I often can’t find the words to describe the UnCommon Touch experience. So, I’ll let another tell you a little about it!
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Tag: emotional
Becoming Horse
I don’t share with many folk the experiences I have with some frequency; almost daily. I’m not quite sure why I tend to keep them to myself. I think there are a combination of factors. They are at once deeply moving, awe-inspiring, sometimes physically taxing, some more ‘ecstatic’ than others, and seem just for me. I don’t often try to understand, figure ’em out or connect the dots. I also don’t connect them to life-stuff, psychic-stuff, spiritual-stuff and other whatnot in the way I think many other people do. And, lately, folks appear to be looking to me for answers and aren’t comfortable in accepting, “I don’t know.” I find myself using that phrase a lot when it comes to the ‘work’ that I and quite a few others do. I don’t know what ‘ascension’ is (twelfth floor, please?). I don’t know your past lives; don’t have any interest in my own. I don’t know why folks are so interested in understanding a 5th dimension (or if there is one) when we are right here, right now, in this one. I don’t know why a dog that couldn’t walk now can after I had a mere thought and why a cancerous tumor wouldn’t go away after the same process. I don’t know a whole heck of a lot and, frankly, don’t care to. So, I keep a lot to myself.
I’m drawn to share last Wednesday’s experience, though, for some reason. It’s not the first of its kind but the intensity of it, the expression of it, and the equine company in which it occurred were a first. And, I think, that by sharing my experiences others will find some comfort in knowing they are not alone & they may come to understand, through continued glimpses into my world, how I come to experience the world in my unique way and how I ‘just’ know and trust.
Some may know that I do work with horses working on both the physical and energetic levels; transforming bodies, demeanor, and communion with their humans. This week I was asked to begin working with a mare named Marge (I know, right? Who names a champion mare Marge?) She in no way resembles the blue bouffant of the same-named Simpson character. However, her frenetic behavior might look a little like Homer’s!
There was another person, a trainer named Michelle, with me to hold her still because Marge is a little off the hook—frenetic only half-describes it. I got started in my normal way and just felt and watched energy move through, in and around. I talked to her a little, watched her fight & respond, feeling it in her own unique way.
After several minutes, I felt something strange within me—as if it had moved into me–looked to Michelle and said, “Something just moved into me”. We both noted that was odd because that doesn’t happen when I work. Things don’t attach themselves to me. Introduce themselves, yes. Attach, move into, errrr, nope. I kept on keeping on and a few minutes later, energy heightened in intensity, and apparently I looked at Michelle and said, “This isn’t me.” Although I was aware that I was breathing ‘normally’, I was quite certain I would pass out because I wasn’t breathing ‘right’. I surrendered and began crying—not of sadness, not in connection with the animal’s emotions (that happens with some frequency, especially with those who have been traumatized physically and emotionally—similar to my engagement with humas), but in communion with something entirely different. I kept working with the heightened energy, the horse relaxed and shifted in her own way to something resembling calm. The string of moments (I’ve no idea how long the experience continued) was broken only when a truck pulled into the drive. I brought my bits back together, brought the horse’s bits back together, wiped snot and tears, and tried to gather my conscious thoughts. The only thing that really gelled was, “HOLY CRAP! What the hell was that about!?”
As Michelle was helping me re-ground with some tea, I told her again that that wasn’t me. That it couldn’t have been. That it felt like Christ himself or the power behind the horse herself stepped into me and that I could no more explain that or what it meant than I could anything else of this strange experience of the world I live in.
When I asked what she felt, Michelle said, “A swirling, powerful peace.” Again, I thought, “Holy crap” and couldn’t do much more than shake my head and say thank you.
I left shortly after, still trying to mull over in my head the turn of events. I know better than to try to ‘figure it out’ and I deal with similar experiences daily. Not this intense, but enough to know to just ‘roll with it’. However, that was enough to make me sit up and take notice in a slightly different way than ‘usual’.
