Wednesday, March 18, 2009

poem: To Begin With, the Sweet Grass, by Mary Oliver

she knows! so beautiful, so wise...


To Begin With, the Sweet Grass
(excerpt)

1.

Will the hungry ox stand in the field and not eat
of the sweet grass?
Will the owl bite off its own wings?
Will the lark forget to lift its body in the air or
forget to sing?
Will the rivers run upstream?

Behold, I say - behold
the reliability and the finery and the teachings
of this gritty earth gift.

2.

Eat bread and understand comfort.
Drink water, and understand delight.
Visit the garden where the scarlet trumpets
are opening their bodies for the hummingbirds
who are drinking the sweetness, who are
thrillingly gluttonous.

For one thing leads to another.
Soon you will notice how stones shine underfoot.
Eventually tides will be the only calendar you believe in.

And someone's face, whom you love, will be as a star
both intimate and ultimate,
and you will be both heart-shaken and respectful.
And you will hear the air itself, like a beloved, whisper:
oh, let me, for a while longer, enter the two
beautiful bodies of your lungs.

7.

What I loved in the beginning, I think, was mostly myself.
Never mind that I had to, since somebody had to.
That was many years ago.
Since then I have gone out from my confinements,
though with difficulty.
I mean the ones that thought to rule my heart.
I cast them out, I put them on the mush pile.
They will be nourishment somehow (everything is nourishment
somehow or another).
And I have become the child of the clouds, and of hope.
I have become the friend of the enemy, whoever that is.
I have become older and, cherishing what I have learned,
I have become younger.

And what do I risk to tell you this, which is all I know?
Love yourself. Then forget it. Then, love the world.

~ Mary Oliver ~


(Evidence)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

sorry it's been so long

work is heating up. my first square foot garden is going well. 3 more to fill with soil and plant with summer veggies and herbs. may make a couple more boxes for flowers!

i just finished reading Spiritual Enlightenment: The Damnedest Thing by Jed McKenna.

current book: A Path with Heart, by Jack Kornfield, co-founder of Insight Meditation. Kornfield has more heart than McKenna, but both have valid information on spiritual enlightenment. Kornfield makes the process seem more worthwhile, though; McKenna focuses more on what he defines as the end of the process--nondual awareness. I do wonder what he'd have to say now, how he continued his growth.

both books are worthwhile reading.

sunday after a rainy morning reading in bed, i went out and took photos of art on the east side--paintings both commercial and decorative. will post soon.

lela is in europe, hannah is in branson, MO, kathleen is in orlando, going to cornwall in england tomorrow i believe.

and i'm here in austin.

poem: My Mind Was a Mirror, by Ernest Hyde

this poem reminds me of a process we experience as we grow older. awakening.

My mind was a mirror:
It saw what it saw, it knew what it knew.
In youth my mind was just a mirror
In a rapidly flying car,
Which catches and loses bits of the landscape.
Then in time
Great scratches were made on the mirror,
Letting the outside world come in,
And letting my inner self look out.
For this is the birth of the soul in sorrow,
A birth with gains and losses.
The mind sees the world as a thing apart,
And the soul makes the world at one with itself.
A mirror scratched reflects no image —
And this is the silence of wisdom.

~ Ernest Hyde ~

(Spoon River Anthology)

Monday, March 2, 2009

favorite modalities

referring to the long list of healing/energy/growth modalities listed in the previous post, i thought i'd list those that have made the most difference in my life.

some have become part of my lifestyle: yoga, meditation, acupuncture, journaling, food awareness, and dreamwork.

others have been tremendously helpful given situations peculiar to my life: waking the tiger for PTSD and NUCCA for scoliosis.

two are just fascinating--i have read books and learned a lot, and i would love to plunge into the depths--probably will when the stars are aligned right: Enneagram and LifePrints.

and then there's NLP. i've completed practitioner training and will soon start my master practitioner training. NLP has a huge body of work and is very practical. that makes it worthy of study.

not that there's anything wrong with the modalities i didn't mention here... these are just those i have resonated with the most. i feel grateful for all the experience.

experience

Today I was making a list of the various modalities I have at least some experience with for health, energy, awareness, personal growth, relating, and changework. I was shocked at how long it was!

I have either worked with trained practitioners, received training myself, attended classes/workshops/practice groups, read books or watched videos, or taught these modalities.

I'm going to start with the body-based and energy modalities. I excluded Pilates, snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, etc--practices that are for fitness and recreation only. This list is about healing, increasing awareness, improving energy. These practices can also affect mental/emotional state profoundly, since everything is connected:
massage (Swedish, Shiatsu, Thai)
traditional chiropractic
NUCCA chiropractic
cranio-sacral therapy
rolfing
acupuncture
osteopathy
zero balancing
Feldenkrais--one on one, Awareness Through Movement classes
Alexander Technique
physiosynthesis
yoga--mostly Iyengar, also at least one class in Sivananda, Integral, Anusara, Vinyasa Flow, Kundalini
breathwork
chakra work
Z-health
EFT
hands-on healing
Brain Gym

These are primarily dance-related:
5 rhythms
trance dance
contact improv

These involve food and nutrition and absorption:
candida clearing
diet--food sensitivities, pH, doshas
organ cleansing--colon, liver, gallbladder
fasting

These modalities are more about shifting state and changing patterns:
NLP (waaaayyy too much to list under this umbrella)
hypnosis/trancework
shamanic practices (journeying, Ha prayer, energy cleansing, yana chaqui, pico pico breathing, and more)
12 states of attention
nightwalking/peripheral walking
holographic repatterning
meditation
japalm/mantra
deeksha

These are therapeutic types of experiences:
therapy for PTSD/Waking the Tiger
re-evaluation counseling/co-counseling

These are systems for understanding types of people:
Enneagram
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
Life Prints fingerprint analysis

And these are miscellaneous:
InterPlay
Tarot
astrology
journaling
dreamwork
hanging upside down
using a spine aligner
toning

There are probably more that I can't think of now.

I have spent a great deal of time and money obtaining most of these experiences. They have all been of benefit and a joy to experience. Some have become life practices. Some have been specific for a given situation. Some are occasional treats.

I'd like to put this life experience to good use. If you have a question about any of these or want a referral in Austin (a few in Dallas), please feel free to contact me.