Bubbles

The hot spring pool was peaceful right then. Other times it's raucous with laughter or roiling with political discussion. But this was a quiet moment, empty of people except for my beloved and me. We merged into the silence of mountain meadow and trees. A benign, juvenile bull snake sniffed the air from under his rock on the shore, wiggling his tongue to taste for the scent of stray spiders or worms to satisfy his seemingly insatiable appetite.

As I lounged, the warm water and sun joined to envelope me in a welcoming womb. I was lulled, in a voluptuous gestation. This amniotic world clothed my submerged, bare skin with uncountable numbers of tiny bubbles, as though I were studded with glass beads. The tiniest of rainbows spilled from the co-mingling of light with water and gas. This delicate aura scintillated and titillated my senses.

My feet lazily danced with some long velvety moss fronds, which languorously swayed from the sides of some larger boulders. I noticed new gas bubbles were being released from the pebbled bottom of the pool. Some stroked my leg along their way as they surfaced. Mmmmm. I liked that feeling. I waited for more. Bubbles gently tickled their way up my calf. They skirted along the skin of my thighs. They softly bumped against my labia. Others circled the curves of my breasts as they moved upward, inexorably upward. After awhile, my nervous system was fully awakened by these bubble caresses. Mmmmm. I liked that feeling.

This is one piece from my new book, REUNION WITH MOTHER NATURE, available from www.wisewomanhood.webs.com or amazon.

Crying for My Country & My People

I’m crying now. Crying for my country and my people. Crying because although this is supposed to be a democracy, when poll after poll show that the overwhelming majority of the citizens are asking for shared sacrifice to bring our economy back into balance, the minority wealthy, who control the majority of the money, still get by without shouldering their share of the burden.

The facts are all there plain to see—how tax rates have gone down dramatically for the wealthy since Ronald Reagan’s administration; how jobs are increasingly outsourced to other countries; how corporations have won more and more rights to influence elections; how the wealth of our country is becoming more and more divided along the lines of third world countries, with a wealthy elite and a lower empoverished class.

This cannot go on.

The media (= wealthy class owned propaganda) generally avoids the issue of class in our country, unless it is to make accusations of “class war”. Yes, it is a class war. The wealthy class is winning.
As the middle class is squeezed until it is no longer in the middle but down in the bottom, our economy becomes more and more like Greece and less like the land of promise that so many people have looked to for inspiration and abundance. We soon won’t have an immigration problem; it’s already dwindling due to our economy. We will have an emigration problem as the bright and skilled move to other places where they can have a better life.

The slide downward will accelerate unless we can convince those in power that it is worthwhile for them to keep a middle class in this country. What will convince?

NTM Issue Two: the Greening of End of Life

Natural Transitions Magazine Issue 2:

Issue 2: Greening End of Life - Summer 2011

By Natural Transitions Magazine in Health & Fitness

Interview with eco-journalist, Mark Harris, author of Grave Matters. How to reduce the ecological impact of the dying and disposition process. Comparing the eco-friendliness of various methods of after death care. The ultimate recycling- organ/tissue and whole body donation. And More!

~BREATHE~

As part of my on-going process of maintaining my awareness and health, I am renewing my focus on my breathing. Breathing is an interface in our bodily functions between our conscious mind and our physiology.

By observing our breathing, we can gauge our stress level – am I barely breathing; taking full, relaxed breaths; or chest breathing in an activated way?

We can also increase or decrease our activation level through breathing in consciously chosen patterns. Simply breathe into the belly, through an open mouth, to cool and relax. It’s like a gentle massage to the adrenals, telling them they can relax now. If you need to relax in the winter or coolness, just switch to breathing through nostrils. Breathe into the chest, through the nostrils, to activate. This kind of breathing turns on your adrenals and says, Let’s Go.

Reintroducing alternate nostril breathing into my routine showed me how much I am pushing myself lately. I noticed that I was forcing the breath in and out ever so slightly, using more muscles than necessary. As I relaxed, the breath began flowing in and out on its own and that’s when I could tell how tense I was before the shift.

Generally, it is best to let the air move naturally. Air will naturally flow back into the lungs to fill the vacuum from the exhale and when the lungs are done with the air in them, there’s a natural letting go of it to empty again. Observing this natural in and out, give and take is a simple, yet powerful meditation. It’s a reminder of letting go, and letting the air breathe you.

Alternate nostril breathing helps balance the solar and lunar energies in our mind and body and is best for meditating and calming the mind.

The right nostril is heating and the left is cooling. We naturally alternate predominantly using left and right nostrils every few hours throughout the day and night.

The right, heating nostril is helpful for digestion. Making sure this nostril is open before eating can help in that direction. If you need to complete digestion while lying down, lay on your left side, to open your right nostril.

The lunar, left and cooling nostril is helpful to relax and sleep. Try lying on your right side, to open the left nostril when you want to relax.

