I am sure many of you have seen the recent tragedy that occurred at a New Age retreat held in Sedona by “guru” James Arthur Ray. A Native American sweat or purification lodge ceremony was conducted where three people died and 18 were injured.
Details are still forthcoming, but some relevant things are known: 60-plus people were in the lodge. Plastic was used to cover the lodge. Participants fasted for 2 days, and then had a breakfast the day of. Participants paid almost $10000 for the opportunity to spend 5 days at Mr. Ray’s seminar/retreat.
It is not known if Mr. Ray has had any type of training in pouring a sweat lodge. It is not known how many first-timers were in the lodge. There was a nurse present, but it is not known how many people were comfortable with and/or experienced with the sweat lodge ritual and protocols.
While holding in prayer those who died and/or were hurt in this debacle, I am intent on using this mishap as an opportunity to create awareness about this sacred ritual.
While I am not Native American by blood, I have been given my medicine bag by an Arapaho elder and been blessed to facilitate this sacred ceremony. This elder believes in sharing the ancient wisdoms, with those who wish to learn. It is through education, awareness and transparency that ultimately will see us all become one nation, and act as one collective human race.
I feel creating awareness about any and all things Native American will also help evolve and heal the massive wound to our indigenous people that occurred at the time of the birth of the United States.
Did you know our very own U.S. Constitution was roughly based on the model of the Iroquois Nation, and it was an Iroquois chief named Cannasastego who initially proposed the United States be formed as one nation?
Did you also know that when Christopher Columbus first hit American shores in 1492, there were estimated anywhere from 6 to 15 million Native Americans. Though genocide, warfare, disease, forced migration, that number is now in the low 6 figures.
My personal choice is to celebrate the Italian culture, not Columbus(Day).
So what is an Inipi, or sweat/purification lodge?
A sweat lodge is built out of tree saplings, and covered with tarps. Sacred stones, called “grandfather stones, are then brought into the lodge by the firekeeper. The stones are blessed with the Native medicines like sage, sweetgrass, and cedar. Water is then poured on the stones, inducing steam in a sauna-like effect. There are different traditions, and variations, to be sure, but most lodges will have 4 rounds. There is intention setting(or prayer, why one is particpating in the lodge), singing of songs, expression of gratitude, education, and knowledge sharing. The lodge is facilitated by a pourer, whose role is to monitor the ceremony and those participating.
From a dear indigenous medicine friend, revered in the community, and who has poured many lodges:
1. We never cover the lodge with plastic. We only use breathable canvas tarps and old blankets. This allows the steam to go through and avoid burns.
2. We do not force people to sit through the whole process if they can’t endure it, or if they do not feel like staying in.
3. We usually do not fast before a sweat. During the conclusion of some ceremonies where fasting takes place a sweat may follow, if this is the case a whole sweat ( 4 rounds) doesn’t take place.
4. The sweatlodge is not part of a course,workshop, or a training. It is a ceremony to clear the mind, body, share traditional teachings and jokes, send prayers and be in community.
5. There’s never a charge for ceremony, of course there is way to make sure the facilitator is taken care of, and a place and a procedure to do that. No money should be place near the altar or near the lodge.
6. The ceremony may get hot, but never to the point that someone can get hurt. The lodge has never been an endurance test, it is a place for community building and prayer.
7. We do not ingest anything illegal or psychotropic when we go into the sweat, the lodge is a place of ceremony not a rave-like event. We encourage sobriety at all times.
8. We always have helpers tending the fire and to the needs of those who participate in the ceremony.
9. I have the mentorship and monitoring of many indigenous elders and community, they hold me accountable if I deviate from the purpose of the ceremony.
10. Of course there is never any nudity inside the lodge.
The environment of the sweat is inclusive, family oriented, and part of a traditional way of life. We always have young ones, children and babies, who attend with their families.
All true, and so well and succinctly put. I am not here to judge what happened in Sedona, as everyone has their path in life, and sometimes things happen for reasons that are not immediately discernible. What I do aspire to do is to create awareness, and with that awareness hopefully empower people to empower themselves in their choicemaking.
I would add that while certain traditional protocols are maintained during the ceremony, there is no dogma, or adherence to any religion. People are encouraged to speak with their own words, and pray and talk in the manner with which their belief system is most comfortable.
I have experienced much insight and healing in my times of prayer in the purification lodge, and been blessed to witness and share in others' similar experiences as well.
