In deep winter, darkness appears still and dormant, but listen closely and you will hear sounds of seeds germinating in the frozen ground, complete flowers secretly stored behind the seed’s husk. In darkness, nature finds rest, rejuvenation, and nourishment for the work of growing. Under the surface, there is invisible activity doing the essential preparation for the next step in the cycle of life.

There is also the darkness in the soul’s deep interior. Many cultures have a bone lady or skeleton woman myth. She is a woman who fell into the sea, her flesh eaten away by the sea creatures until she was nothing but bones. After a long time, a man found her and despite his fear, began to drum and care for her bones. As he drummed, she cried. Her tears and his drumbeat put flesh on her bones and returned her to vitality and love.

When bone lady comes into your life, she strips you to your core and carries away all but the essential. In time, your heart’s drumbeat ultimately calls you to dance and emerge with renewed vitality, singing as Barbara McAffee sings:

Every time I go into the darkness, I return with fistfuls of jewels.

The journey into the shadows of the soul while often painful is essential for it prepares you for your next step in life.

It is from wrestling the shadows that you become more human, more humble. Educator and activist Parker Palmer gives this beautiful reason:

Because as we do so, we will meet the darkness that we carry within ourselves—the ultimate source of the shadows that we project onto other people. If we do not understand that the enemy is within, we will find a thousand ways of making someone “out there” into the enemy, becoming (people) who oppress rather than liberate others.

In the darkness, we germinate the seeds of our lives, our creative children and dreams, and give them the nourishment needed for growth.

Fire of Letting Go
What do you need to let go of at this time? Embrace the bone lady. Ask her and the fire to take what no longer serves you. Bless the darkness and thank it for holding the seeds of your dreams.

Light

Winter solstice marks the longest night of the year. From this point on, days grow longer, second by second, minute by minute. Before, people lived more in harmony with the natural cycles of day and night, summer and winter. While some people still celebrate solstice, anticipating and reveling in the return of the sun, in a world made bright with lamps and streetlights, it’s easy to miss such an event.

Though we may skip over the astronomical event called solstice, we still feel a deep need to commemorate the turning of the seasons and mark a new beginning. And so we celebrate the New Year.

New Year’s Eve is a time for celebration and a time many people create New Years resolutions. Resolutions that often fade as the months march on. This year, instead of setting resolutions, set intentions.

Resolutions often focus on fixing something. They tend to feel set and definitive. Intentions are visualizations of how you want to be. They feel purposeful and help guide the mind. A resolution to “lose weight” becomes an intention to “feel fit and energetic”.

Even more, intentions tap into the universal energy of intent. Carlos Castaneda describes:

Intent is a force that exists in the universe. When sorcerers (those who live of the Source) beckon intent, it comes to them and sets up the path for attainment…

A Mary Oliver poem begins, “’Make of yourself a light,’ said the Buddha, before he died. ”. The light the Buddha speaks of is the Source of intent. The real you is that divine spark, the inner light that nourishes the seeds within your soul’s soil.

This year, create intentions to ignite the seeds you’ve been nourishing in the darkness. Be like the earth growing in radiance as she moves closer the sun. As you harness the power of intent and live according to your ever brightening radiance, the seeds that hold the potential of your dreams—like those that hold the potential of a pine tree or a blade of grass, will ignite with life and grow.

Fire of Intention
What do you want to bring into your life and the world at this time? How can you be of service? Ask the fire to connect you to the power of intent and ignite your dreams.

Giving to the World Visualization
Visualize a golden light within you and spread it out. First to those about you—your friends and relatives—and then gradually to the whole world—including all of nature.

Copyright ©, 2009 by Laura D’Ambrosio

A little background for those unfamiliar with TTouch. TTouch is a system of gentle circular touches, lifts and slides that works at the cellular level to activate the body’s potential. The intent of the TTouch is to activate the function of the cells and awaken cellular intelligence. Linda describes it as lighting up the cells and reminding the body of its perfection. Scientific studies show a significant shift in brainwave patterns to an “awakened mind state” when a person or animal gives or receives TTouch. This mental state is one that enhances intuition, creativity and insight and can only happen when the body is fully relaxed.

Back to the story. On the second day of the workshop, Linda had the group stand, shut our eyes and shift our weight. She wanted us to be more aware of our bodies’ inner structure. “Feel your skeleton,” she encouraged. I shut my eyes, swayed a bit, and visualized my bones – I pictured the huge femur connecting my hips and knees, my ribs moving slightly with each breath, my skull and jaw. I’m often aware of my muscles and ligaments, especially when I need to release the tension I hold in them but I’d not contemplated my bones like this before.

I sat back on my chair and remained acutely aware of being a skeleton supported by muscles and covered by skin. “Amazing,” I thought to myself. Linda was talking about a new topic but my focus stayed inward. As I basked in my skeletal awareness, I thought more about each bone being a community of cells. How magnificent! But if each bone is a collection of cells, then so is every muscle holding onto a bone.  So too my liver, my skin and my stomach – each one a community of cells.

As my awareness shifted to the cellular level of my body, I felt awe at the miracle that is my body. I clenched and extended my fingers, I swallowed, I took a deep breath, I shifted in my seat with acute consciousness of the brains’ signals, the nerves firing and the movement happening. Gratitude flowed through me and I sent silent thanks to these communities. I sent a special thanks to my liver for clearing all the toxins I consumed for so many years without appreciation for its thankless cleansing. I could feel a warm response rise from within. Odd but gratifying.

