....March,March,March

Yogis,

March….March….March……what a tease you are.

I find March to be fascinating.  Frustrating.  Unpredictable.  Different every single year. 

Thursday we were in the 70s.  I took my walk to the river and passed people in short and t-shirts.  The birds were singing and the air had a giddiness to it.  Spring!  I feel you.  But as we laid in Savasana at the end of class that very evening, the sound of the rain and the wind blowing through the open windows signaled that a cold front was not far behind.  

Friday we were told to expect 50 degrees so I put on two cotton layers, believing I had left the real winter clothes behind.  I tried to pretend it was warm as  I huddled in my work chair.  But I was clenched and shivering.   Finally after lunch I gave in.   I marched upstairs and put my wool sweater back on.  Saturday I added back in the leggings under the jeans.  Not yet….

 I have been talking about March as a transition and she revealed a few new insights this week. 

First, that during transitions we are much more aware.  In the winter when it is cold we just assume cold, dress accordingly and pay it little attention.  Once we are entrenched in summer the heat becomes an expected norm.  But in the transition from the two we are acutely aware of the weather each day…. And sometimes even hour to hour.   What should I wear?  Do I need to bring a hat?  Will I be outside or inside?  Stopping to feel the air each time we walk out the door.  Watching for buds on the trees every time we look up.  The same is true in life.  When we are in a time of change – be it in jobs, homes, lovers or even exercise routines – our senses are on high alert.  We tune in more.  There is no status quo and so we pay attention.  It is in this unsettled space that we experience the most growth. 

The second has to do with signs from the Universe.  The March Manifestation that I am leading is coming to a close this week.  Tomorrow we will be working on watching for signs from the Universe to guide us on our chosen path.    These signs are like glimpses.  A sudden unexpected thought.  Hearing from someone we were thinking about or coming across an article about a topic we just decided we wanted to study further.  These pointers from the Universe let us know that we are indeed heading the right way (or not) and provide us with the occasional touch point that what we are manifesting is indeed coming.  Just like March!

In March even in the bitter cold we know spring is coming.  Everyone keeps saying, “I don’t think spring will ever come.”  But do you ever truly doubt that spring will come?  We see the signs.  Daffodils beginning to rise up from the ground.  Days like Thursday – even though a day like Friday comes right behind it.  We hold a vision of spring and we get some quick glimpses behind the curtain to assure us that it is on the way.  And when the curtain is then drawn back over, we continue to move forward anyway without doubt.   It is fine.  We can sense spring’s imminent arrival even when the thermometer reads 28 degrees.  This is no different than watching for signs on our own personal journey. 

And finally….March allows us to take two steps forward in growth, but then take a big step back in retreat.  Straddling the worlds of earth and fire.  I am wanting to garden and I even buy the pansies, but now I think I will go back in and read my book.   Long walks one day followed by sleeping in late the next.   Salad….but then one more batch of cabbage soup.  March is not for leaping.  It is for stretching out the creaky bones from a long winter’s sleep and turning our face upward to find the warmth of the spring sun.    

Enjoying these dwindling days of not doing.

My winter hat is remaining on the coat rack,

SARAH

.....scratching the surface

Dear Yogis,

“Oh my God, he’s got me!”

That’s me yesterday crouched over in the mud trying to upright a badly leaning 6’ tall rose bush.  He had my ponytail.  I had crawled under and was using my upper back and shoulders to gently push him up to stand while I attempted to reset the metal trellis that had originally been his base.    A deep forward fold with my face looking backward between my legs and my ponytail now intricately woven into the thorns.  Help!

My husband came running just as I managed to extricate myself from the grip.  He cautioned me not to get that close…..as any seemingly rational person would have responded when faced with a gangly thorny rose bush.  But it caused me to pause.

“That would be distance gardening” was my response.  I had one of those “aha” moments where I understood that I am anything but a distance garderner.  When I am with my plants….I am all in!

We are in the process of selling our home of 24 years next door and with a Sunday open house looming, the ground now finally visible, clearly needed some attention.  Sticks, branches, composting leaves and mud……lots and lots of mud.  So for several hours we raked, spread mulch, trimmed and spruced. 

Now the rake can get around the base of the plants and bushes, but leaves a clump smack dab in the middle.  This is where the real work comes in as it requires climbing back into those dark, damp, somewhat scary places that we all have behind the bushes, in the corners, under the porch.  Crawling in the mud, reaching through the spider webs and being ok with a slug ending up in your hand. 

By the end of the day I have dirt from head to toe, am covered with a thin layer of sweat and can feel the flush in my face.  This is when I feel the most alive.  No distance for me…..going deep.  Just like life. 

There is so much stimulation in the world today.  We are all “connected” by technology and can pay people to do everything for us.  Our “friends” are on facebook and the internet provides snippets of everything going on everywhere.  Guides on how to be thin and beautiful, pills that will keep us healthy.    It has become so easy to live on the surface.   But I don’t want that.  I want to scratch beneath the surface……………..

