The Glorious Dissolving
The Glorious Dissolving Side by side laying with my love in the sand we absorb the heat and courage for a final swim in the cold clear blue lake in early October. The shocking elation of immersion in the living waters is worth the numb fingertips. Once welcomed in, my soul awakens as if she’d been asleep and did not know it. Later, I grieve the end of summers last gift The stealth of night slowly converges around the edges of day. And then it is November. Walking in the park, little drops of ecstasy alight on me in the cool air transmitting the splendor of autumn magnificence. And...
Read Morefacing the darkness
I dreamt the other night that I held in my hand a bright true blue light. At the center was a globe of white surrounded by a thin rim of gold- yellow. The light trembled and radiated in my hand. I felt its healing force and in that force was an inexhaustible, vital, irrepressible joy. We cannot bring light into the darkness unless we approach the darkness and look at it. We cannot escape our own darkness or the darkness in the world. Facing and transforming our darkness with light brings growth, liberation and, yes, joy. Our growth and our hope is to bring the light to the darkness. I mean...
Read MoreBeyond the superficial
Seems like fate now. My first work was with older adults. And I trained as a hospice volunteer in my early twenties. Later, I was hired as a mental health counselor working with elders. Initially when I started visiting people in nursing homes I was depressed. Nursing homes are a sad facsimile of home. These institutions dressed up as shabby homes are rife with tragedy, decline, loneliness, fading beauty and gathering weakness. It was a lot to carry in my heart. Still, in some cases these places hid the hidden gems of compassion and community. I like, most of us, was brainwashed by this...
Read MoreDream healing
Dreams are potent guides, teachers and a healing modality. Recently, I assisted Dr Ed Tick at a dream workshop. In ancient Greece there were dream healing practices at elaborate temples with specific protocols to assist people in gaining guidance and healing from a dream. There is so much available to us for enriching our lives and many ways to heal. The synchronicities in the room of dreamers amazed each of us. When we can drop our egos for the sake of a deeper searching of the psyche (soul) we see the ways that we are profoundly interconnected. We are connected to one another as well with...
Read MoreGrief
Grief is a miserable experience but it is also bittersweet because it attests to the depth of our bonds and our love. When the unexpected happens we are suddenly shaken from our everyday routine, from what seems normal. We are shaken whether an event is a loss, a lost friend, a death, the end of a dream. We realize how little is out in our control. Major change is a dizzying feeling as if we are spinning in a whirlpool going down and down turning around trying to find our way in wild and crazy waters. Grief is as sharp as a stab by a sword. It is so visceral. Loss is felt in our bodies,...
Read Morereclaiming all of our Being, left and right
Let’s claim or reclaim all of who we are. For thousands of years we lived closer to a way of life that revolved around relationship and being. There is a fascinating book and corresponding Tedtalk called My stroke of insight by Jill Bolte-Taylor. Dr. Jill Bolte-Taylor is a neurophysiologist, an expert on the brain. She describes her catastrophic stroke that occurred in the left hemisphere of her brain. Although it’s an oversimplification, in general, the two hemispheres of our brain have distinctly different capabilities which she describes as “personalities”. Within us is...
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