Then I remembered Linda talking about how cells communicate with light and I saw, or rather felt, it’s hard to describe, the light glowing in the gaps, permeating my body and expanding beyond my physical body. Light streamed in from above into my head and from below into my feet. Bliss crept in to join gratitude and I didn’t move, didn’t think, not wanting this feeling to stop.

As if that wasn’t enough, as I gazed at the circle of people, I saw each person glowing, with light flowing from above and below. And I saw that we are not self-contained individual units. Our lights blend with one another and more gloriously with the room itself, the earth and beyond. For a timeless moment, I felt oneness and the pure joy and love that is the essence of the oneness.

Linda was talking about a new TTouch as I reentered the workshop. I had no idea how long that experience lasted. The blissful feeling of oneness dialed down to happiness, the acute awareness of the cellular communities faded but I remained alert to my bones for the rest of the day.

As I write this a few months later, I find I can easily snap into awareness of my bones and organs.  And with a little effort, I can sense the communities of cells and the cellular communication. I would like to constantly tap into in that blissful oneness but while I can visualize the picture, the feeling remains elusive. Isn’t that the goal of enlightenment though? If I get there, I’ll let you know. I’m just grateful for the moment I had and to Linda for creating the possibility.

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Call me for help with barking, pulling, anxiety and other pet problems or if you want to experience the joy of TTouch for yourself.

I’m doing animal case studies for the TTouch certification program now, and am happy to work with your animal for free. After October, I’ll be a TTouch Practioner-In-Training and can take on clients as well as deliver talks about TTouch.

For more information on TTouch and Linda Tellington-Jones, go to www.ttouch.com

On Newport Beach after a long day with a client, my brain boiled with questions and worries. I walked slowly, my head down. As each wave curled over the sand and snuck back into the sea, sandpipers skittered at the edge of the foam and little bubbles popped on the wet sand. The bubbles are the trail of live seashells burrowing back into the cool, moist sand to avoid being washed out to sea or drying out on the surface. Maybe they are also frantically avoiding the long beaks of the sandpipers.

I paused, the frigid Pacific bathing my feet as my shoulders sought the sun’s warmth. The boiling questions about my dwindling retirement account, the desert dry business climate, family agonies, and my own future slowed a little, just enough for my poetic mind to fire. “There’s got to be some big, hairy, philosophical meaning here. Some spiritual lesson I’m supposed to learn.” I took a deep breath.

Maybe I could talk about how each of us needs the dark, moist times of our lives to grow. Or maybe I could dig into the idea of cycles and circles, rhythms and flows, fear and safety. Analogies and clichés even the tired old “bury your head in the sand” floated in my mind. I pondered but no one theme stood out. I almost gave up and gave into frustration. I started to walk again, then I got it. There is no overarching spiritual meaning, no philosophical analogy to be found, no deep human lessons, at least not that day. The meaning is simply the sun warming my skin, the sea critters doing what they do every moment, the sea rolling and crashing on the beach, the gulls and pelicans hunting. The meaning is that, sometimes, it’s just a nice day.

I smiled and kept walking.

We have a stalled economy. Social media proliferation. Speed of communication.  Downsizing that feels permanent. Foreclosures. Stress. Depression even. We need new skills in this world. New ways to live if we want to live more fully. New ways to make a living. These are the seven skills I think we need to navigate the new world we find ourselves in:

1. Learn critical financial skills. Create a budget. Know about mortgages and refinances. Reduce expenses. Figure out how to share.
2. Understand the ways social media, blogging and new technologies can help you. Learn how to use them, if not for you, to keep up with your kids.
3. If you are not healthy, you can’t cope as easily. So go for a walk and stretch and eat your veggies.
4. Speaking of food, learn how to cook and grow your own veggies. It tastes better, costs less and can be more fun than going out. And weeding counts as exercise.
5. Spend time with family and friends. Learn who your neighbors are and have people over for a potluck meal.
6. Cultivate hope and inspiration. It’s different for everyone but find time to look at the stars, feel the breeze, be in silence, laugh, play with a puppy. Whatever feeds your soul.
7. Help others. It’s amazing how wonderful it feels to do even the smallest kindness for others.

As my old familiar life burns away, I practice these skills, knowing that new opportunities, maybe better ones await. As my friend said in a comment, “Barn burned; now I can see the stars.”

That line pops like a refrain into my mind often these days as I navigate this wobbly economy and watch others try their best to stay on track with life. Many doors slammed closed for many people as investment accounts shrink, jobs disappear, and industries teeter on the brink of extinction. The doors of my consulting practice developing learning programs and helping companies manage change slammed shut time and time again in recent months. But I continued to rush to the next door or knock on all the old doors again only to find them tightly shut.

Then I thought about Maria and the Reverend Mother from The Sound of Music and started wondering, “If all my doors are closed, then where are the open windows?” I asked myself questions designed to help me find some windows.

• What do I love to do?
• What gives meaning to my life?
• What skills do I have to offer?
• What can I give others?
• What am I interested in?

My answers led me to start this blog and to create workshops and tools to guide people through this crazy time, a time full of change, a time when we need to learn new ways to work, a time when we need inspiration to keep us going, and a time when sometimes, all we need is someone to listen as we sort it all out.