I want to feel it all.  I want to be connected to others at my core where no words are needed.  I want to dance so freely that I tingle.  I want my heart to be wide open where I can befriend not only joy, but the deep sorrow as well. I want to put myself out there even at the risk of being rejected.  I want to quiet the stimulation so that I can sit in silence and hear the stirrings of my soul. 

As I peeled off my gloves I saw the dirt deeply embedded under my fingernails.  Hmmm…..  Looks like I am digging deeper. 

Only when I am silent and lean in can I hear the plants,

SARAH

...my new bff

Yogis,

I CREATE MY REALITY

I do.  All of it…….

I didn’t always believe this.  No, I take that back.  It wasn’t about believing.  I didn’t even know such an idea existed!  I thought we all just lived our lives, enjoying the good parts, making the best of the bad parts, and somehow getting through the lows.  In some ways this made things easy.  I could complain about others and choose not to see my role in the world around me.  My focus was narrow and didn’t involve responsibility. 

These past 7 years my view has changed!  I now know that I CREATE MY REALITY.  I not only feel it or believe it….I do it.  Daily.  Certainly can’t say I am an expert at it by any stretch of the imagination.  More like a middle school student.  I understand the basic laws of the Universe that make it work, I can visualize the path, I have felt the results and I am excited by its potential.  But just like school, I have to go every day, practice what I learn and do my homework.  This is a path of study that I am motivated to follow through to the master’s program!  Maybe even a PhD in manifestation!

But this creative potential requires a partner.  The Universe.  Your co-creator.  You can’t do this alone.

One clear example of this is planting. Your vision is to turn that barren corner of the yard into a  small garden.  You place seeds under the bare earth and the Universe delivers the rain and shines its sun.  In almost no time at all living beings rise.  The new plants each with their own personality….the welcoming sunflower, the romantic rose, the calm lavender and the clingy burdock.  The squirrels and birds drawn in for food and shelter, their pecking and clawing aerating the soil.  You weed and trim, placing cuttings in a vase to bring some of the joy into your home .  The colors attracting the bees and butterflies who then spread this new life far and wide in their travels.  Together you all took nothing and created an oasis.  You and the Universe…hand in hand.

This relationship is no different from any other.  It is one of give and take, respect, humor, consistent and honest communication, and spending time together.  There are so many ways to deepen it…….here are just a few.

·         Pick a tree that is in your yard or on your daily walk.  One that you see often, but now “see” it.  Stop and give it your undivided attention.   Say hi.  Touch the bark.  Stand at its base and look up to its top.  Sit beneath it.  Take a picture of it.  Be friends with your tree. 

·         Sit by a river or creek and watch its flow.  Stand above to see your reflection.  Throw in some rocks and notice how it “receives” them.  No pushing back. Observe a leaf or stick floating on its surface and watch its path. Put your hand in.

·         Each morning as you wake up, look out the window.  Good morning Universe!

·         As you lie down to go to sleep, look back over your day and find the little golden nuggets that you weren’t expecting.  The call from a friend, a hug from your child, the laughter, the new song you heard on the radio.

·         When you walk outside, stop, close your eyes and feel the breeze on your skin.

·         Lift your face to the sun and soak in its warmth.

·         Lie in the grass and watch the clouds sail by.

·         Always know what phase the moon is in and where it will be when you wake in the middle of the night. 

·         Talk to your plants and smell the flowers as you pass by

The Universe, like all of us, loves to be noticed and loved, and anything that you give will be returned, and then some.  Hang out together.  The closer you become the more you will be taught, the more you will laugh (the Universe has a fantastic sense of humor), and the more you can create.  And you no longer ever feel alone.  Imagine feeling that the Universe, with its infinite potential, is your best friend. 

Hhhmmmm……what should we create next?  The Universe is all ears.

Best friends forever,
SARAH

...the turning tide

Yogis,

For those of us in the eastern part of the US we are in the shift.  Did you feel it?  Just like that we went from days on end of bitter cold and frozen ground to the hint of spring in the air.  You could feel it yesterday as soon as you walked out the door. The brilliant sun blinding as it reflected off the snow. Rubbing the sleep from the eyes as if awakening from a long slumber.

The animals of course felt it too. Robins hopping across the lawn and the black squirrels scampering through my garden in search of seed. A new sense of lightness. Neighbors emerging from their homes to walk their dogs.   A defined shift in energy which told us clearly that although we may still get some, or even many, very cold days or some flakes falling from the sky….winter is now moving into the rear view mirror. 

The flow of the Universe.  The hum.  Did you feel it?