If anyone has any questions about the sacred Inipi(sweat lodge), or would like to have a deeper discussion about some of our experiences, and how we can together create awareness, feel free to write me at eric.majeski@gmail.com
Aho.
Eric
Showing posts with label gratitude. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gratitude. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The Chrysallis is Forming
Ever clean your house and it just makes you realize how dirty it actually is? Ever wake up from a nap seemingly more tired than you were when you laid your head down? Perhaps you had a bite to eat and now you are even more hungry. You work out after months, and it highlights to you how much your muscles have atrophied. Maybe you've experienced having great sex for the first time in awhile, and suddenly went from never thinking about it, to it's all you think about, and you wonder why it's been so long.
These are all signs of waking up, in a sense. Of becoming more aware. The transition from static to dynamic. From stuck into motion. Our bodies, minds, and spirits will go into a numb slumber if we do not practice with them. They'll adjust as they have to, when we don't pay attention to them, to survive, even if the environment is less than optimal.
Similarly, do you ever do something you feel is good for you, only to emerge feeling worse for it? Also, do you ever focus more on what you don't have, rather than what you do? Do you ever add one too many brushstrokes to a painting you knew in your heart was already complete?
Do you ever find yourself consuming too much, past the point of satisfaction?
If you do, you're not alone. We live in a consumer society, and although it's shifting, everywhere we look around us every day, is part of a system based on material consumption. Though we are becoming ever more conscious of our purchases, there is still a huge "Buy shit you don't need, with money you don't have." advertising machine humming along.
This conditioning pervades our lives in ways we may not even be aware of. (until we are)
I recently experienced this feeling after a recent guitar lesson. I've been actively working with an instructor for 6 months now, and on a rather ordinary Wednesday a month ago, I had a mini-epiphany, or breakthrough. We were discussing music theory, and BAM!, one magical moment caused weeks of progress fits and starts to synthesize in my head. All of a sudden, "I got it". Kinda like a baby realizing it can walk for the first time. This moment then brought my instructor, a brilliant technician on the guitar, back to that innocent time and place when the guitar was a love for him, and not just an obligation.
I was feeling quite satisfied.
Caught up in the high energy of the moment, my instructor started drilling more theory into my head, what was now possible for me to play, and where we could go from here. He basically saw the crack, or opening in my dense "guitar learning armor" and was trying to funnel as much light, or knowledge, as he could while this crack was still open.
Within moments, I was exhausted and the moment was gone. By tapping into new levels of "what I now know", a pandora's box of "what I now don't know" was opened. The old ceiling had become the new floor of possibility. I became keenly aware of how vast my "new guitar world" was, and when I thought about it too much, it was a bit overwhelming.
I had consumed too much.
Once I started thinking about it, I got too much in my mind, and left my heartspace, and I left the present moment. Once I left the present moment, it became about where I am going with my guitar, rather than enjoying where I am with my guitar.
Destination focus rather than journey enjoyment, all that jazz.
I do appreciate my instructor's passion, who is well-intentioned, and simply wants the best for me, in terms of reaching my true potential. And with that in mind, the question is how do we stay "whelmed" without being overwhelmed? How does one become OK with or embody satisfaction rather than needing to be full?
Chew on that for a moment. Do you eat a meal until you're satisfied, or until you're full? Do you eat everything on your plate just because it's there?
Maybe it's time we put a little less on our plate then.
I know my quality of life has gone up dramatically as I have continued to put less on my plate(and it's still a work in progress) literally and figuratively, connect with nature, and simply do things that I love to do, without fear of judgment or care for acceptance from others.
It makes me wonder why I ever cared about things like being accepted for anything other than who I am. It makes me wonder why I ever cared about material things, or ate until I was full, or worshipped to the false idols of things like money. Or why I was so reluctant to make the changes I knew in my heart were true. I was part of the over-consumption problem.
But I did feel those things, and the pain that occurred from being so disconnected, is the same pain that brought this disconnection into my awareness, and thus, helped me re-connect with my true self and choose to be part of the solution.
We live in a consumer and materialistic society, and although it is shifting, many of us are conditioned from birth that more is better, to accumulate, to win the trophy, to compete. It is a society that has utilized popular culture catchphrases such as "keep up with the Joneses", and "bigger is better" as a cause to act, or behave a certain way.