As I turned onto Atoka Road heading home, though, the voice that’s not a voice, the thought that’s not a thought said, “That IS you. That is the whole purpose of your being! That IS your being. Know this.” If it could be given a face, voice, and tone, it would resemble a ‘tut-tutt’-ing, head shaking in exasperation, universal grandmother/father voice.
Oh.
The next thought—one I have with some frequency—was, “Okay, then. Now what do I do with that.”
A week later, there have been string of other moments and events that have been built upon this one that I’ll share later.
A Taste of my own Medicine, Self-Worth & Pissin’ People Off
Every now and again, I feel the need to get a taste of my own medicine. When I do that, I click around and find out when and where Panache Desai is going to be. This time it was Black Mountain, North Carolina. What’s little road trip? Only seven hours between here and there, right? Yup. Something like that. Seven hours to drive for an energetic ass-kicking.
Let me divert a bit with a little back-story. I first saw Panache about a year ago. He ‘accidentally’ showed up on my computer screen. Riiiiight. You know how I feel about ‘accidents’, right? I knew in less than an instant that I needed him like I needed air. I drove like a bat out of hell for 14 hours to St. Petersburg, FL, to the Unity Church there to see him. I sat. Looked around at the eclectic crowd and tried not to fidget (remember how I have to practice patience?). When he began speaking I almost fell over. He was using the same language, the exact same words I did while working, the language that others thought I channeled. I was brilliantly relieved and tickled that I wasn’t alone. Then, he started doing his thing. He wandered around the room touching folks and when he finally got to me, I was just ‘struck’. That’s the only way I know how to describe it except to add that in one moment, in less than a second, I just ‘knew’. I knew everything. I knew that what I’d begun doing a few months beforehand had little to do with healing torn rotator cuffs and a lot with changing the world. All in a flash of light (although that doesn’t quite describe it) and presence that moved in and through me in a split second. And, then, it was all I could do to not interrupt the still, meditative manner that others had settled into without laughing hysterically! Guffawing, snarfing, snorting…the whole shebang.
The mystical experiences clients had been describing to me finally made sense. Those may have made sense but the “holy shit” factor remained at the forefront of my brain all night. The 14 hour drive back to Virginia was filled with self-conversation that went something like this: “Oh. Shit.” “Holy CRAP!” “HOLY crap!” “Whatthehellisthatallabout!” “Crappity, crap, crap, crap!!” “Damn, there’s responsibility here!” “Now what the fuck do I do with that bit of information?” Enough that the chatter sent me straight to the computer before the bathroom (after 14 hrs on the road, no less) to send an email that said, essentially, “Holy crap. Now what the hell do I do?” The response, bless him, was, “Just keep doing what you’re doing.”
Moving back on track to this summer’s trip. Only 7 hours, not 14. And I knew what I was getting into. Didn’t feel the ‘need’ but wanted to feel what others feel through me. A reminder, really, of what we’re about. As far as I know, he and I are the only ones that work in this strange and usual fashion (odds are, though, that if there are two of us, there are bound to be more around the globe). What’s a state line or two between us, I thought? So I went.
Hauled ass (safely, of course!) through the heart of Virginia into some of North Carolina’s finest spaces. The two-hour session on Friday evening was nice. I was tired and it was a great way to end a day of travel. Just a nice energetic high of the warm, fuzzy kind. On Saturday, though, initially it wasn’t. I found myself annoyed. Annoyed that I was listening to myself. Really annoyed. Remember, we really do speak the same language–damn near word for word. It was only toward the end of the day that the smack upside the head occurred. The universal, “Yeah. You. You big dummy. You ought to listen to yourself!”
A week or so before I made the run to NC, I met with a really awesome woman from Northern Virginia. During the course of our time together I looked at her and said, “Quit being a pussy.” (Yes, I really did. I don’t have to make any of this up, kids. These aren’t therapy sessions. And, seriously, wouldn’t you love to hear your therapist say that?). After listening to what Panache had to say toward the end of Saturday, I realized I’d been speaking to myself as well. I’d been settling for being a pussy. Preaching on one hand while my other hand chose to hold me back. Although in some respects I have behaved fearlessly, in one key aspect I had chosen not to.
