Thanksgiving Gratitude

The mind creates the abyss. The heart crosses over it.

    -Sri Nisargadatta

Happy Thanks-giving Day!

I wake feeling gratitude for so many things.

For the rays of sunlight shining on the frosty hillside, for the warmth of the woodstove, for the meal I will enjoy with friends later today.  I am grateful my sister and her kids will be with our mother today. I am grateful for waking into this body that I can move and experience life through...and to my bodyworker friend yesterday who said I have a 'dynamic body' and an 'adaptable system,' even in the context of how jacked-up it was!

I am grateful for my friends, old and new, for our laughter and adventures, for accepting me as I am with all of my charms and challenges (Thank you, Corina B, for that phrase!).

I am grateful for my students, their willingness to participate in their yoga journey and for the gratitude they have expressed to me for being their teacher. I am so grateful for yoga, for the practice of connecting awareness, breathing, and non-judgment. It has allowed me to be more comfortable in my own skin, to experience the waves of life more intimately, to feel more connected and whole.

"To be intimate is to feel the silence, the space everything is happening in." -Adyashanti

I am grateful to my human heart, that it beats in my chest and drives me to be more authentic and compassionate. I am grateful that I longer fear having my heart broken again. 

And eternal gratitude for feel of the Beloved dancing in my chest.

Wisdom tells me I am nothing. 

Love tells me I am everything. 

Between the two my life flows.  

       -Sri Nisargadatta 

Blessing to everyone,

I love you.

Alignment

Friends, the Universe is conspiring for us. Usually we hear 'consipiring against...' yet this is not the case here. Starting today, the Grand Water Trine we have been experiencing will be joined by an Earth trine in the opposite direction, creating a Star of David or Star Tetrahedron pattern surrounding our humble little planet. What does this mean? This alignment acts as a gateway. An open window into the cosmos that hears our visions and assists us in manifesting our dreams.

Leading up to this alignment, the planets have been supporting us in helping us release the old structures that we no longer need.  For example, any thoughts that tell us we can't/don't deserve xyz.  Mars has been out-of-bounds...reaching farther in the sky than the sun this time of year (which is pretty far being mid-summer!) and, according to Cayelin Castell, adding the wild-card factor to the mix. Have you felt like you knew what was going on only to discover you were way off the mark? You can thank Mars for keeping us on our toes. I could say more about all this but I'd rather send you to the experts...I'm only rehashing their words anyway. Cayelin Castell link. Planet Waves.

Last night, as I was listening to Cayelin's audios, I felt the gravitational pull of living on a rotating planet in a sea of other rotating/orbiting bodies. Remember the ride at the county fair called the Gravitron? or the Round Up? Those spinning wheels that pinned you to the walls, allowing the floor to drop out. If the weak force of gravity keeps us grounded here on Earth, how does the stronger pulls of larger planets be effecting us? This is what I desire to understand with astrology. I can't imagine that we live on this planet moving through space at high speeds without being effected by the celestial bodies near us. The ancients believed in this connection and were in touch with the movements of our solar system without telescopes!

So what can we do to make the most of this opportunity? Simple. Live your dreams. Don't live them in the future, live them as if they are already happening. Shift your perspective from if/when to yes! now. It doesn't have to be a major change. It could be subtle. Simply feel, act, and believe that the world you want to live in already exists...because it does! It has existed inside your heart and dreams forever...time to let it rise to the surface!

Trust your heart's desire. Trust the longing that stirs your bones and paints your dreams.

I love you,

Maureen

PS. If your dreams include being in Mexico with Maura and I for The Art of Letting Go, get your deposit in!

Beloved, I am here.

 I sit with my hands on the keyboard, eyes closed, breathing into my belly. I didn't sit for meditation this morning because it was quite early and I was cozy with an extra snuggly pussy cat. The rain hammering down on the tin roof was also encouraging me to linger under the covers. So now I sit, breathing into my belly. The foundation of the practice i've been in the last couple of months, anchoring oneself in the belly, has been a wonderfully grounding experience. Breathing into the belly is the first half, the second half is breathing into the heart. Before I learned this particular meditation, my forays into the heart were starting from the mind and dropping down into the heart. It is an entirely different feeling to move from the belly up into the heart. Not only is it more grounding, it feels more...spacious, centered, full. It has been easier to rest in the space of my core and heart. I'm not wrestling as much with getting out of my head. 

 

And thank god for the small favor of less struggle these days. Anyone else feeling like the world is about to crack open? That something's gotta give? The contrast of the positive and negative potentials/experiences is super high...I'm grateful in a way because swinging between the two extremes is dizzying. It has been way easier to let go of both and rest back into my belly and heart.

So breathe with me for a moment. Inhale, feeling the space open in your belly and pelvis. Exhale and rest in that space. Let everything else go. 

 

I return over and over to this practice. When I feel love, longing, fear, anxiety, joy, sadness...i breathe it all into the spaciousness of my inner space. And I feel so f'in lucky that I've been shown these tools and practices. In a way, the last 15 years of education and experience...if not my entire life, has been a journey towards this practice...this moment...here...in my belly, in my heart.

Greetings Friends! 

The following poem was written early on during my trip to Peru last winter.   It's been so long since i've posted, i wanted to get something out there before it was two full years!  I plan on more coming soon so stay tuned!  

I am slowly dissolving -

   my shell disintegrates,

   crumbles & flakes off in small

   & large pieces

At first I am in shock – how can

   this be happening? How can I lose

   my skin? I try to hold it on,

   clutching to the crumbling

   facade of my being.

Then, a pause. A breath.

   A look inward - I am still here,

   I still exist, I still am

however now raw & vulnerable -

   with my fresh new skin. I let

   the rest of the old bark fall to the

   ground, becoming mulch, fertilizer

   to renew the soil of my new being.

I stand in my new skin,

   unsure yet secure

   exposed and protected

   smelling of honey.