New Rhythm

The Rhythm of Nature 

           It’s been a rainy, wild, warm and wet summer so far, and I have acquired some new tools along the way since I last wrote here.  And I want to share - as daunting as that is, when the planet turns so many times and bring as many changes - so much.  So much has blossomed and unfolded in the past three years, in both my practice and personal life.  Wintertime has ruled with its icy fingers, and cozy dark evenings spent with tea and cats began just as dark in the wee hours, shuffling off - this past Winter - into frozen January mornings, only to be brightened by candles and swept clean with the scent of sage at Kara’s 6 a.m. Yoga Warriors classes, where the benefits were so clear to me that I signed up to follow her to a week long yoga retreat called “Reclaim Your Rhythm” on the beautiful island of Vieques, off of Puerto Rico, practicing and offering my heart to the experience and the rhythms of nature… With no hesitation, I highly recommend retreats with Kara Aubin.  She thinks of all the things and what doesn't go as planned turns into magical unplanned experiences, because that's living in the rhythm of nature.  Sharing that with my husband made coming home to Michigan that much sweeter, and upon our return the early March moon shone full and cold, but we had watched it wax from a warm place… and so I wasn’t at all surprised when, eventually, the ice began to melt into the earth and make its way into the roots of spring trees and flowers; the days grew warmer, and now the neighborhood poppies have come and gone in a scatter of fire engine red petals over crumbling sidewalks wet with rain.  Remember when all those flowering trees dropped their petals into the swirling breezes?  Now, as we are several weeks into the jungly lushness of summer, I find it taken us in stride, and although we never could catch up with it on our own, it will take us along with it nonetheless.  All I need to do is to submit to the offerings of each day, and be present for the ride. 

          One of the things that slows down the days and brings me the most joy right now, and helps me maintain a connection to the rhythms of nature (while living so close to the heart of downtown), is a 55' x 60' empty lot down the street, upon which was once a house, but where still remains a grand old Walnut tree, and a shed that half belongs to the house next to the lot.  There, my husband and I started a garden.  It's on the corner of Rose and Wall Street, a lot left empty by the removal of a house that had been condemned for lead).  After the Land Bank approved our application to make a green space out of it, we began to lease it, annually, for just 20.00 a year, and in Spring 2016 we invited and worked with other residents of our street and the Vine Neighborhood to plant 500.00 worth of native plants (that had been granted to us via a passionate group of Monarch butterfly enthusiasts called “Wild Ones).”  Everything in that garden that is large (the bluestone path, the benches, the solar post lights, and the fieldstone retaining wall) was given to us to install or arrange to have installed, in a city where it seems all dreams of improvement can be fulfilled.  

          I recently applied to register the lot as a nationally certified (I found out, “extra-large!”) Monarch butterfly way station.  The certifying authority, Monarch Watch, approved it and sent us a lovely sign to put up there.  It is an ongoing goal to keep it all looking civilized, intentional, and nurtured.  Although butterflies need dense plantings for shelter from the elements and predators, that doesn't mean we need to let weeds grow there.  It's tricky enough to grow field flowers in a garden without letting invasive grasses, horse nettle, and other demons in.  Some of the things we planted last year flowered for the first time this past spring, and three species of milkweed have filled in quite a bit in such a short time.  The compass flowers - several of about twenty - zoomed up from the ground early, and they are eight feet tall!  And their roots go twenty feet deep!  Next summer I hope they line the entire split rail fence on the west side of the lot.  Sometimes neighbors come and help us weed, for whom we are so grateful, and there are moments when there is laughter, and shared moments of peace, and bright jangly moments when souls collide there, and it all shakes out to grins and laughter, or shares and space holding.  It's meaningful to live in this community.  When I get to see someone’s grandchild who was just a newborn six years ago, or when I get to see a sixteen year old (who used to be shorter than me) come by to show off his little three year old nephew, smiling serenely in the balmy green glow of summer, or just when someone walking by hollers out a joyful "good morning/evening!" or “looking good!” and smiles, someone to wave at as they go by.  And I love it when people come to talk to me as I weed, even if they can't get in the dirt with me at the moment.  

         There are evenings when I’ve been in the dirt since I got home, and it’s almost the gloaming hour, when the sun has gone down but left everything still shimmering with a bit of light shining through and over it all, so we’re all glowing, too, people and homes and the very earth we stand in, and a breeze moves through the old Walnut tree on the corner, and the wind chimes play low and soft, and the tall stalks of flowers and grasses sway, and the dozens of fireflies, who have been waiting there, take some unseen cue from their own sense of rhythm, and all rise up at once to begin their quiet visual symphony of lights.  It is enough to break my heart, in the best of ways.  

          If you are interested in flowers and or butterfly gardens and what kinds of native flowers grow well in Michigan, and would like to see images from this garden, we have a Facebook page here, in the hopes that it might show a little of what it is to be there.  Feel free to like it, and you'll receive an image, now and again, of a flower or a butterfly in your feed.  And I would be happy to give anyone a tour of the garden or share what I can over the phone.  We only update that page every couple or few weeks, typically - we’d love it to generate interest in monarchs and nature and community and beauty.  

New Therapies Nurture 

          The style of a lifelong learner can’t ever remain the same.  And we are all students on this earth, and so we continue to blossom and unfold in this wild world full of love and loss, of holding on and letting go, of pain, and of healing.  I know how blessed I am to be able to journey together with other beings in support those things that they most want to do and to become.  I often have the honor of seeing them glow too, and it’s every bit as sweet to see as any other garden in the this whole big world filled with effort and realization.  And sometimes, that time on the table can help us to let go of things that we no longer need to carry, and I get to support truly heroic efforts to begin to release these things, overtime, opening like a baby fern (we called them fiddleheads growing up) unfurls and lengthens, where it once was curled up tight in the bud.  