Because I am ridiculously human, I’d held onto a couple of key beliefs about myself that others had sold me on. The primary of those (the one addressed now) was that I didn’t have value. Grounded in years of ‘stuff’, I’d held onto that notion. And, subsequently, have lived recently as if I was of no value, as if my needs and desires, and, yes, my Gift, had no value. I’d dealt with it at one relational level but not at another. Silly girl. Don’t know what I was thinking. Actually, that’s not quite true. What I was thinking was, “Oh. I can’t do that. They won’t like me/come to me/value me/want me (think Sally Field) if I do …”. In this case, ‘it’ was if I charge for my services what I need to have my own needs met. As if it were perfectly okay for me to provide what I do for others and martyr myself in the process.
It is no longer okay for me to suffer. It’s no longer okay for me to choose between putting gas in the car and going to the dentist. It’s no longer okay for me to be afraid of what others think of my need to take care of myself. It is not okay for me to be afraid of every noise my car makes. It is perfectly okay for me to want underwear that fits. So, I’ve raised my rates. I’ve raised them to help support both me and those who can’t afford me at any rate. I do a lot of work for no fee at all and when I do, it’s done with love. I choose to do that for those in need who have limited or no income because I fully believe what I call the Gift is of all of us and for all of us. I have previously set myself up and created limitations that needn’t exist because I was afraid. No mas. I have desires to work with veterans groups, pay for advertising, develop a retreat center, and live on my own again. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
There are those who will say, “Oh, there she goes. Just like all these other healer-types. All about the money.” Others have already come right out and said, “You can’t do that! You can’t charge so much for something that people don’t understand!” “You can’t expect people to pay you for miracles.” You can’t, you can’t, you can’t. And, we all know how I feel about that. So be it. That’s their problem, not mine. It is up to others to decide what the value of the Gift is for them and to find the courage to say things like, “I really can’t afford more than the $60 I used pay you.” Those who don’t pay me do that every day and, then, pay with loving kindness, chocolate cake, garden goodies, and the willingness to be open to themselves & others.
A good part of what I teach is grounded in deciding (see above). Deciding how we want to feel. How we want to experience life. I’ve finally decided that I want to live freely, without self-imposed limitations. I’ve got plans and am creating a way to make them happen. I am worthy.
Inspired by Fucking-Sharing a Twitter experience of Being Ing (Get it? Be-Ing?)
Unknot the knickers, unpinch the panties; it’s not in the nikked sense of the word, it’s in the George Carlin sense. Not exactly rated-G but not porn.
So, I had an inspirational experience this morning on Twitter. Because it’s one way I communicate w/ the world and because I believe in putting all of me out there in every way, I posted, “I’m fucking frustrated!”. Oh. My. Yup, I said it. Folks seemed a little taken aback that a “spiritual” (whatever that really means) someone , one who posts about love, light, tranquility, peace, God, being God, knowing all things Godly dropped an F-bomb. Oh. My.
One of the things I continue to find so amazing about this mysterious life that is Me is people’s response to all things Me. I make an effort to explain that I’m not going to fit into any box that you’ve created as a way to make me ‘fit’ into the world-order as you see it. Combine that with what seems to be an entirely different standard of living related to ‘being spiritual’–makes me wanna pull a Bill-the-cat and ACK! As if, because we’re different, special, on a higher level/plane/playing field, we don’t do things like live ‘normally’.
Here’s the deal: I am freakin’ special and, get this, absolutely, brilliantly, fuckedupedly, fandamtabulously, ordinary. I put on my pants and drop them the same way you do, my shit stinks, I curse, love, like brilliant sex, burn toast, shrink laundry, change the world, curse, shoot guns (Oh, for Pete’s Sake–really?! Again, unknot & unpinch), don’t like some people; drink red wine, beer, bourbon; overeat, under-sleep, befriend, unfriend, enjoy cigars, wash dishes, smoosh stinkbugs, rescue bees & turtles; all the while bringing the light of God, the Love of the Universe to every, single being I can connect with.