And while peer pressure to act a certain way has always existed in some form, concern for all things image, material gain, and destination-oriented thinking in regards to what one does or who one is, reached its egregious pinnacle during the last decade.
Symptoms of this egoic system include: the Steroids Era in our national pastime baseball, where cheating and lack of integrity were glossed over as record ticket and TV revenues lined corporate pockets; the reckless risk taking on Wall Street and taxpayer bailout; the obnoxious massive national debt/deficit, which has transferred responsibility of out-of-control spending for the past 20 years to next generation's children, and their children, and control exhibited through the attempted reduction of personal freedoms, and a bull market in fear-based marketing: see War on Terror.
'Do as I say, not as I do' seems like an appropriate mantra for the Era.
These are all products and part of the morphic field of the Baby Boomer generation, a generation initially associated with the Peace, Love, and Harmony of the Woodstock Festival. At this time, the 40th anniversary of that festival, I contemplate how this generation as a whole got so disconnected from itself, from the live and let live vibration. And I think about the impending identity crises this generation faces as it comes to grips with its own mortality. And what an opportunity that is, for them, and for humanity. We're ALL responsible for the healing of this planet, and I simply acknowledge how much impact the Boomers have had on popular culture for the past 60 years, and will continue to have as they age.
It's not good or bad, it just is.
We see the old structures embodying these disconnects right before our eyes. There are identity crises occurring everywhere. Wall Street. Politics. Sports. Religion.
The world is changing. The planet is shifting. Welcome to Chaos Theory: An organism through change can either: Adapt, Survive, and Thrive.....or Perish and Die. Choose to be part of the evolution of the new butterfly if you will, or go the way of the bloated caterpillar.
President Obama spared no punches in addressing this phenomenon, when he gave this commencement address at Arizona State in May:
"Other classes have received their diplomas in times of trial and upheaval, when the very foundations of our lives have been shaken, the old ideas and institutions have crumbled, and a new generation is called on to remake the world," he said. He said many graduates will want to grab at what he called "the usual brass rings" -- a who's who list, or a top 100 list, or a big corner office, or an important title, or a nice car. "But at this difficult time, let me suggest that such an approach won’t get you where you want to go; that in fact, the elevation of appearance over substance, celebrity over character, short-term gain over lasting achievement is precisely what your generation needs to help end," he said. When he called on "young people like you to step up" he was quick to add that his definition of young was not necessarily an age but an attitude: "A willingness to follow your passions, regardless of whether they lead to fortune and fame. A willingness to question conventional wisdom and rethink the old dogmas. A lack of regard for all the traditional markers of status and prestige – and a commitment instead to doing what is meaningful to you, what helps others, what makes a difference in this world."
What we are witnessing in this lifetime, maybe even in this here decade, as Bush passed the torch off to Obama, is the changing of the guard from the Love of Power to the Power of Love. Does that sound a little too New Agey? Perhaps, but I see it all around. The Internet is speeding up consciousness. People are being empowered to take personal responsibility for their own lives and own healings, as the old structures and beliefs fail to serve them. People are returning to simpler way of life, a deeper communion to nature/Earth, and finding their passion and following it.
Is there turmoil? Sure there is. With any massive changing of the guard, there is chaos. And to further, those who argue for their limiting beliefs, well, sure enough, they own them. And always will, until they learn what they need to learn from them, to evolve.
Rather than get upset over the overconsumption of the past 30 years, or my times of disconnection, I focus on being my own change, and remind myself to focus again on the caterpillar/butterfly metaphor. Before it metamorphizes into the butterfly, the caterpillar consumes 300x of its body weight on its way to forming its chrysallis. It then sheds 1/2 of its body weight, and becomes this vibrant little flying miracle.
There is hope.
We, as a society, and as a country,....check that....as a human race, are in the process of forming the chrysallis.
We have consumed 300x our weight, and beginning the process of shedding 1/2 of our body.
The caterpillar that is the old paradigms/old belief systems are dying off, no matter how much one may resist it. The question that remains to be seen, is whether enough of the butterfly cells survive and emerge, and the butterfly that is a new world dream recognizes itself as the magnificient, free-flying miracle that it is.
