bay, have some hang time at Baldwin Beach, get supplies, camping permit, etc. I'll stay at Peace of Maui lodge those first few days, then camp at Waianapanapa State Park at Hana for the workshop. Cost will be about $2K, I estimate.

Wanna come?

Friday, April 18, 2008

poem: the widening sky

From Panhala--see links.

At Evolutionary NLP last weekend, my teacher, Tom Best, assigned homework. One task was to find a poem illuminating the surf around the Island of the Tonal. I believe this poem does it beautifully, as a "self" grows so small as to disappear and yet be filled with love.

I will seek another poem of the surf, with moving-toward energy.


The Widening Sky
by Edward Hirsch

I am so small walking on the beach
at night under the widening sky.

The wet sand quickens beneath my feet
and the waves thunder against the shore.

I am moving away from the boardwalk
with its colorful streamers of people

and the hotels with their blinking lights.
The wind sighs for hundreds of miles.

I am disappearing so far into the dark
I have vanished from sight.

I am a tiny seashell
that has secretly drifted ashore

and carries the sound of the ocean
surging through its body.

I am so small now no one can see me.
How can I be filled with such a vast love?

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

no enemy exists, therefore there is victory

NO ENEMY

For the Shambhala warrior, the actual, basic notion of victory is not so much that you have one-upped your enemy and therefore you are victorious. Rather, no enemy exists at all; therefore, there is victory. This is the idea of unconditional warriorship and unconditional victory. In connection with this, the concept of sacredness is that fearlessness is carried into everyday life situations, even brushing your teeth. So fearlessness occurs all over the place, all the time. Fearlessness here is also unconditional. In this way, fearlessness becomes cheerful and very light. There's no need for cowardice or fear at all, or any moments of doubt. Actually what we're talking about is doubtlessness, we could say, rather than fearlessness. There's no doubt. There are no second thoughts. Everything is a complete warrior's world. So here victory is not having to deal with an enemy at all. It is the notion of no enemy. The whole world is a friend.

From OCEAN OF DHARMA: The Everyday Wisdom of Chogyam Trungpa. 365 Teachings on Living Life with Courage and Compassion. Number 119. [Unpublished excerpt from Talk Five of Warriorship in the Three Yanas. August 1978, Rocky Mountain Dharma Center.]

Blunn Creek surprises

I took my granddaughter Hannah to Blunn Creek yesterday. She brought her plastic pail and a plastic wiffleball with a big plan to catch some fish and put some algae in the ball so they would have food.

We parked about midway in the length of Stacy Park, in the Travis Heights neighborhood, very near where I lived and raised her mother, Lela, from 1987-1997. We walked creekside. She was looking for a big swimming hole and said she'd been there lots of times before. But I had never been there with her.

I saw that the city had been doing some work in the park, cutting down brush, revealing a new creekside trail. Lovely. Blunn Creek cuts through limestone, and often there are limestone shelves girding the creek.

We neared the Eastside Drive bridge. I watched Hannah follow a ledge and continue to where the ledge got so narrow, she needed to hold the cliffside with both hands to keep from sliding down rock into water. She clenched the handle of her pail between her teeth to free her hands.

She is amazingly fearless doing things like this. To me, she moves more like an experienced rock climber than a 7-year-old. I give her no instructions; she figures it out herself in the moment and moves with grace.

She ran out of ledge and had to turn back and retrace her path. We carefully avoided the poison ivy as we crossed the creek several times.

We followed the creek under the bridge and discovered that the Eastside apartments had done some fantastic landscaping on one side of the creek. There was a rock retaining wall to prevent erosion, built artfully. We walked along that and around a bend where a nice wide rock ledge extended a way and then ended. From that point on, the creek was unpassable except by wading on slippery rocks.

When I lived with Lela on Newning, we lived far above the unpassable part. Our "backyard" was greenbelt, so steep and densely overgrown that we were unable to access the creek from our place. That backyard was full of birds. We fed cardinals, finches, sparrows, waxwings, jays, and squirrels on our deck, and even sometimes raccoons.

I sat and meditated while Hannah wandered around. On walks, she nearly always finds some kind of treasure, even if it's not what she thinks she's going to find. Her treasure last night was a dead baby armadillo. It was recently deceased and very clean looking. She got it into her pail, and we looked in awe at its shell, its big claws, its round ears. There was no sign of how it died. She wanted to bring it home, but I told her it needed to stay there and return to the elements.

We talked about reincarnation, and how if the baby armadillo somehow came back to life, it would probably want to get out of there, the place where it had died. But it might come back as something else. Hannah likes the idea of reincarnation.