I may move through, see, and experience the world in a very unique way but I am a human being (Really. Not a ‘spiritual’ being having a human experience. I’m human!) and I live fully. I am complex, beautiful, annoying, course & crass, unafraid, hungry for more than I need, more than I ever could want, more than I could ever imagine so that I can do the Work I’m brought here to do without limitation (back to why I’m frustrated!).
I love my Ruger (P95 for those that want to know),the smell of the gun range & cow manure, Neil Diamond, & strong coffee. I miss my dog, hate panty hose & shaving my legs, know that I am loved and Blessed by the seen and unseen, and breathe for all that live. I am grateful beyond words that I allowed to live the way I do because there are a few amazing people in my life who love me for being me, truly do believe I have a special Gift and need to share it with the world. And, again, I am no more extra-ordinary than you, the grass, Christ hisself, the people that I don’t like, the Chopras and Oprah’s of the world (and, oddly, enough, despite the power they’re given, they ain’t all that extra-anything either!). That’s the whole point, really, people. To recognize that we are all unique and of the same.
I express my passions, emotions and connection to all that exists by moving energy in a way that is tangible & palpable. Sometimes that includes saying: Fuuuuuuck, Holy Shit, Hot Damn & Hallelujah, HolyMaryMotherofGod, Shitfire, Batman in Hotpants (really, I don’t know how or why I conjured that one!), Holy Christ, Great Day, crappity crap, OOhhhhhh Hell, WOOOOHOOOOOO, Quitcherbellyachin’, SHUT it, and a variety of other words that act as exclamation points better than anything on a keyboard. My use of & the meaning behind the it is defined solely by ME. I don’t apologize for it.
Especially when I say: “I love you.” Without condition, without expectation, in its purest, simplest form. I love you.
I love George Carlin, too!
This Morning Say I AM You
When I woke up this morning, I felt my body pulsing in a manner not entirely my own. It’s not an unusual thing for me. I always know I’m connected to you, he, she, that thing both within and without that connects us all. It’s not unusual for me to feel another’s heartbeat alongside mine, feel another’s pain in my own body, know another’s joy in some quiet moments. Today, though, the rythmn that moved in and around me developed a special meaning that I could not divine or define. And so I went looking for the perfect way to describe it. I found this:
I am dust particles in sunlight.
I am the round sun.
To the bits of dust I say, “Stay.”
To the sun, “Keep moving.”
I am the morning mist,
and the breathing of evening.
I am wind in the top of a grove,
and surf on the cliff.
Mast, rudder, helmsman, and keel,
I am also the coral reef they founder on.
I am tree with a trained parrot in its branches.
Silence, thought & voice.The musical air coming through a flute,
a spark of a stone, a flickering
in metal. Both candle and the moth crazy around it.
Rose, and the nightingale lost in the fragrance.
I am all orders of being, the circling galaxy,
the evolutionary intelligence, the lift,
and the falling away. What is and what isn’t.
You who know Jelaludin, Yout the one in all, say who
I AM.
Say I am You.
~ Rumi
And, so I breathe for me and Thee. With grace, gratitude, and the unwavering torch of the Spark of Life.
On being childlike
This post is inspired by two events last week. The first involved a session with a new client; the second, a reminder from Panache Desai to play like a five-year old.
On Saturday, a new client came to see me for a number of reasons–some shared, some not. He happens to be an older gentleman, who during the session fully admitted he didn’t want to grow up (although wanted some adult action!) and, in fact, had a temper tantrum while on the table.
Also on Saturday, Panache put it out there play and enjoy the day. Responses to Panache’s Facebook call to play in a child-like way ranged from the creation of mud pies to brilliant artistry. Funny reads, inspiring art, and a reminder to me. Not so much to play in the sense of, well, playing like a child. But more of what being child-like means (or can mean). Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all about mashed potato mountains, Tonkas, Tinker Toys, Centipede, air guitar, Twister, and Barbie’s head on GI Joe’s bod (What? You never did that?).