As more and more human beings continue to awaken and connect with who they truly are, the clusters of conscious 'butterfly cells' here and there will grow ever larger. And as the Boomers, who by sheer size have massively affected popular culture their entire existence, undergo their form of mortal chaos/transformation, and re-connect with their true Woodstock-root selves of peace, love, and harmony, a tidal wave of 'butterfly cells' will be the light switch that is flipped, and a form of galactic butterfly representing a new world will recognize itself as such and emerge, and so will a "cosmic global party", that makes Woodstock seem like a nice burp.
A new world is truly upon us.
So how do we all get to this happy place?
There isn't any one way, just your own one true way.
Living with gratitude helps, and I've found out along my way, I don't need something bad to happen to realize what a gift every day is.
For me, I will simply continue to put less on my plate, take what I need and give the rest back, connect and be with nature, help others help themselves, and do the things I love to do.
Peace.
Eric
These are all signs of waking up, in a sense. Of becoming more aware. The transition from static to dynamic. From stuck into motion. Our bodies, minds, and spirits will go into a numb slumber if we do not practice with them. They'll adjust as they have to, when we don't pay attention to them, to survive, even if the environment is less than optimal.
Similarly, do you ever do something you feel is good for you, only to emerge feeling worse for it? Also, do you ever focus more on what you don't have, rather than what you do? Do you ever add one too many brushstrokes to a painting you knew in your heart was already complete?
Do you ever find yourself consuming too much, past the point of satisfaction?
If you do, you're not alone. We live in a consumer society, and although it's shifting, everywhere we look around us every day, is part of a system based on material consumption. Though we are becoming ever more conscious of our purchases, there is still a huge "Buy shit you don't need, with money you don't have." advertising machine humming along.
This conditioning pervades our lives in ways we may not even be aware of. (until we are)
I recently experienced this feeling after a recent guitar lesson. I've been actively working with an instructor for 6 months now, and on a rather ordinary Wednesday a month ago, I had a mini-epiphany, or breakthrough. We were discussing music theory, and BAM!, one magical moment caused weeks of progress fits and starts to synthesize in my head. All of a sudden, "I got it". Kinda like a baby realizing it can walk for the first time. This moment then brought my instructor, a brilliant technician on the guitar, back to that innocent time and place when the guitar was a love for him, and not just an obligation.
I was feeling quite satisfied.
Caught up in the high energy of the moment, my instructor started drilling more theory into my head, what was now possible for me to play, and where we could go from here. He basically saw the crack, or opening in my dense "guitar learning armor" and was trying to funnel as much light, or knowledge, as he could while this crack was still open.
Within moments, I was exhausted and the moment was gone. By tapping into new levels of "what I now know", a pandora's box of "what I now don't know" was opened. The old ceiling had become the new floor of possibility. I became keenly aware of how vast my "new guitar world" was, and when I thought about it too much, it was a bit overwhelming.
I had consumed too much.
Once I started thinking about it, I got too much in my mind, and left my heartspace, and I left the present moment. Once I left the present moment, it became about where I am going with my guitar, rather than enjoying where I am with my guitar.
Destination focus rather than journey enjoyment, all that jazz.
I do appreciate my instructor's passion, who is well-intentioned, and simply wants the best for me, in terms of reaching my true potential. And with that in mind, the question is how do we stay "whelmed" without being overwhelmed? How does one become OK with or embody satisfaction rather than needing to be full?
Chew on that for a moment. Do you eat a meal until you're satisfied, or until you're full? Do you eat everything on your plate just because it's there?
Maybe it's time we put a little less on our plate then.
I know my quality of life has gone up dramatically as I have continued to put less on my plate(and it's still a work in progress) literally and figuratively, connect with nature, and simply do things that I love to do, without fear of judgment or care for acceptance from others.
It makes me wonder why I ever cared about things like being accepted for anything other than who I am. It makes me wonder why I ever cared about material things, or ate until I was full, or worshipped to the false idols of things like money. Or why I was so reluctant to make the changes I knew in my heart were true. I was part of the over-consumption problem.
But I did feel those things, and the pain that occurred from being so disconnected, is the same pain that brought this disconnection into my awareness, and thus, helped me re-connect with my true self and choose to be part of the solution.
We live in a consumer and materialistic society, and although it is shifting, many of us are conditioned from birth that more is better, to accumulate, to win the trophy, to compete. It is a society that has utilized popular culture catchphrases such as "keep up with the Joneses", and "bigger is better" as a cause to act, or behave a certain way.
