Getting Clear

I had such an interesting experience this evening. I have been intending to do a sound healing for someone who lives out of the country. We talked at least 3 weeks ago about her intention but I have been slow in getting to it between doing an event on the solstice, preparing for Christmas, wrapping and shipping packages and the upcoming New Year events. I was feeling somewhat guilty that I had not yet gotten to it even though I knew she understood and was fine with it and had the understanding that it would happen when it was the right time, as did I- but I was still not 100% comfortable with how long it was taking to get to it. As it turned out she sent a text earlier today basically updating her intention. I still expected that I would not get to it til next week.

So, a few hours ago I was sort of mindlessly playing some Tibetan bowls in my living room and moving some of them around, setting them up, shifting them around and switching some of them out. Then I began setting up crystal bowls around them and suddenly I realized I was setting up the sound healing session and that I was supposed to do it tonight. Various other instruments began calling me and soon I was setting up the entire space to do a sound journey which I would record for my client. There was a lot of specificity. The instruments were essentially guiding me and arranging themselves. I didn’t bring in all the instruments I normally use and brought some in that I sometimes play but basically never use for session work.

I was quickly guided to clear the space of everything that didn’t belong there and set up the room around the instruments. I needed to create an altar. I usually think of the room itself as an altar and I don’t need to change things, but I was guided to get certain crystals from my sound healing room, along with pictures and murtis and even specific candles and candle holders. The process took a long time, probably a good 90 minutes and then I was basically “told” by whoever/whatever was guiding me that I needed to take pictures which I would share with the client. Right away I realized that is now a part of the healing session. I’m not sure why but it was very clear that the visual is an important piece.

I did the sound journey and just listened back to it and was hypnotized by it. I wanted to make sure the recording was okay before I sent it off. It was pretty wonderful. Hopefully it will be good for the recipient as well! Please do not hesitate to reach out if you would like a long distant private sound healing session. If you’re reading this blog then you know where to find me.

Here are pictures of the set up for the session.

It's Been So Long! (Time...Time... Time...)

I love synchronicity! I was scrolling through pictures to put an enticement for my blog post. I got to this one, which I saved some years ago, and when I zoomed in realized that I have a bumper sticker with the same quote!

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Gardening and Grooving

It’s been a very intense year so far. Every day i want to write and I have had some frustration with not being able to post new pictures on my computer. Long story- not interesting to anyone, I’m sure! So we’ll just glide right past that. Update- problem solved

So where am I right now? Here’s a quick update. I fell in love.*

And now it’s September and I fell out of love. Okay, back to what I was writing two months ago.

My son Moose and his wife Jenny had twins- Ruby and Wren- on December 26. They came home from the hospital at the end of January a couple of days before their official due date of 2.22.22.

I drove back and forth to Rhode Island and Maine 3 times between October and December… and then a 4th time in April for my brother Tim’s funeral after he died from Covid.

Tim on the far right, 1972, with our younger brother Peter at the helm (age 15 at the time and youngest crew member) during transatlantic to Kiel, Germany for Operation Sail, aboard the Black Pearl.

A week after Tim’s funeral I flew out to Minneapolis to meet my granddaughters, Ruby and Wren, in the sweet pink baby flesh! They were 3 months old and it was the perfect balm after losing my brother- not that it could make up for it, but it certainly softened things a lot and nurtured my soul.

Oh, did I mention I had an appendectomy? February 22, the same night my brother Tim was put on a ventilator. Ugh, not a good night. The night before I was probably the sickest and most scared I have ever been in my adult life, vomiting violently to the point I thought I was actually going to suffocate as I was unable at times to even get a breath. it was horrible. Anyway, I got through it and felt a thousand times better after the offending organ was removed! But an emotionally challenging time as Tim was also clearly not recovering from Covid the way it was anticipated.

Next? May rolled around and I went to Florida to do 3 Healing Sound Journeys- the first public events I had done since the start of the pandemic! I have LOTS more to say about that trip and the things I learned about my work, all (or most) of which I am saving for another post. I will post a groovy picture here though!

Instruments set up for a Healing Sound Journey at the Temple of The Living God in St. Petersburg, FL.