I think we forget, though, that the most amazing bits of being a child are never lost or even grown out of (we just play differently as adults, don’t we? Tequila and Twister, anyone? Trade in your Tonka for a Yota yet?). We just forget how to see as a child sees. Seeing the wondrous nature of the world and people around us:
- without judgement
- with an openness not veiled by fear
- knowing the care and responsibility we share for others
- with awe
- with curiosity
- with gladness and grace
- with a grin
Reliance on particular aspects of “child”, those that resemble deluded clutching in otherwise grown folks, hold us back by keeping us afraid. “I want, I Want, I WANT, I WAAAANT” is one in particular. Think the kid in the grocery store with the embarrassed parent. We’ve all seen it. Would you do that now? Another is the, “No. No. NO. NOOOOOO!!! You can’t have it (or her or him!)!” Imagine me not giving my brother back his Tonka truck with the Barbie-headed GI Joe! We think they work for us. We think that if we wear down another person or the Universe by saying “I want”, we’re getting our way. We’re really getting in our way. When we don’t want to share it/her/him as an adult, we shut ourselves off to everybody–including ourSelf and the thing/person we’re trying to cling onto.
So, yes, Breathe and Be child-like but in the way of seeing the wonder of the world with freshness, curiosity, grace and a big, fat, Cheshire-cat grin!
Finding my voice
Simplicity seems to baffles many folks. Because we want to understaaand stuff. The hows of stuff. The whys of stuff. How does it fit with what I think I already know? Which box of life-data do I put this information in so that it makes sense to me?
This concept has become stronger over the course of the past few weeks as I moved through a strain of viral yuck. As I recovered, I moved from literally losing my voice (sounding far too much like a toad for my liking) to figuratively finding it. I learned that I’ve been speaking not to stand out and be heard, but to merely fit in–a habit that I’ve spent a lifetime repeating, apparently. Talk about a “D’OH!” moment.
This realization came to me when I was reading a Washington Post Magazine article while waiting for a plane to take me to Denver. The realization pushed me further when I was asked by a new friend in Denver how to explain to others what I do so that they understand. I forced myself to say what I’ve thought of saying before but didn’t. Usually I try to couch things in a way that people feel comfortable with–using ‘spiritual’ language or metaphysical terms or religious iconography. This time, I just said, “I breathe.” Eyebrow raised in response, OnePaw waited for further explanation. Then, I found myself back in the same pattern–trying to use words that just don’t work to describe what I do, trying to make someone else more comfortable with their ‘unknown’. I suppose sitting at a bar, drinking a beer (or three) with a woman who claims to ‘just breathe’ and heal others maybe is just a little on the ‘unknown’ side of things, though. Who knows?
Here’s what I do know. I breathe. That’s it.
It just so happens that when I breathe, the essence of all that is, God, the Universe, the Ground of Being, Source, whatever the Flavor of the Day is, moves through me and, in turn, moves through others. And lives change, people. That’s it. It’s magic is in its simplicity.
From now on you won’t hear me mimicking the voice of others so that yet others feel comfortable or can stay in their bubble box of life-stuff.
What you will hear is my truth grounded in experience and the universal truth moves through me and sometimes manifests in words. It does just so happen that my Voice–the truth within and without–is shared by many. It has been over the course of human existence. However, it is heard by few and understood by less. Only sometimes, though.
Because God’s unwieldly love cannot be contained in words you want or think you need to hear. When the vastness of God meets the restriction of our own humanity, words cannot hold it. The best we can do is find the moments that rhyme with the experience of His/Her/Our love.
Father Boyle of Homeboy fame has asked …”Who can explain this moment, when the utter fullness of God rushes in on you–when you completely know the One in whom ‘you move and live and have your being’?”
When I breathe, that’s what happens. That’s it.
It’s how I live, how I move through daily life–fully conscious of my connection to all that is, to everyone. It feel it at every fiber, at all times. It and I may not make much sense to others. But, for me, it’s the only thing that makes sense. It fits in no box & can’t be contained in words. It is, however, an experience that I want to share with everyone.