A more intensive use of breath that you might explore is pranayama, or control of prana (vital energy). It is one of the eight classic limbs of yoga. Pranayama includes many practices that can profoundly affect your physiology and consciousness, so it’s important that you have a local teacher who can guide you to use the proper techniques for you at any given time. What’s best to use can shift with the seasons and your own condition.A pranayama teacher should be using the practices long-term, on a regular basis themselves, not only taken a class or workshop on it. Look for an Ayurveda practitioner or yoga teacher to help you with this.

Enjoy your breath—it’s free and freeing.

Why I Love the U S of A

Some people might think that because I question and criticize my government that I don’t love my country. Well, they are totally wrong.
The U S of A was founded by such questioning and critique-ing. That’s part of why I love the U S of A.
Our forebearers created this democratic republic as an alternative to monarchy. It is a great, on-going experiment and an inspiration to many others around the world. Yes, if I am appointed to the Supreme Court, I will promote the Living Constitution viewpoint, which says that the framers of that groundbreaking document created a government that develops with the times, not an archaic document to hold us to the words and world of the 18th century. That’s part of what I love about the U S of A.
But a government is NOT a country. I love this land that is the home of this country as well as my birthplace. Yes, it was stolen from the Native people and paid for with the blood of immigrants as well as Natives. Its beauty and worth is so great that it inspires my heart to soar when I open my eyes and look upon those parts unspoiled by our human need and greed.
And the people inspire me as well. So many from every corner of the globe have come here with the hope of a better life—including my grandparents and great grandparents. Freedom. Prosperity. Peace. These dreams have not always been fulfilled in a life time but as long as we hold to them, they lift us up as individuals and as a nation when we move towards them. The creative energy of the U S of A lives through these dreams.
Those dreams are stitched into our red, white, and blue flag, the stars that guide us onward. Those who have died or given up limbs for those dreams are the soldiers, but also the factory workers, miners, and astronauts who fuel our dreams with their labors. Keeping our country great requires the dream and the hard work, the beauty and the struggle of critiques.
Celebrate this Independence Day by remembering the dream and doing what you can to move it forward.

Birth is an inherently female, feminine process.

Through the ages woman alone has given birth. It is only in the modern age, with the gaze of science turned upon her that Birth has been taken into the masculine realm of measurement, logic and engineering. It has been reduced to “Stages of Labor, ” “Progress or Lack of Progress”, and “Labor Management.” Reduced to “Home Like” labor rooms and Pain relief. It has been usurped as "Artificial Reproductive Technologies."

Birth is a transformation—what is created within is revealed to the world. The woman moves from physiological inner mothering in pregnancy to outer, more deliberate mothering postpartum. The separation begins that leads on to an independent adult. The stamp of culture is imprinted on this adult, beginning with Pregnancy, but most emphatically with Birth.

It’s time to deliberately recreate the Birth Matrix – reweave the rich fabric of the creative process that is birth into the mantle of womanhood, replacing the thin uniform of the hospital gown.

Through my work as a midwife and mystic the threads of this reweaving have been revealed to me by birthing women, the community of midwives and the inspiration of the Feminine in Her many guises. I wish to share them with you so that we can knit together that which has been unraveled by generations of lost woman-knowledge.

A Croning Uterus

This very moment my uterus is shrinking. So slowly to be imperceptible, yet, yes. She is declining in her size. No longer fertile on a physical plane, her energy is becoming more subtle and fluid. The wisewoman nectar that is not lost in blood each month returns, instead, returns to enhance my ability to give birth to myself, be it through words, works of art, planting my garden, cooking for my family, or gentle, peaceful caress.

Sometimes this transformation heats me with its flame. The physical is slowly consumed and the subtle is expanding, billowing. Will it kill me? Will I eventually disappear in this blaze? Of course. Yet what a fire works display I might reveal in the meanwhile.

Create I must and carefully choose it--elsewise that nectar can as equally create a sour and bitter old lady, regretful of the past, depressed in the present and empty of future. Just as I chose to give birth or abort my physical babies I now must take responsibility for this creative power on an even deeper level. Yes, I must continue to choose.

A Well Positioned Uterus is Happier & Healthier

I cant' stop smiling because I just learned some incredible, additional techniques to help move a retroverted uterus forward.

While most MDs say a "tipped uterus" is a normal variation, looking at the anatomy of the situation leads to different conclusions. In the 19th century MDs believed otherwise. Then they tried everything to get those uteri back into place.However, they didn't find anything that worked, so now they just say it's normal.

Just because something is COMMON doesn't mean that it is HEALTHY. I believe that many "female complaints" are related to a malpositioned uterus. I personally experienced relief from menstrual cramps and the end of brownish blood at the beginning and end of my period after Maya Abdominal Therapy. Many other women have as well.

