Hello Beautiful Souls –
I’ve said it before and I will say it again, a necessary aspect of our showing up for life is slowing down. This requires us to feel and there is A LOT to feel right now. In these troubling and heartbreaking times of such extreme loss and cruelty across the planet it may feel like we need to speed up and ‘do something’. Yet, the speed is partially implicated in all this disaster. It is the inhuman(e)/machine speed that keeps us from slowing down to meet our neighbor, to notice our feet in connection with the planet, or to tend the spaces of possibility. If we don’t slow down to show up then we can’t know what we might ‘do’ that would be beneficial.
One of my teachers speaks about geologic time versus chronologic time. Geologic time is the time of moon cycles, rocks, streams, heartbeats, seed-to-fruit-to-compost…the rhythm of life. It is not predicated on machines and numbers but on sensation and intuition and space. When we take the time to notice those around us we allow ourselves to be touched by their presence, their being-ness that is just like our own and yet utterly unique. These moments of connection dis-allow the othering and cruelty and violence that comes with a quick pass and a dismissal of another’s experience. Imagine the stone sitting beside the road or the trail and all it has witnessed and loved!
The slowing down doesn’t mean we sit and do nothing. It is an invitation to be more present and as a result our actions come from this deep understanding in our bones (that are connected to the stones through shared minerals!). The doing of embodied respect for the living world we are a part of. The doing of deep listening. The doing of LOVE.
I invite us all to slow down enough to find the beauty, to feel the despair, to wail the grief, to step into the possibility of connection. I often find that I speed up when it feels difficult and painful and I don’t want to know and yet that is just when I need…the world needs…me to slow down and be with the truth of what is here. I have reminders around me all the time to help me pause to tend all this suffering (inside and all around), to notice the magic, to show up. A rock by my bedside, a bowl of water on the shrine, a sticky note on the mirror, open space in the calendar…
How might you cultivate and re-engage with geologic time, with your deep time rhythm? What ways have you found to help you hold the massive grief and beauty that is swimming around us?
May we tend the slow patterns of geologic time
May we honor the ability to feel into the vast fabric of life, suffering and beauty
May we find ways to listen and show up for the truth of the moment
May we bring wild blessings and fierce love to all we encounter
Practice Prompts:
- Consider what beings/objects you might invite into your space that can gently remind you to slow down and consider a different rhythm. Stones, feathers, drift wood, crystals, water…and place them where they can remind and invite you to pause and consider a different perspective.
- When you are making plans and putting things on your calendar consider zooming out and looking for and creating empty spaces in the days, weeks, months so that there is a visible and tangible way of having pauses and space in your days. Places where you can sit, rest, walk, listen, be.
- Practice viewing the world from the perspective of a tree…or a mountain…or a stone. Notice the utter longevity and patience…what else?
- I offer one to one sessions, in-person in Bend, Oregon, and virtually all over the world. I currently have a waitlist but if you would like to learn more about my offerings please email me or schedule a free 20 minute Exploratory Session.
Live Streaming Practice Opportunities:
- Yoga for Resilience, Mondays, 9:30-11am PT, livestream through Body of Insight
- All Levels Yoga, Sundays… Nov 19, Jan 21, Feb 18, Mar 17, 9:30-11am PT, livestream through Two Dog Yoga
- On Demand Yoga Practices…All Levels… through Two Dog Yoga
Inspirational Wisdom:
Eagle Poem
To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.