And while peer pressure to act a certain way has always existed in some form, concern for all things image, material gain, and destination-oriented thinking in regards to what one does or who one is, reached its egregious pinnacle during the last decade.
Symptoms of this egoic system include: the Steroids Era in our national pastime baseball, where cheating and lack of integrity were glossed over as record ticket and TV revenues lined corporate pockets; the reckless risk taking on Wall Street and taxpayer bailout; the obnoxious massive national debt/deficit, which has transferred responsibility of out-of-control spending for the past 20 years to next generation's children, and their children, and control exhibited through the attempted reduction of personal freedoms, and a bull market in fear-based marketing: see War on Terror.
'Do as I say, not as I do' seems like an appropriate mantra for the Era.
These are all products and part of the morphic field of the Baby Boomer generation, a generation initially associated with the Peace, Love, and Harmony of the Woodstock Festival. At this time, the 40th anniversary of that festival, I contemplate how this generation as a whole got so disconnected from itself, from the live and let live vibration. And I think about the impending identity crises this generation faces as it comes to grips with its own mortality. And what an opportunity that is, for them, and for humanity. We're ALL responsible for the healing of this planet, and I simply acknowledge how much impact the Boomers have had on popular culture for the past 60 years, and will continue to have as they age.
It's not good or bad, it just is.
We see the old structures embodying these disconnects right before our eyes. There are identity crises occurring everywhere. Wall Street. Politics. Sports. Religion.
The world is changing. The planet is shifting. Welcome to Chaos Theory: An organism through change can either: Adapt, Survive, and Thrive.....or Perish and Die. Choose to be part of the evolution of the new butterfly if you will, or go the way of the bloated caterpillar.
President Obama spared no punches in addressing this phenomenon, when he gave this commencement address at Arizona State in May:
"Other classes have received their diplomas in times of trial and upheaval, when the very foundations of our lives have been shaken, the old ideas and institutions have crumbled, and a new generation is called on to remake the world," he said. He said many graduates will want to grab at what he called "the usual brass rings" -- a who's who list, or a top 100 list, or a big corner office, or an important title, or a nice car. "But at this difficult time, let me suggest that such an approach won’t get you where you want to go; that in fact, the elevation of appearance over substance, celebrity over character, short-term gain over lasting achievement is precisely what your generation needs to help end," he said. When he called on "young people like you to step up" he was quick to add that his definition of young was not necessarily an age but an attitude: "A willingness to follow your passions, regardless of whether they lead to fortune and fame. A willingness to question conventional wisdom and rethink the old dogmas. A lack of regard for all the traditional markers of status and prestige – and a commitment instead to doing what is meaningful to you, what helps others, what makes a difference in this world."
What we are witnessing in this lifetime, maybe even in this here decade, as Bush passed the torch off to Obama, is the changing of the guard from the Love of Power to the Power of Love. Does that sound a little too New Agey? Perhaps, but I see it all around. The Internet is speeding up consciousness. People are being empowered to take personal responsibility for their own lives and own healings, as the old structures and beliefs fail to serve them. People are returning to simpler way of life, a deeper communion to nature/Earth, and finding their passion and following it.
Is there turmoil? Sure there is. With any massive changing of the guard, there is chaos. And to further, those who argue for their limiting beliefs, well, sure enough, they own them. And always will, until they learn what they need to learn from them, to evolve.
Rather than get upset over the overconsumption of the past 30 years, or my times of disconnection, I focus on being my own change, and remind myself to focus again on the caterpillar/butterfly metaphor. Before it metamorphizes into the butterfly, the caterpillar consumes 300x of its body weight on its way to forming its chrysallis. It then sheds 1/2 of its body weight, and becomes this vibrant little flying miracle.
There is hope.
We, as a society, and as a country,....check that....as a human race, are in the process of forming the chrysallis.
We have consumed 300x our weight, and beginning the process of shedding 1/2 of our body.
The caterpillar that is the old paradigms/old belief systems are dying off, no matter how much one may resist it. The question that remains to be seen, is whether enough of the butterfly cells survive and emerge, and the butterfly that is a new world dream recognizes itself as the magnificient, free-flying miracle that it is.
