...and more leaves

Yogis,

…….and I raked some more.

I arrived at the beach house around 9:30 on Wednesday night and noticed immediately that I had a situation.  With everyone arriving in the morning,  I saw that paths had to be created from the door to the street, from the door to the driveway, and from the door to the garage.    The leaf situation was bringing back the images I had just seen of the Buffalo snow.   Leaves blocking the doors.  Leaves up to my calves.  Leaves covering the driveway..….and rain on the way.

So at 10:00 pm I was raking.  Alone in the dark.  Alone in the quiet.  Only the sound of my rake. 

Until I heard the ocean. 

We are four blocks from the beach so don’t often hear the waves.  Maybe I am not usually quiet enough.  Maybe I am not still enough.  Perhaps it was because the leaves had all fallen creating new space.

The sound opened up gratitude.   Grateful to have all of these leaves to rake, because you know what?  That means I have a LOT of trees.  And I sure love trees.

While spending my week at Susun Weed’s, we recited a Native American poem each morning when  we woke.   Fitting for this Thanksgiving week.

Seneca Praise

Oh Great Mystery, we awaken

To another sun

Grateful for the gifts bestowed

Granted one by one.

Grateful for the greatest gift,

The precious breath of life;

Grateful for abilities

That guide us day and night.

As we walk our chosen path

Of lessons we must learn,

Spiritual peace and happiness:

Rewards of life we earn.

Thank you for our spiritual strength

And for our thoughts to praise;

Thank  you for the infinite love

That guides us through these days.

Dan a ho, Nahweh, Swenio

It has been said, we thank the Great Mystery

She didn't utter one word...she just let go,

SARAH

.....she let go

Yogis,

A quick exercise before you read on……..

Take a long conscious breath, exhaling completely.  Roll your shoulders back and let the shoulder blades melt down the back of your body.  Draw the fronts of your shoulders away from each other, spreading the front of the chest and tip the heart upward slightly. 

Bring your awareness to the area around the heart and observe the breath as it flows through there, giving the heart more space.  Now imagine you are turning on a light inside the heart, filling the chest with its brightness.  Finally open the window in front of the heart and let the light shine out. 

Radiating heart energy….the energy of gratitude and love.  The energy of who we are!

The energy of the heart is expansive, high vibrating and boundless.  We feel it when we love someone, love our children, love our house and love nature.  But love is so much bigger than even all of that.   When we open the heart we move from loving to “being love”.  Here we love everyone, everything and especially ourselves unconditionally and always.  No longer a need for anyone or anything to trigger it.  The light shines brilliantly and lights the way for everyone in its path.

Part of tapping into this power is learning the art of surrender.  Surrender.  When you hear the word what images does it bring to mind?

Surrender is often portrayed as giving up.  Head down.  Shoulders rolled forward.  Maybe even cowardly and filled with fear.   But that is certainly not the surrender I speak of here. 

This surrender requires amazing courage.  Head high.  Shoulders back and heart lifted.  Inner strength that doesn’t waver (this is why we worked with fire first).   Complete and utter trust that the Universe does and will support you no matter what may happen on the path.   This is the surrender of …….letting go…..letting go…..letting go. 

We have uncovered our desires, formed them into visions and planted them in the infinite space in front of us that is unwritten.  We know and see what we want and are taking steps toward it.  Now in the heart it is time to let go of the reins with faith.  Releasing control.   I heard Jim Carey say this week, “Why not give faith a chance”.   Why the heck not?  We let go of hurts, angers, judgments, worry, sorrows and doubt.  Taking chances, knowing in every fiber of the body that we will be ok, no matter if we stumble or soar, ride high or sink to incredible lows.  That we are held, supported, and..…loved.  Trusting in the benevolence of the Universe.    

So how do we learn this trust in the Universe?  The same way we learn to trust anyone or anything else….we first form a deep and committed relationship.   A partnership.  We will begin working on this with the throat energy next week!

This poem appeared on my path this week.  It says this all so perfectly.