And then it was June- which is when I started this post! A trip to Haris Lender’s Yurtananda, her very groovy retreat in the hills of Virginia down the road from Swami Satchitananda’s ashram in Yogaville. She had just completed a beautiful outdoor music stage and invited me up to do a Healing Sound Journey outside in the woods with the birds and the bees and some trees- and a few people too! She was unquestionably the hostess with the mostess and it was a wonderful time!

For those of you who are on Facebook, here is a link to a short video that Haris took. Unfortunately there is no other access to it. To watch video click here.

And that’s all for now- almost! I got back home and was able to do a bit of gardening- put in a sweet little herb garden… planted 3 kinds of thyme, rosemary, lavender, parsley, echinacea, mint, catnip, lemon balm, lamb’s ears, kalanchoe and a gorgeous orange canna.

I also managed to find time for a bit of artistic expression (besides cooking, music, sound healing and gardening) and I did this collage on canvas which I think is my favorite to date. So, I’ve caught you up to June with many gaps but I’ll leave you with this image. More to come.

Creativity- I AM Processing the Process

About 3 weeks ago I ordered Seth Godin’s latest book The Practice: Shipping Creative Work. Subsequently I ordered a copy for my son Benjamin and the following week for my son Namdev as we decided to join together in our own private familial motivational group. I talked about this in my last post.

I AM= Inspiration, Aspirations and Motivation. Since I am somewhat the ringleader for this little brainstorming group I definitely need to see the places where I fall short of really stepping up to- and into- what is available to me, in terms of my own work, my own creativity, my own process. Now that all three of us have the book I have no excuses but to start reading it- which I did late this afternoon.

I have certain ideas about how I want to move forward with my work but they require a serious amount of rethinking my approach in this time of Covid- and the fact is I have done plenty of rethinking and come up with what I believe to be some good ideas. So what is holding me back? Why haven’t I moved forward on more of my ideas?

One thing I am becoming aware of is that it is easier to be accountable to another person than it is to myself. If someone else asks me to do a Sound Journey or teach a workshop I am there. When I have an actual space to work out of where physical bodies are going to show up, that too is very inviting to me. To show up online feels very raw- somehow it’s as if the bodies create a buffer or a sense of safety. How do I move past that? Just do it- differently. Putting off writing a blog post because suddenly my computer won’t charge? (Yes, that is my current situation.) Too bad! Write it on your phone. Okay, I AM.

Being accountable to one’s own self- that seems to be a big part of the challenge. Hence the I AM Group- and I get to help somebody else while I’m helping myself.

Feelin' Good

It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life- and it’s a new year! And I AM feelin’ good!

So much to celebrate, so much to be grateful for.

My new year always starts off on January 9. January 8 is my birthday and, for me, the culmination of the holiday season. My final sweet treat- always the best carrot cake I can find- which for the past two years has been my own- far healthier than whatever I can get “out there” and absolutely killer! This year I didn’t have my cake until January 10th because my actual birthday was so full. and I didn’t have time to bake it until the next evening- by which time it was too late to eat it! On the day of, I did a sound journey via Zoom which was attended by about 35 people- what a wonderful way to celebrate! Not my plan- it was hosted by my friend Rose Russo who runs a yoga group for cancer survivors. It just “happened” to land on my birthday. Friends from near and far- even one whom I had not seen since I was 17! What a treat- so wonderful.

Meanwhile I AM doing my best to get down to business, to think about what I want to create and what I want to regenerate in this bright new year. My intention is to set reasonable goals- enlightenment can wait… but occasionally withdrawing my attention from the objects of my experience and relaxing gently into the awareness of I AM no longer seems impossible.

I am reading Rupert Spira’s book Being Myself and feel like I am beginning to understand (which reminds me of another song). A water molecule cannot separate itself from the water and look at the ocean. It can only relax into the experience of being the ocean. It can look at the little fishes and the big fishes and the coral and the plankton and the sunlight coming through the water and all of the wonders that present themselves but it is one with the water. It cannot actually look back at its Self- it can only rest in the fullness of the experience of Being. And so it is.

I am posting another video here- the Moody Blues Melancholy Man- which sounds like it might be gloomy - but in fact I feel like it is so full of hope. This is a great live version of the song. I believe it was from a concert on the Isle of Wight.
“All the world astounds me and I think I understand
That we’re going to keep growing, wait and see.”