Photo by Annie Spratt

Hello Fellow Body-Mind-Hearts –

In April, I wrote about time and in May I didn’t write anything. So here I am in June, having been through a crazy time warp (or as my beloved says, through the wood chipper) and attempting to express my experience in a way that might also resonate for you, my friends and family of human beings with juicy bodies, curious minds and tender hearts. 

We share a common inevitability… because we are embodied and alive we will all die. We will all experience the loss of people and beings and places that are dear to us. This is part and parcel of the experience of embodiment, the cycle of creativity, the natural way of things. Yet, when it happens to us and those we hold most dear it can still come as a surprise. This is why so many of the spiritual traditions implore us to explore the little ‘d’ deaths of our lives as practice for the big ‘D’ death at the end of life. To come to terms with the cyclical nature of life and its ever changing and shifting essence is the invitation to be profoundly present with the preciousness of life.

I had the great honor and heartbreak to be with my mother during her dying process this last month. It was beautiful, painful, intimate, wild, heartbreaking and heart mending. During that time I was also managing my own health challenges which added a layer of overwhelm. We both came through! My mother passed over on June 8 and I am feeling much better and more myself each day. For both, I am deeply grateful. And I bow to my teachers and offer deep gratitude for the many years of practice that gave me the ground on which to dance with the paradox of relief and grief…the ability to be fully present with myself as I was present with my mother and my family. 

Now it is time to honor the waves of exhaustion and tears…to allow life and death to play me and deepen me. To allow my soul to be honed into a beacon of love and light even in the throws of loss. We will explore this more next month. In the meantime, I invite you sit with and honor the mini deaths/losses/changes that occur each day as a way to open up to the life/gifts/unfolding that is also present each day. 

I cherish you.

Guiding Lights…

I wish to honor my dear friend, Laura Yon, a wise being who, through her work as a death doula, helped me navigate some of this wild terrain. She is a resource beyond compare. Check her out and perhaps you know someone or a family who could use her wisdom and services.

Last month I listed Francis Weller as a guiding light and I am listing him again along with his potent book, “The Wild Edge of Sorrow”, which I can’t recommend enough.

May we honor the little ‘d’ deaths that teach us about impermanence, change & growth

May we cherish the time we have & offer it with devotion to better the world around us

May we feel our sorrow deeply enough to touch the vibrancy of love & life at its core

May we offer kindness, compassion & beauty everywhere we go & in every interaction

Practice Prompts:

• Take some time during your day or at the end of your day to acknowledge the losses, changes, deaths that occurred during the day. Allow yourself to feel the sensations of loss and sadness and grief and also see if you can sense into the space it creates for something else to arise.
• When you are on your yoga mat or your meditation cushion allow your awareness to hold the ever changing moments in your body…the creation and dissolution of a shape or form, the inhalation and exhalation of breath, the arrival of a thought and its subsequent dispersal. So many moments of arriving and leaving, of being born and dying. Can you be with them with love and compassion? Can you hold them in an open awareness without grasping or pushing away?
• Study with nature…let her teach you about the natural cycle of living and dying and how each feeds the other continuously.
• My private practice is currently full. If you would like to learn more about my offerings please email me or schedule a free 20 minute Exploratory Session and get your name on the waitlist.

Upcoming Live Streaming Practice Opportunities:

• Slow Flow Yoga, Mondays, 9:45-11:15am PDT, livestream through Seattle Yoga Arts (Note new start time!)
• Continuum Inquiry Playshop, Monday, July 11, 5:30-7:30pm PDT livestream through Body of Insight
• All Levels Yoga, Sunday, July 17, 10-11:30am PDT, livestream through Two Dog Yoga
• Yoga Nidra Practice, Sunday, July 17, 5:30-7pm PDT, livestream through Two Dog Yoga
• On Demand Yoga Practices…All Levels… through Seattle Yoga Arts (practice with me anytime, anywhere!)

Inspirational Wisdom:

At Peace

Very near my setting sun, I bless you, Life
because you never gave me neither unfilled hope
nor unfair work, nor undeserved sorrow/pain

because I see at the end of my rough way
that I was the architect of my own destiny
and if I extracted the sweetness or the bitterness of things
it was because I put the sweetness or the bitterness in them
when I planted rose bushes I always harvested roses

Certainly, winter is going to follow my youth
But you didn’t tell me that May was eternal
I found without a doubt long my nights of pain
But you didn’t promise me only good nights
And in exchange I had some peaceful ones

I loved, I was loved, the sun caressed my face

Life, you owe me nothing, Life, we are at peace!

~ Amado Ruiz de Nervo