As more and more human beings continue to awaken and connect with who they truly are, the clusters of conscious 'butterfly cells' here and there will grow ever larger. And as the Boomers, who by sheer size have massively affected popular culture their entire existence, undergo their form of mortal chaos/transformation, and re-connect with their true Woodstock-root selves of peace, love, and harmony, a tidal wave of 'butterfly cells' will be the light switch that is flipped, and a form of galactic butterfly representing a new world will recognize itself as such and emerge, and so will a "cosmic global party", that makes Woodstock seem like a nice burp.
A new world is truly upon us.
So how do we all get to this happy place?
There isn't any one way, just your own one true way.
Living with gratitude helps, and I've found out along my way, I don't need something bad to happen to realize what a gift every day is.
For me, I will simply continue to put less on my plate, take what I need and give the rest back, connect and be with nature, help others help themselves, and do the things I love to do.
Peace.
Eric
Monday, September 14, 2009
Tradition, Not Antiquated
I'm sitting on a green blanket in the middle of the grassy field at Pritzker Pavillion in Milennium Park, Chicago, Il. It's 5 o' clock, and I am 2 1/2 hours early for a free concert to be held here later this evening. Being early is relative as I am "write" on time to put pen to paper.
Fifteen minutes go by, and I realize though my mind is bubbling with ideas, so far there is but one paragraph written on the page. Yup, here we go. Complete static. There is a veritable traffic jam of words and phrases in my head, and the traffic cop(me) isn't sure where this one begins or ends. A bitch of a quagmire, and already I'm way too much in my head. For me, it feels like I'm driving on a street that is a 2-sided cul-de-sac, with no exit. Something has to shift, so I recall immediately the only set of rules I enacted for this still young writing journey, 1)Writing is to be a joy 2)When writing is not a joy, re-read rule #1. With that, I take out my medicine bag, offer a pinch of tobacco to the land, and say a quick prayer of gratitude for all that is. I meditate for a couple minutes.
I chuckle at how I used to think one needed to be on a mountain with a robe on to meditate. Or that I couldn't possibly like watching Bears football on Sunday AND be spiritual.
I feel my feet in the grass, the warm sun on my skin, look at my hands and am thankful just for having hands.
Shift happens.
My creativity pipe has been snaked, and the energy is now free to flow. I spend a moment admiring the pavillion structure. It is modern and metallic, and though I'm not entirely sure of what I am looking at, the feeling it evokes is that happy point of all places that is simple come full circle through complexity. Like a good chili that has many ingredients, and many tastes that converge into one delicious dish, the building transits seamlessly into the cement jungle that is the city skyline. A bridge from the science of the material world to the artistry of nature. When I consider all the artistic creation that the pavillion has birthed, calling this structure a portal that connects the celestial heavens to the Earth, the stars to the ground, doesn't seem so far-fetched.
The day has been one of symmetry, synchronicity, and flow for me. I went to study and just be with the butterflies at the nature museum. On my way there, I stopped to get a smoothie at the local Jamba Juice. My smoothie is delivered 45 seconds after I ordered it, and I realize the barista was working on it before I came in the store.
"Did you know I was coming?", I ask, "or are you simply the Luke Skywalker of smoothie baristas?" She smiles, and gives me a mischievous wink that says, "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." I smile and walk out. Suddenly, the whole, "what came first, the chicken or the egg debate?" makes sense to me. Neither. Or both.
I am the chicken. And the egg.
After leaving the museum, I go home to clean up, and have an intuition to head down to Milennium Park. They often have free concerts at the downtown outdoor ampitheatre, so I check online to see what tonight's fare is.
A band named OTTO.
Palindromes are cool. Sold.
I get to the park and see 2 drum sets and lotsa brass instruments. Double sold. I've been to hundreds of music shows and double percussion(2 drum sets) is at the top of my list for, "This band is not gonna suck" clues. A brass section is a close second, followed by electric violin, and then a backup R&B section with 400 lb black women.
My leg falls asleep from sitting on it for 30 minutes. I ponder for a moment if it was REM sleep, and if legs can have dreams.
I digress.
Sitting on the fresh green grass, I feel pretty connected. Seven different people in a span of 20-25 minutes walk up and introduce themselves. I recognize this past weekend was the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock peace and love music festival. It feels like many are tuned in to that vibrational frequency, or "radio station".
The show is still 30 minutes from starting. Fifty yards to my left, there is an operatic singer informally practicing her arias in front of an entranced audience of thirty people. Children to my right are playing and laughing. A cute couple straight ahead are play wrestling in what seems to be some strange mating ritual. There is another man with his shirt off doing some form of bizarre interpretive dance. He looks like a rhino trying to have sex with itself is the best way I can describe it. This field is alive with all sorts of things.
