Two Trailer Synchronicity

Blazing down to Esalen: to volunteer with cabins, to do some dancing, soaking and connecting with friends and with nature.
Behind two excruciatingly slow unbelievably inconsiderate white  RVs.  Turn out after turnout they would NOT pull over.  I began to pull my hair and gnash my teeth.
No one wants to miss the Cabin's check in...way too much fun.

At last a long curve before the bridge...and no on coming traffic... I screamed around them.  Damn that felt great!  Now to make some time!  I picked up speed as the Highway 1 opened to the straightaway before Andrew Molera State Park and the River Inn.
And Lo-- there was officer stick in the mud.  No mercy.  I can't believe I was going that fast but he says he clocked me.   I was feeling the exuberance of the open road...I am sure I was the first car in 1/2 hour due to those two white snailers.
I have an honest appreciation for law enforcement and the honorable warrior archetype so I thanked him for his work and politely took the ticket.  I eased back onto the highway...and behind the two slow RVs.
Please stop for lunch! Please appreciate the magnificent views at any magnificent turnout! Please stop to make a phone call, make love, relieve yourself! Please mister white RV driver.  Please!
My ethereal suggestions went unheard.  I resigned.  Took in the blissful panoramas while driving. Still. A wandering eye on the clock. I was behind those two white RVs   all     t h  e    way   t o   t h e    E  s a l e n   drive  way.
Walked into the Lodge and immediately connected with the Cabins Chief.  All good.
Went to get in the brunch line and connected with good friend and eco-hero Kat.  She invited me to sit right down with another Eco hero Julia Butterfly Hill who would talk about spiritual activation.
Wow.  What Divine timing!

Thank you RV drivers!

I essentially heard JBH say that the core of activism is love.  The love for nature has to include love for people too.  While emotions, bickering and the need to vent are valid they can be viewed as just a trail sign to get back on the way.  We are all activists. What we do matters. The crazy things man does are reflections of inner turbulence and so the mission to save the watershed, or keep air breathable cannot disturb our right relations with each other.
This may be news to FOX NEWS.  JBH was telling me to be in right relation with all-- even inconsiderate RV convoy drivers.

I heard her invitation to what I'll call "right activism." By her definition we are all activists as what we do matters now more than ever.  We only have so much creational energy to spend here in time and space.  Best spend it in highest integrity.

I was hearing JBH because of some divine timing of behemoth RV convoy drivers with a little help from the CHP.  My desire to be on time to appear a certain way i.e. committed and punctual to my coworkers and supervisor put me in a horn honking state of urgency.  I needed to just ride it out, put current relations over my misplaced sense of mission, be in good relations with fellow travelers and have a great day.  Interestingly I supervised another volunteer and we did a great job.  And I got to do all I wanted at Esalen including have a mini-seminar with a personal hero.

Earth calling....

"Slow Down Make a Sacred Sound...Get your feet on the ground...make a Sacred Sound."

I've had Diane Patterson's song "Sacred Sound" rolling around in my brain for weeks. (http://www.dianepatterson.org/Diane/Recordings.html)  An awesome song the whole lyrics are absolutely beautiful but the chorus hit me again and again as I was headed for a week of camping.  I walked barefoot in a stream every day last week and it felt so good.  I breathed sacred sounds.
I had brought the latest Utne Rerader which had an article on "Earthing."
Popped in a bookstore on the way home and there was "Earthing-the most important health discovery ever?" a summary of the theory and benefits of electrically grounding. Bought it, read it: cute but you can get the gist from the FAQ's on the website: http://www.earthinginstitute.net/
Interesting physiological glance at the importance of being in contact with Earth as it seems to have effects on inflammation and the endocrine system.  Check it out.
I am off to walk barefoot on the beach.

The Collected Wisdom of my Grandfathers. Abridged.

My Grandfather's wisdom:

Eat well,
Exercise well,
and Sleep well,
All three with people you like.


Possible addendum:
August Fincke had been the violinist in a band before medical school and I want to sing so should I be fortunate to procreate I would like to add Play music/Sing to the list if it doesn't seem to unwieldy.

Work?

I wonder what would it be like to head to work like Ayn Rand? With the expectation of approaching excellence and service to fellow man? To be creative?  To contribute to solutions and not problems? To have knowledge and discipline reap rewards?
I head to work expecting the venom and vitriol of 20 to 30 people I have never met.  Two to three hundred  people will trudge through picking up medicine...most grumbling demanding everything cheaper and faster.  A life may be saved but not without riling explosive egos and long thankless phone calls.
Special complaints occur around lunch preparing people for the 1/2 hour mandated lunch break in  an 11 hour shift.  There are no chairs.
What would it be like to have time to eat a meal?  With people? With conversation?
Then it takes days for me to recuperate.  To rehumanize.
Were I to actually save a dollar what would it be good for?  Put it in a bank that will use it to finance more corporate madness? Too big to fail? Work more to get to a higher tax bracket to pay for more war? Pay for more new legislation contributing to the enslavement of humanity?
No wonder I can not get out of bed.

Seeing from Self

Holding versus Unfolding. Strength in seeing and listening from self.

Spent last week learning more advanced massage techniques from Perry and Johanna Holloman.  They spent each morning of the workshop in movement practice differentiating “holding” from “unfolding.”

Holding or projecting a healing space is a different energetic presence than receiving or embodying and unfolding an emotional experience.  The Holloman’s illustrated the difference in an innovative dance excercise-- contrasting the client and practitioner experiences.  I’ve done this exercise many times before and really love the energetic space I get into during a massage.  But I got another deeper look into the experience this trip.

Later in the lodge I had an experience talking to other therapists.  I was feeling exhausted listening to stories.  Really trying to be empathetic but barely holding on to engagement.  I imagined the rainbow chakra system and alignment and centered myself in my body. Everything changed.  I was still listening and in fact the speaker responded with a smile and straightened posture.  From my perspective the color of light in the room changed. Strangest thing...everything was brighter and more vibrant.  I repeated the experiment again with someone else-- same increase in vibrance of place and conversation.

Changing how I listened from a shared experience to one where I remained connected to self was a totally different for me--and more fun and vibrant.

I have counseled tens of thousands of people in pharmacy and wonder which phase of listening I have been in.  My intention has always been to be objective and helpful.  But it is no wonder I developed so many physical problems and fatigue.  Listening from empathy --sharing the  experience- nearly killed me where here listening from energy seems vibrant.

I am interested in listening from self from now on. I mean listening with an awareness of self energy while hearing a person’s story.

I imagine this is something everybody else knows and I am just exploring at age 43 but I am glad to finally get it.

Grandmother transmission.

A Grandmother came in a dream and reassured me.
You don't need to write it all down...she said.
Find a partner and live your truth
that way you only have to talk about half of it.

Invocation of Ignition

Through prayer, pilgrimage and invocation
I ignite darkness itself

Smoldering here and ablaze there
Spirit's wind whispers and howls and kicks up a conflagration of myriad colors

Soft light on the beach

At dawn I shall be light.

Current and Breeze

Current and Breeze make the Bottle dance
slowly on the water through little ripples

Current and Breeze and Luck might deliver a bottle across time and space and waves of hope
to someone

Current and Breeze and Luck and Love allow
a message to be received.