         It’s absolutely no wonder that massage therapists are in the top ten most satisfied professions!  We are reminded, daily, that we are all capable of change and growth, and we get to help people feel better, and be the best versions of themselves that they can be!  And, also like the butterfly garden, that needs not only sun and rain and balance, but also the support of many - it takes a village or a team of people to make something beautiful grow; as humans, we simply weren’t meant to do all of the work alone.  

         It is five years ago on August 1, that I registered my DBA (doing business as) with the county clerk, and began to devote myself full time to the practice of massage and integrative bodywork.  Although I hadn't had to work during my thirteen month program, and had practiced and volunteered as much as I possibly could, relatively few people knew what I wished to offer.  Even then, I felt a deep willingness to commit to and to attract people to my practice who were interested in utilizing massage as a part of their ongoing self care routines, and I held space for that commitment, and that is exactly the blessing that I am grateful for today.  Because we all grow and change over time, I am always listening for new or new-to-me therapies that may be of benefit to the ever growing, ever changing souls that I continue to have the honor to support over time.  Some of these therapies I pick up as opportunities arise, either for fun (such as Indian Head Massage!) or because someone I am about to see is about to benefit from it, such as Active Isolated Stretching (Mattes’ method).  I truly believe that in any class there is always something that can be adopted or adapted, and some branches of modalities of bodywork have a nearly limitless branching out of coursework to study.  

Two Paths Diverge

          One particularly lovely branch of bodywork that provides coursework that is much more involved than others that I have seen, requires a deeper commitment to master and to become interwoven into my personal style of integrative bodywork.  And so I remain  deeply connected to Craniosacral Therapy, and find that it resonates with me spiritually, as well - breathing and meditation techniques that place our attention in the spine, sensing the cranial rhythm in stillness... more on that later.  My latest CST course was with Maggie Gill in Chicago, in Somato Emotional Release - she came all the way from Brighton, England to teach us, and she was amazing.  Funny, bright, and profoundly compassionate.  I have a feeling that I will do well to follow her in the future.  And, frankly, I'd love any excuse to see Brighton again.  I love cities with piers and Indian restaurants and amazing teachers in them.    

          Because Myofascial Release has also been a major influence in my (integrative bodywork) practice - it is in my hands and bodywork every day - and because I have completed some continuing education units/coursework with its founder, John Barnes, I feel I should mention it here, however I may only visit future MFR seminars and coursework from time to time.  I am a quick study, and have no wish to take their first three classes over again, as they have recently begun to demand of all of their students, as a way of assessing their grasp of the material.  It seems to me that there has got to be a better way of evaluating understanding and until there is, I’m not interested in spending more valuable resources (and oh so precious time) on retaking completely identical courses again, as I do not believe it will be of any significant benefit my clients.  On the contrary, when I leave to take a class, my clients have to do without me, and I have to be very particular about when and how I take time for CEU's.  This development in the MFR world has served to more deeply devote my energies to the continued study and practice of Craniosacral Therapy, and Dr. Upledger’s Institute, upon which (my research has revealed) Myofascial Release was founded.  

The Importance of Support

          With a variety of other modalities that may show up in a session, even those who see me every month or every two weeks may have opportunities, each time, to experience some new unwinding, unfolding, or blossoming/opening of energy and life-force in their own bodies as I allow my hands to be intuitively guided by their inner wisdom, and a focus on their highest good.  As difficult as it sometimes is to accept, we can let go of what no longer serves us - of we have been holding onto for a day, a week, a month, or even years.  In my experience, with support, we can do more work and with more efficacy than on our own.  Support is one of the things to which my practice is most dedicated, and I’m always happy to try new ways to support any letting go that a client is ready to do - releasing of tension, and/or of thoughts or practices that no longer serve, stepping outside of a life in order to re-enter it with a renewed and restored sense of wholeness.  I've been finding some great sources of support and I'm excited to share more as our journeys may help others, too.   

Sound Therapy: An Emergent Field 

          One of the newer therapies that my clients have been enjoying (as they are open to trying it) is a taste of Sound Therapy integrated into the beginning, middle, and/or end of their sessions.  Sound Therapy is an emerging field of stress reduction therapy that promotes profound relaxation and deep healing. As I acquire new skills and instruments under the guidance of Julie Chase (of Wind Willow Sound Health, LLC), I am witnessing not only deep healing in my own body, but in my clients.  Many of the instruments are Tibetan in origin, such as singing bowls, gantas and dorjes, and they are sacred and have viewed as such for as long as 2,000 years or more.  Other kinds of instruments, such as tuning forks and chimes, have been created with the purpose of producing different effects and benefits for our physical, mental and spiritual states of being, and I am beginning to unearth information regarding the paths of the instruments’ creations and uses, both new and old.  It is my intention to elucidate here how these instruments work, and why and how sound therapy can be used for deep healing and restoration.  

          Please feel free to stay tuned for more information about the therapies into which I am continuing to more deeply explore.  Profound physical healing through sound therapy was a major catalyst for my undertaking to learn more about it.  I will certainly share that experience soon.  And if I am inspired to bring singing bowls down to the butterfly garden, and to play them there, perhaps I will be able to report back right here what that was like.  

 Peace to you, on your journey.  Peace to me, on mine.  And may I only contribute to the highest good of the world, out of the overflow of abundant light within me.  And may you continually receive all the support and space you need to keep your cup full as well.  Namaste.