There is one man who has a real curious energy. He glances at me, and gives me the "stink eye". Sorry, Charlie. No room for that energy here, that is all yours. He looks like he's just done something wrong, or is about to. I remind myself not to judge. Mostly, I can just see the pain in his eyes, and I say a prayer to myself that his pain not be suffering.
I reflect on the notion of "pain."
Pain, like life, is temporary. Pain can be one of our greatest teachers if we just lean into it a little bit. If we can sit with it. Be with it. What happens when you have a kickass workout at the gym? The next day muscles are incredibly sore. This pain is from the process of the muscle breaking down, scarring, and building back up even bigger and stronger.
The same thing happens with our emotional body, too, as long as we let it. Emotional scars can morph into emotional muscles. The name of this blog, 'The Gift is in the Wound', means exactly that. There is medicine, or wisdom, in all of our traumas, or wounds. And they are gifts. The universe sends us 'teachers' in many forms, so we can learn, evolve, and be even more connected to our true path. Western society, in my humble opinion, has been conditioned to mute pain, or make it go away, or run/escape from it. Treat(drug) the symptom, rather than sit with the source. Us humans often do that with the emotional body as well, only we find distractions, diversions, escapes, rationalizations, heck, how 'bout a dozen chocolate chip cookies and a cup of hot fat to go with it? Retail therapy, anyone?
Pain is Ok. Pain can be transformative. Suffering is often time a choice we make. We make choices based upon our belief systems, systems that are inherited from generation to generation. These systems can be incredibly limiting, and many times, don't represent who we truly are. We then go through our life journey trying to remember. Who we are. Why we're here. When questioning my belief system, I ask simple questions: Is this a joyous tradition, or is it stuck and antiquated? Is this for the best and highest good of all? Is this coming from a place of love, or a place of fear? Traditions, customs, rituals that are handed down from one generation to the next are the essence of life. That said, they can also outlast their utility in an ever-changing world.
The great paradox of tradition, is that every tradition starts with a first year. And that we can make a choice at any time to change or shift how we perceive the world.
I am in sync right now. I am outside at a concert, with a beautiful friend who creatively inspires me. I am in nature. There is music playing that moves me. I am creating. People all around are happy and smiling. I'm really feelin' it. I am just being. Feels like the seeds of a new tradition. A shift.
This moment is truly perfect.
And I couldn't be in this perfect now, without all of my previous less than perfect 'now' moments.
Which kinda makes those moments perfect, too, doncha think?
Aho.
Eric
Fifteen minutes go by, and I realize though my mind is bubbling with ideas, so far there is but one paragraph written on the page. Yup, here we go. Complete static. There is a veritable traffic jam of words and phrases in my head, and the traffic cop(me) isn't sure where this one begins or ends. A bitch of a quagmire, and already I'm way too much in my head. For me, it feels like I'm driving on a street that is a 2-sided cul-de-sac, with no exit. Something has to shift, so I recall immediately the only set of rules I enacted for this still young writing journey, 1)Writing is to be a joy 2)When writing is not a joy, re-read rule #1. With that, I take out my medicine bag, offer a pinch of tobacco to the land, and say a quick prayer of gratitude for all that is. I meditate for a couple minutes.
I chuckle at how I used to think one needed to be on a mountain with a robe on to meditate. Or that I couldn't possibly like watching Bears football on Sunday AND be spiritual.
I feel my feet in the grass, the warm sun on my skin, look at my hands and am thankful just for having hands.
Shift happens.
My creativity pipe has been snaked, and the energy is now free to flow. I spend a moment admiring the pavillion structure. It is modern and metallic, and though I'm not entirely sure of what I am looking at, the feeling it evokes is that happy point of all places that is simple come full circle through complexity. Like a good chili that has many ingredients, and many tastes that converge into one delicious dish, the building transits seamlessly into the cement jungle that is the city skyline. A bridge from the science of the material world to the artistry of nature. When I consider all the artistic creation that the pavillion has birthed, calling this structure a portal that connects the celestial heavens to the Earth, the stars to the ground, doesn't seem so far-fetched.