In the Maya culture, the womb is the center of a woman's well being. If a woman or a girl-child falls or otherwise jars her body, she goes to have the village midwife or masseuse to replace the womb where she belongs to avert later problems with mentruation, fertility, pregnancy or menopause. In our culture, a car accident and jarring sports are two common ways the uterus can be moved.

One time the uterus is vulnerable to movement is just before and at the beginning of menstruation. At this time the womb is actually twice a heavy and larger, due to engorgement preparing it for a possible pregnancy. (Compare the red "uterus" to the pink one in the photo.) It reduces again with the menstrual flow and hormonal changes. Any jarring during this time is even more likely to cause malpositioning. No wonder it is so normal to have a uterus out of place in our culture today! Most women don't slow down with menses, even though most feel their bodies pulling them in that direction.

After childbirth, the uterus shrinks back to the size of a fist from the size of a small watermelon. The ligaments that hold the uterus suspended in the pelvis have stretched and grown. Postpartum is a vulnerable time for the uterus to become malpositioned.

You may have heard of a woman who always had menstrual cramps before having a baby, and then didn't, afterwards--- or visa versa, having post baby cramps when she didn't pre baby. This is because the uterus can flop around in that space until the muscles and tissues return to the prepregnancy state. In traditional cultures, women would wrap their bellies to support their organs postpartum and avoid this problem.

A post partum check in to be sure the uterus has gone back after the changes of pregnancy can prevent problems with menstruation or future conception.

Now that you understand the importance of a well positioned uterus, please seek a Maya Abdominal Therapist if your uterus is out of place. I can help you if you are in the Boulder area, or go to www.arvigotherapy.com to find a listing of practitioners.

Have a happy uterus!

Body-Soul Recycle

See how my body eagerly droops earthward as I age?
It rushes to pay back
the sun- the soil - the rain-
all that it’s borrowed these many years of eating and breathing.
My final breath will be an exhale.
Do not deny me, then, the joy of feeding a rose bush with my abandoned flesh & bones
after ages of plucking petals to celebrate beauty & strength .

When my soul finally flies into the Big Bang of Death,
Leaving behind this food body in gratitude to Mother Earth,
Remember
Both,
Yes,
Both holy trajectories.

For Holy Week-The Christ I Know and Love

It’s tricky. Am I a Christian? I seek to be like Jesus, in becoming one with God. He translated the Power & Glory of God into earthly Love & Healing, even raising the dead, to demonstrate this connection. The Christ in Jesus lives inside of me, inside of everyone. Christ is waiting to be unleashed from the blockage of ego patterns. I experienced the Christ once in a dream. The Power of Light Shining simultaneously from outside and inside my soul. The feeling of Union- of love so great it passed any understanding. I experienced the Christ in my life. A series of events opened up my being to the sense of Light, streaming through me. The Light wasn’t barren but full of Life, full of Love. I only wanted to praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow! I had stated my willingness to open to the Light inside of me, to serve God, the ever good. And then my heart burst with light, with joy, with gratitude, realizing all the Greatness of God. I was meditating without closing my eyes. I was praising God in every breath. Somehow this experience became covered up again. I hope for it to return. So I do not experience Christ as someone else dying and raising from the dead and thereby, saving me from my sins, as defined by the church. I experience Christ as a living power within, who shows me how to connect with God. Christ cheers me on, as, through grace and effort, I rise up from the tomb of the ego and become fully alive. Then that Light shines through as expressions of love, gratitude, service, praise, prayer and glorification of God. Christ Lives in me and you. Glory to Mother Father God in the Highest. In this way I am a Christian. And a Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and pagan.

My New Baby

Natural Transitions Magazine Issue 1: Issue 1 - Home funerals - Spring 2011

Premier issue of Natural Transitions Magazine focuses on Home Funerals. First person stories. Funerals in Ghana. Minnesota reclaims families' rights. Joanna Macy interview and story or her husband's death and home funeral. Strange and Unusual facts about death.

The Ultimate Face Lift

Any woman (and maybe even man) of- a- certain- age has looked into the mirror and noticed those little saddlebags forming just northeast and northwest of her chin. Wondering what it would look like if I did a little facelift, I’ve pulled up a bit on each side to smooth the chin to cheek line again. Yes! I’ve shed a decade!

I’m highly unlikely to ever submit to a knife or even chemical, or electrical treatments to keep that smoother look. There is an Ayurveda massage of the face which we teasingly call an “Ayurvedic Face Lift.” It is soothing to the mind and relaxing to the face, massaging energy points for rejuvenation and massaging that jaw line upward. I give others this treatment, but haven’t had one myself for years. It might help.

Meanwhile, I have discovered the ultimate face lift—smiling. When I smile, I can see that it pulls up those saddlebags into my cheeks to make a full, happy face. And smiling doesn’t only lift my face—it lifts me and those I smile at. I feel younger when I smile, as well as look younger.

So experiment—see how much younger YOU look by exercising your smiling muscles in a happy dance more often during the day.