We encountered at least six people on our walk. We never did find that big swimming hole she envisioned and figured later that she probably meant Barton Creek instead of Blunn Creek. Oh well! Now we have a new place.

Afterwards, we journeyed to Whole Foods for dinner and a few minutes on the playscape, then home for bath and reading and bed, and the end of a good day.

Monday, April 14, 2008

workshop: back from Dallas and eNLP

I got back late last night from the first weekend of Evolutionary NLP (eNLP) training with Tom & Bobbi Best. I felt like I got to play with the big kids--most of the attendees had completed their master practitioner training, which still looms large in my future. But the material was definitely down my alley, and I had access to experts to ask questions of, which I did, a couple of times.

I just started getting into NLP last year, reading books and doing the practitioner training. It's a large field devoted to modeling excellence and doing changework, and it's evolving.

eNLP is different every time, I hear. This training focuses on spiritual beliefs and practices and draws on many sources, most uniquely Tom's close connection to the Q'ero shamans in Peru, but including music, poetry, lecture, exercises in the 12 states of attention, awareness, and meditation, practice with a partner, and homework.

I was gratified to learn that Tom found out about Panhala through my blog and also gets fed a poem via email each morning, a sweet way to start the day.

Many thanks to Keith, Katie, and Karan for their company to and from Dallas, and to Glenda for lodging and letting me stay in Lucy's room of treasures, thus influencing my dreams in a good way. Oh, yeah, and thanks for the fluff, Glenda!

I'll be writing more about this as I progress through the training. Meanwhile, click the title of this post to learn more about eNLP.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

happy birthday, lakshmi!

this is your life, lakshmi! live it to the fullest.
love, mary

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

people who don't get it--compassion for all

from daily OM

You may be someone who understands the true nature of reality, perceiving deeply that we all emanate from the same source, that we are all essentially one, and that we are here on Earth to love one another. To understand this is to be awakened to the true nature of the self, and this understanding is a blessing. Nevertheless, people who just do not get it are seemingly everywhere and, often, occupy positions of power. It can be frustrating and painful to watch them behave unconsciously.

We all encounter individuals such as this in our families, at work, and in all areas of public life. It is easy to find ourselves feeling intolerant of these people, wishing we could be free of them even though we know that separation from them is an illusion.

It helps sometimes to think of us all as different parts of one psyche. Within our own hearts and minds we have dark places that need healing, just as the heart and mind of the world have their dark places. The health of the whole organism depends upon the relative health of the individuals within it. We increase harmony when we hold on to the light, not allowing it to be clouded by judgment, anger, and fear about those who behave unconsciously. It is easier to accomplish this if we don’t focus on the negative qualities of individuals and instead on how increasing our own light will increase that of the overall picture.

When dealing with people who seem very unconscious, it helps to remember that everyone must find their own way to awakening, and that the experiences they are having are an essential part of their process. Holding them in the glow of our energy may be the best way to awaken theirs. At the same time, we are inspired by their example to look within and shed light on our own unconscious places, sacrificing the urge to judge and surrendering instead to humble self-inquiry.

see the world as sacred

Usually in life, when we act, when we exist, we tend to have a very wretched and small notion of what we are doing. Sometimes, we try to be good boys and girls. We struggle, taking our journey stitch by stitch. We go to sleep at night, we get up the next day, and we struggle to lead our life. The ordinary approach to that is undignified and very small, like flat Coca-Cola. Sometimes we feel better, we try to cheer up, and it feels pretty good. But then, behind that, there is the same familiar "me" haunting us all the time. We don't have to be that way, at all. We actually could see our world as a big world and see ourselves as open and vast. We can see our world as sacred. That is the key to bringing together the sun of wisdom with the moon of wakefulness.

From OCEAN OF DHARMA: The Everyday Wisdom of Chogyam Trungpa. 365 Teachings on Living Life with Courage and Compassion. Number 284. [Unpublished excerpt from Talk Five of Warriorship in the Three Yanas. August 1978, Rocky Mountain Dharma Center.]

Monday, April 7, 2008

5R error

Try saying that 10 times as quickly as you can.

I created a music program for our peer group on Sunday, but my second CD didn't "burn." I didn't test it; I just assumed it burned because the laptop spit it out as if it had.

Played warmup, flowing, and half of staccato, switched CDs-----and nothing happened. Lisa had to finish out my program from some of her 5R CDs that she just happened to have handy.