The day has been one of symmetry, synchronicity, and flow for me. I went to study and just be with the butterflies at the nature museum. On my way there, I stopped to get a smoothie at the local Jamba Juice. My smoothie is delivered 45 seconds after I ordered it, and I realize the barista was working on it before I came in the store.
"Did you know I was coming?", I ask, "or are you simply the Luke Skywalker of smoothie baristas?" She smiles, and gives me a mischievous wink that says, "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you." I smile and walk out. Suddenly, the whole, "what came first, the chicken or the egg debate?" makes sense to me. Neither. Or both.
I am the chicken. And the egg.
After leaving the museum, I go home to clean up, and have an intuition to head down to Milennium Park. They often have free concerts at the downtown outdoor ampitheatre, so I check online to see what tonight's fare is.
A band named OTTO.
Palindromes are cool. Sold.
I get to the park and see 2 drum sets and lotsa brass instruments. Double sold. I've been to hundreds of music shows and double percussion(2 drum sets) is at the top of my list for, "This band is not gonna suck" clues. A brass section is a close second, followed by electric violin, and then a backup R&B section with 400 lb black women.
My leg falls asleep from sitting on it for 30 minutes. I ponder for a moment if it was REM sleep, and if legs can have dreams.
I digress.
Sitting on the fresh green grass, I feel pretty connected. Seven different people in a span of 20-25 minutes walk up and introduce themselves. I recognize this past weekend was the 40th anniversary of the Woodstock peace and love music festival. It feels like many are tuned in to that vibrational frequency, or "radio station".
The show is still 30 minutes from starting. Fifty yards to my left, there is an operatic singer informally practicing her arias in front of an entranced audience of thirty people. Children to my right are playing and laughing. A cute couple straight ahead are play wrestling in what seems to be some strange mating ritual. There is another man with his shirt off doing some form of bizarre interpretive dance. He looks like a rhino trying to have sex with itself is the best way I can describe it. This field is alive with all sorts of things.
There is one man who has a real curious energy. He glances at me, and gives me the "stink eye". Sorry, Charlie. No room for that energy here, that is all yours. He looks like he's just done something wrong, or is about to. I remind myself not to judge. Mostly, I can just see the pain in his eyes, and I say a prayer to myself that his pain not be suffering.
I reflect on the notion of "pain."
Pain, like life, is temporary. Pain can be one of our greatest teachers if we just lean into it a little bit. If we can sit with it. Be with it. What happens when you have a kickass workout at the gym? The next day muscles are incredibly sore. This pain is from the process of the muscle breaking down, scarring, and building back up even bigger and stronger.
The same thing happens with our emotional body, too, as long as we let it. Emotional scars can morph into emotional muscles. The name of this blog, 'The Gift is in the Wound', means exactly that. There is medicine, or wisdom, in all of our traumas, or wounds. And they are gifts. The universe sends us 'teachers' in many forms, so we can learn, evolve, and be even more connected to our true path. Western society, in my humble opinion, has been conditioned to mute pain, or make it go away, or run/escape from it. Treat(drug) the symptom, rather than sit with the source. Us humans often do that with the emotional body as well, only we find distractions, diversions, escapes, rationalizations, heck, how 'bout a dozen chocolate chip cookies and a cup of hot fat to go with it? Retail therapy, anyone?
Pain is Ok. Pain can be transformative. Suffering is often time a choice we make. We make choices based upon our belief systems, systems that are inherited from generation to generation. These systems can be incredibly limiting, and many times, don't represent who we truly are. We then go through our life journey trying to remember. Who we are. Why we're here. When questioning my belief system, I ask simple questions: Is this a joyous tradition, or is it stuck and antiquated? Is this for the best and highest good of all? Is this coming from a place of love, or a place of fear? Traditions, customs, rituals that are handed down from one generation to the next are the essence of life. That said, they can also outlast their utility in an ever-changing world.
The great paradox of tradition, is that every tradition starts with a first year. And that we can make a choice at any time to change or shift how we perceive the world.
I am in sync right now. I am outside at a concert, with a beautiful friend who creatively inspires me. I am in nature. There is music playing that moves me. I am creating. People all around are happy and smiling. I'm really feelin' it. I am just being. Feels like the seeds of a new tradition. A shift.
This moment is truly perfect.
And I couldn't be in this perfect now, without all of my previous less than perfect 'now' moments.
Which kinda makes those moments perfect, too, doncha think?
Aho.
Eric
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