She let go.
She let go. Without a thought or a word, she let go.
She let go of the fear.
She let go of the judgments.
She let go of the confluence of opinions swarming around her head.
She let go of the committee of indecision within her.
She let go of all the ‘right’ reasons.
Wholly and completely, without hesitation or worry, she just let go.
She didn’t ask anyone for advice.
She didn’t read a book on how to let go.
She didn’t search the scriptures.
She just let go.
She let go of all of the memories that held her back.
She let go of all of the anxiety that kept her from moving forward.
She let go of the planning and all of the calculations about how to do it just right.
She didn’t promise to let go.
She didn’t journal about it.
She didn’t write the projected date in her Day-Timer.
She made no public announcement and put no ad in the paper.
She didn’t check the weather report or read her daily horoscope.
She just let go.
She didn’t analyze whether she should let go.
She didn’t call her friends to discuss the matter.
She didn’t do a five-step Spiritual Mind Treatment.
She didn’t call the prayer line.
She didn’t utter one word.
She just let go.
No one was around when it happened.
There was no applause or congratulations.
No one thanked her or praised her.
No one noticed a thing.
Like a leaf falling from a tree, she just let go.
There was no effort.
There was no struggle.
It wasn’t good and it wasn’t bad.
It was what it was, and it is just that.
In the space of letting go, she let it all be.
A small smile came over her face.
A light breeze blew through her. And the sun and the moon shone forevermore…
    ~ Rev. Safire Rose

Sigh,

SARAH

falling for fall......

Yogis,

I led “A September to Remember” with the intention of noticing the days during this transitional season of fall.  Allowing each day to be exactly as it is.  What follows are two fall reflections.

Clearing away the old

So I am one of those few holdouts when it comes to leaves.  I rake.  I don’t own a leaf blower.  I don’t hire a group of men who come and magically whisk the leaves away to some unknown place while I am out running errands.   I rake.  And rake.  And rake some more.

This week marked the beginning of my raking season.  For four days I found an open ½ hour to go out alone and rake.  Not being overly ambitious by attempting to rake the whole yard…….just raking for ½ hour, or until my body told me I was done for the day (and listening).

I noticed that unlike my corn on the cob eating technique…which is circular, going around and around the cob beginning with the larger end….my raking technique is linear.  I start at the house and rake away in a straight line, like spokes.  Clearly marking a distinct line between that which has been raked and that which has not.  I then walk back to the house to begin again.

I hear leaf blowers in the background, planes, cars and voices.  Yet somehow it seems silent as I rake.  Only noticing the steady rhythm of my trusty rake landing and then carrying the leaves, while at the same time giving the grass and the earth a nourishing back scratch.   I believe the grass loves the attention.  It appears to smile.

When I feel complete for the day I take 5 minutes to lie down on one of my rocks.  Slowing down the breath and the heartbeat while noticing the now dulled colors of the leaves against the sky.  The lines I raked already polka dotted with freshly fallen leaves as I walk back to the warm house.  That’s ok.  More chances for me to watch my thoughts.   

Being Clear

For the last few years I have shared each fall that I am trying/working on/attempting to shift my view of fall, from one of “tunnel to the darkness of winter” to one of enjoying the gifts that fall offers. Yesterday I had an “aha” moment.  Some clarity.

What I live and teach is in line with the spiritual law of attraction.  That we must feel, see and speak that which we desire with vivid clarity – in the present tense.  And then live as if it has already manifested in our lives.  I have not been doing that with this desire to embrace fall.  I have been telling the Universe that I want to love fall, am trying to love fall and am getting better at enjoying fall.  Hello!  That is therefore what the Universe is supporting.  Plenty of “wanting”, “hoping” and “trying”.

From now on……I LOVE FALL.  In fact I am going for it……. I LOVE WINTER.  I SAVOR the dark to have more time for reading.   I BATHE in the moonlight that shines unobstructed without the filter of the leaves.  I WELCOME the brisk cold air on my skin.   Moving toward that which I desire……

Learning the differences between a Raven and a Crow,

SARAH

stoking the fire

Dear Yogis,

So I am not convinced that when we “grow up” we are supposed to lose our childlike ways…………….

This was the second week working with the energy of fire and it only intensified the feelings I was having last week.  I want to rediscover that side of fire that is fun, feisty and free. 

As children we live so freely.  Coming home from school, throwing down the books and heading out to play.   Building forts, wading in streams, climbing trees and riding our bikes with our arms high in the air.  Kids explore, move forward, grow and test each and every day.  They have yet to build their “box of rules” so can continually step out.  Effortless.

When we become adults we of course have more responsibilities, but even when our time is ours we have a tendency to spend it in the known.  Creating new to-do lists as soon as we finish the final item on the last one.  Cleaning out that next closet, going shopping or checking the internet.  The “have-tos”…… although I challenge that many of them are self-created....fill our space.   When we do decide to try something new we often over think it, plan it out, weigh out the costs and potential dangers.  We put it off….until some unknown future time. 