So...I get to do the program again on April 20, our last dance together. I will switch up warmup, flowing, and staccato a bit so as not to repeat myself. It's my pleasure.

I danced vigorously, which was good, but my back hurt a lot later. It's the floor at the Khabele Studio. It has no heart, as Lisa says. I add, especially for people with back problems.

Friday, April 4, 2008

5 rhythms peer group disbanding

I feel sad about this. We've been dancing together on Sunday mornings for 7 years. I love this group--its familiarity and intimacy. Some people have come and gone, but a core has remained. Gary, Lisa, Elizabeth, Steve, Scott, Cherrie, Karin, Lakshmi, and others more recent or sporadic.

It's been just wonderful to enter the studio (we've danced at 3--at Zein's Arabic Bazaar, Quicksilver, and now Khabele) on Sunday morning and know I was entering a sacred space, nonverbal, to move to programs we put together ourselves. It's been like entering into silence, only the silence has music, movement, and companionship.

No one is needy or intrusive or very sociable--or unfriendly. We all know there's time to interact in a "regular" manner later--this is our sacred time to move, together in a space but separately. I love that. It's been a gift that has allowed me to focus deeply on my body, my habits and patterns, and become more authentic in my dance, and more graceful, more centered, more grounded, more aware, more whole, more healed.

Lisa has been training to become a 5 rhythms teacher. She wants to teach and can't do both. (She and Gary have been the mainstays of the peer group, doing the music most of the time, renting the space, buying the equipment.) Plus, Gabrielle Roth doesn't like peer groups.

I'm glad Lisa is pursuing her goal and actualizing her life. I wish her the best teaching the 5 rhythms, and I will go to some of her classes. I hope I never get to a place where I think I know enough, that no one can teach me anything. Beginner's mind no matter how much experience you have is a reverent approach to learning. Because you never know it all. There's always more to explore, and my years--13 or so--with the 5 rhythms have deepened my exploration and appreciation of the wonder and complexity of life.

But I still feel like I will want to rent a studio sometimes and go into it with some peers and just move to music with reverence.

I'm doing the program this Sunday, and I loaded it with favorites over the time I've been dancing the rhythms: Peter Gabriel, Rusted Root, Geoffrey Oreyema, Toni Childs, Rachid Taha, Gotan Project, Suru, Leftfield, Ashkara, Doug Sahm, Lyle Lovett, k.d. lang, Thomas Barque, Rachel Bagby.

I'll miss the following Sunday, and our final dance together will be April 20. That date is a turning point for me. I don't know what my map will be after that, but I know I will follow my heart, and that it will be a moving experience.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

leadership training

I was lucky enough to get to participate in Franklin-Covey Leadership Training through my job. The trainig lasteed two and a half days. I came away with some good tools.

One of the concepts was WIGs, Wildly Important Goals. The idea is that people do best focusing on THE most important goals, not the Pretty Important Goals (PIGs).

So...with WIGs in mind, I just got some things done. Planted herbs and blackberries that I bought several weeks ago that have just been sitting in pots, wilting, and pulled up my bolting spinach and cooked for dinner. Started my 5 rhythms program for Sunday. Emailed Katie about sharing a ride and lodging in Dallas for Evolutionary NLP April 12-13.

So many things to do, so little time. It's good to find a way to sort what's wildly important to do NOW versus what's pretty important but can wait.

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

accepting scoliosis

I sent a post to the DanceTribes forum about needing people to accept my boundaries. I've danced with a lot of people with big, playful energy, and at this time am not able to dance like that.

I went to Body Choir last night. I've only been a few times for months, where I used to go once or twice a week. I danced mostly by myself, which felt safe.

I feel vulnerable because of the work I'm doing to align my lumbar vertebrae. I didn't want anyone to pick me up or try to dance vigorously with me.

I noticed that I just do not have the desire to move in a way that pounds my back. No chaos! Or, perhaps, chaos lite.

I did a little contact with Brucie on the floor, but felt that sharp shooting pain from the adhesion on my piriformis insertion point. So contact doesn't work. It's 5R all the way, except for chaos.

That said, I enjoyed moving and dancing with Anna Sergi's beautiful program for John and Anna.

And I mentioned in shareback (because apparently a lot of people don't read the forum, like me) that I was working on back problems, and thanked Anna for mentioning in the opening circle that we respect each other's boundaries and we are each responsible for setting our own boundaries.

The good news is that this is taking me out of my unmindful patterns and putting me into a more mindful place. I can always grow--the minute I think I know everything is the minute I'm shutting myself off from learning.