SONG #1: Movin' Right Along
Is it just my circle of friends or was last year all about the end of many relationships? Mine certainly bit the dust. And that, along with the contractions and shifts of consciousness and geological relationships, I took a deep journey into the underworld.
Whew! Thank godness for the new year!
The only thing that got me through the waves of darkness and pain that came crashing in was to use those moments of paralysis to just surrender and allow myself to simply focus on caring for myself as best I could in the moment. If that meant just consciously breathing, beautiful. Or it might mean doing a deep yoga, meditation and prayer practice.
I remember telling my mom once (who is a pray-er and a worrier) that "worry is like praying for what you don't want." I later heard Eckhart Tolle say the exact same thing, and it's TRUE. So as soon as I catch myself worrying, I take that very moment to ask my brain to wrap around a PRAYER for what I DO WANT. I BREATHE that prayer in to the place that's contracted in fear and keep doing that until the prayer resides where the worry once was.
I really resonate with the Rumi poem that ends like this:
Dance, when you're broken open.
Dance, if you've torn the bandage off.
Dance in the middle of the fighting.
Dance in your blood.
Dance, when you're perfectly free.
-- Jelaluddin Rumi (13th century)
I can't prevent the hard stuff from hitting. I can't prevent the loss. I can't prevent the chaos, but I CAN choose how I navigate it.
This blog is a (sometimes musical) documentary of my personal dance through the darkness and into the light.
Some of the things that helped me most were walks in nature.Going for walks in my neighborhood and out in nature has been a HUGE comfort. I walk on curbs to practice balance, which I feel goes directly to the energy body in the brain, uniting right and left and sync'ing spatial awareness.
I also like to snip bits of milk thistle, dandelion leaves, rosemary blossoms and other herbal edibles along the way. I clean them, eat them, and connect with the DNA of my particular patch of Mama Gaia.
I also have been really connecting with music of all sorts. The last break-up I had, there was some music that I just couldn't listen to for ages. Bjork's Vespertine would have killed me, but this time, I decided to let the music do with me what it would, and she definitely had her way with me!
I've found it therapeutic to put together a musical journey that is a representation of my path through the loss of my relationship I, at one point, thought was "the one."
Today I listened to it as I walked to my favorite oak tree to commune, and as I felt the moss and smelled the wet lichen, I was inspired to share it with you.
So, you're cordially invited to join me each week for the next 23 weeks for my SOUNDTRACK THROUGH A BREAK-UP: A Victorious LOVE Story.
Song #1 Movin' Right Along
