Higher Grounding

I am at Week One – Day Two of an online retreat, led by Christine Valters Paintner, an amazing Benedictine Abbess. She resides in a monastery in Galway, Ireland (www.abbeyofthearts.com) and teaches online. This course is called “A Midwinter God – Making a Conscious Underworld Journey”.
Her daily reflection includes an exercise about the breath and about residing in discomfort. Her instructions, briefly put, are to use a 4 part breath cycle slowly. Inhale…pause …exhale…pause. In my shamanic training we used this breath to experience “little death” – that space of no breath and the sensations that arise.
Part of Christine’s lesson is about “dancing on the edge of discomfort”.
For a brief time I sold my daughter’s fashion line of clothes; in the early days I “cold called” on boutiques. When a buyer looked puzzled as to why I would do that, I would say, “Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.” And they would smile and nod and we would go from there.
Many times in my life I have had an opportunity to do things at the edge of discomfort. Sometimes the willingness – saying Yes – was all that was required and I didn’t need to do it (whew!). However far it went, I felt rewarded by the Universe in practicing willingness. It was the right thing I was supposed to do. Frequently, the rewards of my attitude of willingness far outweighed the effort I had spent.
This year, from what I am hearing and reading, looks like an opportunity for all of us to notice our current dance. We may be learning new dance steps. To literally dance a new dance, we need to be balanced and when we need to move we need not be caught flat-footed. And as always, breathe.

So now it’s January and I do two special things. I put together a puzzle that family members give me at Christmas, and I complete a Vision Board. This year, as I play with both, I see they are the same exercise.

This year’s puzzle is a mystery puzzle. There is a short story to set the stage with clues imbedded within it. The puzzle itself is not as the picture appears on the box front (things are not as they appear on the surface?). So putting the puzzle together is an exercise in discovery. There are dark places that are difficult to determine how they fit together and where they go. Those pieces all look alike. I just sit at it, not knowing the outcome, and just put it together piece by piece, trusting that I have all the pieces I need.

And I began my Vision Board. I put on the board pictures of what I want to attract in my life for the coming year. Like my puzzle, some pieces are easy to put together, while others I trust that eventually the pieces will fall into place, all in perfect timing. The items on the board come from words or pictures in magazines that I simply like. Other pieces I have a preplanned thought about what I want to include – pictures of the family, my new beautiful business logo, my horse – because I am honoring them as a part of my life. I left a lot of open space as yet, for two reasons. First nothing else that I came across looked or felt like I wanted it on my board. The bigger reason as I sat with it was that it felt like I needed to be “open” in a big way to who I am and am becoming.

Do you want to know the exciting rest of the story? Well, it is two days after starting the vision board and I received a text and an email from two different people inviting me to take a step in directions that were dormant pieces for me. I have been presented with the unexpected opportunities for fun and learning and using my talents just a little beyond my comfort zone. I am reminded of a quote, “Life begins beyond your comfort zone.”

Today is a day juicy with life

This is the prayer bundle we created

By all accounts, December 21, 2012 was a very special day. I heard many versions of the significance.

Of course, I heard the “end of the world” highly-touted version but I didn’t give that one the time of day.

I heard something about planets aligning in a special way….

I was sent a utube video about a Mayan elder speaking about scientists fooling around with creating black holes and causing great disturbances in the planet and therefore causing dramatic weather events.

I heard about the 20th to the 22nd being a special  “window of opportunity” for focused intention to manifest in  accelerated ways…

I even heard a current day Mayan from Belize discuss the end of the Mayan Calendar and the beginning of a new one “it’s just another day” on NPR. She also commented on how hyped the whole thing was in the US. Her perspective was that especially in Mexico for tourist attracting purposes, it was all blown out of proportion.

I chose to spend the time with invited friends. We did a two – part Winter Solstice event. The first part was a pot luck dinner and ceremony creating a group prayer bundle on the eve of the Winter Solstice. The gathering was small and some very sweet moments occurred for all of us. The next morning (Friday) at 6:10 am, the beginning of the Solstice Time, we had a fire ceremony and gave the prayer bundle to the fire.  The previous evening’s rain had ceased and the wind was quiet! Seven brave souls participated in the morning part.

At 11:11am, another purported special time. I was massaging a horse. sometimes I get simple messages/information when I work with a horse. The horse said “handle with care”.

Sounds like good advice for all of us.

Thanks for joining my blog, Dave

So What’s a Shaman?

I am not sure I can describe it. I can just tell you what I do. I notice things. My personal practice first and foremost is to be grounded as well as connected to Spirit (by whatever name you call Creator of All that Is). You know, “healer, heal thyself…” So there’s an integrity to the practice. I walk the walk in my own human way.

What do I do for others? I see clues on multiple levels. I share the information and together we decide what healing process we engage for that issue, that moment.

There are a variety of tools and techniques I know to assist the person. Every step is a partnership, a permission given, a clue deciphered. There is a technique done and during or after, we process together. The client sometimes leaves with homework.

The difficulty in putting all of this to words is that how a session unfolds is a mystery at the beginning. It is a fluid series of forks in the road that requires a flexibility and a creativity throughout.  Part of the joy is that the information comes at a mythic level – a level that things are in metaphor, like in dreams. The challenge and fun is that the information is in symbol not literal, frequently for me a visual pun (Spirit knows I love puns).

And then there is my work with horses. That is a whole story in itself for another time.