Where our children’s fire energy is spent in self-exploration, ours becomes bound in stress.  Both the exact same energy, simply directed in different ways. 

I was out in the mountains this weekend on a hike and group after group hiked by us carrying their backpacks, tents and sleeping bags.  I have always wanted to do that.  Since I was a child.  But I haven’t.   Why?

I have wanted to drive cross country without an agenda set in stone.  But I haven’t.  Why?

It makes me feel restless.  Fire energy needs a release.

I am sitting here in my fire circle.  Interesting that this is what my vision was earlier this year, huh?  It has gotten some wonderful use, but I realize that what I saw involved even more.  Gatherings, dancing, ritual, sharing circles, celebrations.  A place to come.  A place to let go.  A place to rekindle the childlike ways.  I hope you'll join me.

I say all of this to get you thinking.  In the element of water we uncovered our desires, what we want.  Fire is then seeing it clearly and taking the steps forward.   So…what is it that you want?  And are you moving toward it?

These don’t have to be large life changing events (although they certainly can be).  It can be diving in the ocean in late October to get the rush of sensation.  Or going for a walk in the pouring rain, and yes, letting your hair get wet.  Hiking a new trail or turning up the music when you are alone and dancing.   Try a cartwheel!

Fire…..free, fun, feisty, fresh, filling, forward.

The old buck has walked right past me 2 times as I have been writing this – so I believe I am on the right path.

I’m getting hotter,

SARAH

.....adding in the spice

Yogis,

This week we shifted awareness upward to the belly…..our gut, our center, our second brain.  The energy of fire.  The fire energy is our movement forward.  Action.  Inner strength.

The eyes are the organ of action here as we turn the desire we uncovered in the hips, into a vision.  Bringing what we want into focus and creating a clear, full color picture of what it will look like once it has manifested in our lives.  “Seeing” what we want and projecting that image out into the Universe.  Over and over.  Starting the conversation.

With a fire based practice we do lots of planks, chaturangas, arm balances, long holds…….all creating that inner fire.  We push into the uncomfortable to work with relaxing and becoming comfortable there.   As humans we like comfort and often struggle against that which puts us in the uncomfortable – physically, mentally and emotionally.    So I tend to associate fire with a more serious inner determination that I can, and I WILL. 

But a student sent me a note after a class this week saying how she noticed how “fun” fire was.  That it made her feel free.  Hhmmmmmm……. That caused me to pause.

She was right!! 

  

I am a fire by nature – a Pitta in the Ayurvedic doshas.    What slowly began to bubble up from that note was that what I have always described as my wild streak is my fire burning. 

When a party is good, I can’t understand why everyone begins to leave at midnight while I am just getting my second wind.   At a wedding I am often one of the last ones on the dance floor (typically with my father) wondering where the after gathering is going to be.  And when I stumbled upon Susun Weed’s web site 2 years ago and saw her offering a Green Goddess Intensive which would entail sleeping in a tent, long hard days, being yelled at and walking barefoot all week, I jumped at it. 

I am by no means one who enjoys or goes toward danger or likes to stay up late, but there is something about coming to an edge of feeling that makes me crave more.  That joy of “throwing caution to the wind”.   Feeling free.  Having pure unfiltered fun.  Things I don’t believe most of us have enough of in our daily adult lives.

I find it when I dance with abandon, or crest the peak of the first hill on a roller coaster.   When I have worked in the garden carrying rocks, spreading mulch and digging holes for several hours and my hair is loose, my skin wet with perspiration, my clothes covered with dirt  and my heart pumping.  I find it when I kick up to handstand and find that perfect alignment, even if only for a brief instant. 

Being comfortable is nice.  I like it.  I easily settle in there.  But too much of it and life begins to taste vanilla.  After a while I want cinnamon and ginger and curry. 

Outside of our comfort zone is where we find the spice of life.  The heat is what transforms our lives and takes us toward that which we see in our vision.  It makes us want more.  Our passion.  Our inner light.

What is it for you?  What makes your body flush with heat and your eyes sparkle  And have you stepped into it lately?

Fire…..Free…..Fun  Stepping out of the confines of my personal box of rules. 

Universe……please push me.  I am a little too comfortable.

I’m hot,
SARAH