Each material has its own shadow. The shadow of stone is not the same as that of a brittle autumn leaf. The shadow penetrates the material and radiates its message.
Sverre Fehn: (1924-2009)
I’ll never look at my shadow the same way again.
Light is not something vague, diffused, which is taken for granted because it is always there. The sun does not rise every day in vain.
Alberto Campo Baeza: (1946 – )
I’m grateful the earth turns giving us both night and day and the transitions between.
In the Northern hemisphere, it’s the shortest day and longest night, the time of year when we light candles and build bonfires to welcome back the light. Anthropologists believe that solstice celebrations go back at least 30,000 years which makes sense when we consider how carefully our ancestors paid attention to and honored the changing of light and movement in the skies.
Misty Hannah led Sensory Awareness today and because this time of year we are so aware of shadow and light, she worked with noticing shadows where we were, and noticing and playing with shadows we ourselves make. How deeply does a shadow penetrate? There must be light in a shadow because we see it, so notice the depths, and how it feels to let light into your eyes when the lids are up or down. It’s a day to play!
Light and Shadow in Old Mill ParkLight and Shadow in the StreamLight and Shadow in the Bay
In Sensory Awareness, we often ask ourselves or another: Have you landed?
And usually I feel how much more landing can occur, how much more “coming down” and feeling energy, movement, and exchange there can be. How present am I?
Today I’m with transitions, noticing when I walk through an entry or doorway. I pause and contemplate as I invite immersion to journey within me as I enter a new room, a new place. Moving from indoors to out, or outdoors to in, is revelatory as to integrating liquidity and solidity in space.
I try to avoid politics here but lately it seems to require even more landing as I try to digest how close Trump came to a coup, and how even now he continues to try to destroy this democracy.
From Heather Cox Richardson today:
The extremists are bolstered by former president Donald Trump, who posted on his social media platform today that the Republicans in Congress “can and must defund all aspects of Crooked Joe Biden’s weaponized Government…. This is also the last chance to defund these political prosecutions against me and other Patriots. They failed on the debt limit, but they must not fail now. Use the power of the purse and defend the Country!”
Experts say shutting down the government would not, in fact, end the former president’s legal troubles, but he is actually doing more than that here: he is trying to assert dominance over the country. As Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said: “Let’s be clear about what the former president is saying here. House Republicans should shut down the government unless the prosecutions against him are shut down. He would deny paychecks to millions of working families & devastate the US economy, all in the service of himself.”
It is for each of us to continue landing within what we know is true as destructiveness and lies dissolve in the swelling oceans of truth.
CirclingA deer in our lower yardOne planet we share
On Saturday I was with my three year old grandson and the falling leaves from a Japanese Maple tree. We stood under the tree as though it was snowing beautiful red leaves upon us, and then he lay down in the leaves and made a Leaf Angel.
As more leaves fell, I raked them into a huge pile and wrapped them all around him so just his head was out in the air. The leaves became his racecar and then it was as though he entered a peaceful place, a study in bliss, as did I.
Each of us is being sprinkled right now in the memories of this closing year as we integrate and transform, as we are integrated and transformed with what is present and past.
We learn that Ebi, the rescue greyhound, did race. She was in 15 races and won one. She wasn’t even two years old. No wonder she’s so grateful to just snuggle now. Racing dogs are kept in crates. The girl crates are on top of the boy crates.That’s their life, a crate and a chance for a sprint. That’s it.
Her name was Super C Rumor, a rather odd one. I like Ebi.
I watched the movie Awakenings last night. It was my third time, and again, like with Ebi, it leads me to wonder what is this immersive connection called life. Bella is here on the chair next to me. I’m caressed by her curled sleep of contentment, her breath.
It rained in the night and more rain comes. I feel the streambeds fill and roots reach for water to drink, cleanse, and raise. Offering abounds.
I read that this year is just like last year only this year we have toilet paper. Ah, and one can only laugh and the rain pours down, pure grace.
Today I read an article asking a writer to explore what their book is about, what was going on in their life when they wrote it, and why the reader would be interested.
I reflected on this and recognized that my book is about trusting that the universe answers when we ask. It’s a beacon, an offering.
Request; receive.
Airing Out the Fairy Tale is about touch, touching our own knowing, our own path, and winding it in and out of the landscape we inhabit and share like thread.
It’s a hand-held invitation to trust.
I thought my life was calm when I wrote the book, that this calmness was an invitation to look back but I, like others, am involved in a pattern of relationships that creates waves in the flow, so it was a dance of in and out, of then and now, all wrapped together in a gift of presence, a knowing there is only “now”.
Each moment is a request. How do I receive what comes? How do I respond in this moment and the next?
Why do I suggest you read my book? I’ve learned empathy expands through reading. We step into the life and experience of another, then differentiate and choose.
My intention is to wave a blanket over a fire sending smoke signals that communicate that you, too, can receive and fulfill what you desire.
I desire to inspire!
Honoring our interdependence, I understand that your change is mine! We intertwine.
Therefore, join me as we dive, rise, jump, and spread our wings in a circle of delight. It’s Spring, a time of birth and light.
Cathy's Blog! 