 I am leading “March Manifestation” this month, a program of learning and playing with several of the natural laws of the Universe  that allow us to consciously create our reality (since we each create our lives we may as well do it consciously).  We are on day number 8, deep in the energy of water uncovering what we truly desire.  Not “wish for”, but WANT from an inner place of longing. Wanting, when it is from within and not from the mind, is the soul’s desire to move forward.  To create.  To pull towards.  An ache.

So what do you want?  But here is the key question……what are you willing to change for? 

We each individually create our lives.  But on a much larger scale we do this as a population.  Even as a species.  In the media we are always seeing displays of what we collectively want, but are we willing to change for it?  Hunger is a perfect example.  There is enough food for all of us.  All of us.  The blockage is found in money, politics, distribution channels, crime, education and so on.   So we all say we “want” to end hunger……and have been saying that for a very, very long time.  But it won’t be, it won’t manifest, until we collectively want it from within.   Not a wish.  A longing.  When it is no longer even imaginable to us that one of our own is starving.  Then we will feel the shift.

I liken it to the current marijuana shift in the US.  I don’t read the paper or watch the news, so I get snippets from when I log in to mail, or talk to a friend, or overhear conversations in the store.  I felt it.  Strongly.  The shift in energy.  Not just because one state made it a standard commodity, but because whether you personally are for or against legalization, the tide has shifted.  The criminalization is quickly moving into the rear view mirror.  The government didn’t do this. “We” decided that it is ok to personally choose to partake or not and therefore created the change.  We crested the mountain and now it feels like the beginning tremors of an avalanche.  Gay rights and marriage have also turned their tide. 

So what do we each want for our own lives (because in order to help others, you yourself must be complete)…….and then what is the next house of cards we as human beings want to shake at its base?  What change do we long for, and more importantly are willing to change ourselves for.   Nothing changes on the inside without the shift on the inside.

The flow of the Universe.  The tide.  The hum.

Mmmmmmm….I can feel it,
SARAH

....the patience of a snail

It’s back……  For some reason I believed that I was going to make it through the whole winter without its return.   Why wouldn’t I believe that?  February already drawing to a close with spring a mere three weeks away.  I was sure this year would be different.

But no. I was mistaken.   It’s back……..

I saw it as I caught a glimpse of myself in the full length mirror.  The winter belly.

All of my life I have been fairly slim, with the needle on the scale never moving more than 10 pounds in either direction.  But when the needle is trending in the upward direction, the extra weight always settles itself comfortably into my belly.   A roundness.  Or as we women so affectionately call it (not!) the muffin top.  A sure sign of a long winter. 

Yesterday while walking through the back yard I stop to notice my garden.  Packed thick with crusty snow and ice, only the remaining brittle brown stems and leaves of last year’s plants poking through to form some contrast.  No birds.  No squirrels.  Complete and utter stillness.  A deep quiet.  A sure sign of a long winter.

The season of winter is the energy of Earth.  Grounded, quiet and still.  The energy of landing in this moment and noticing.  Nowhere to go, nothing to do.  Earth energy is the death……but is also the source of life.   Our beginning and our end. Earth is the field of pure potential from which we rise and to which we will return. 

I look a little closer at the garden.  Dead would be the word most people would use.  But is it?  How incredible is it that only 3 weeks from now when the snow has melted and I push aside the brush there will be new life rising to greet me.  I imagine it saying something like “Thank God!  I thought you might have forgotten about me!”.   The garden is dead only in that it has let go of the past.  Released last year’s flowers and seeds to make room for the new.   But as I sit here writing, the roots below are quietly continuing to strengthen and gain nourishment so that when the time is right, they can take what appears to be nothing, and create the stunning beauty that is my summer wheel garden. 

The Kaya Wellness studio that I go to in Rehoboth sent out an email this week that spoke to this late winter earth energy and its connection to the snail energy.  I liked this:

Snail medicine speaks of patience and steady progress towards a goal. Snails are also highly sensitive. Nature shows us that although spring is eminent, we practice patience not to emerge too soon and risk a damaging frost. The lesson for you to follow is to act when the time is right. You may be eager to throw the windows open and start spring cleaning, or don a pair of shorts for the boardwalk. Perhaps you have other projects in the eaves. Be patient. What areas of your life are you rushing through?

Snails call to us to practice awareness and mindfulness. The entire body and antennae are a sensory tool. As you beckon nature to hurry up to meet your demands, it is a prime time to observe your own being. What is keeping you from living in the now? What are you escaping? The shell of the snail is a spiral pattern that shows you the path inward.

As for my belly……..like roots, it too is being nourished and building an inner power so that when the time is right  I can burst forth and create the expansion I have been sensing.  But like the snail I won’t rush it.  For now I will continue to meditate, read, move slowly in my practice and notice my unlimited potential.  And….continue to have the 4 ginger snaps with my tea each evening. 

Accepting this moment exactly as it is,

SARAH