December 18, 2003
reconstruction
A friend I haven't seen in three years, was told by another friend that I had changed my hair. I was interested to hear her response when I told her just how much I have changed it. (On Becoming A Blonde for Spiritual Reasons.) I realize that I am really doing a major piece of reconstruction here. The body is the last part. It's also the slowest. I have been working on dedensificaton, making room between my cells so that life force energy, chi, can flow. My cells are huddled together like tellers in a bank robbery, like eskimos in an igloo, fear and chill. I want my cells to be like puppies in pile, like group hugs at the end of great workshops, warmth and comfort.
My shiatsu, chi gong tuina, practitioner helps with this project. She gives me instructions like, "Relax the back of your tongue. Make space behind your eyes. Put a balloon in your armpit. Be aware of how your diaphragm drapes under your ribcage, how it is connected to the tension in your shoulders, and, how releasing it to gravity, assists in your breathing." Frankly, I never paid attention to the spaces between my cells, but I think it's a great idea. I do consider negative space when photographing.
One of the books I'm reading ("One for my Baby" by Tony Parsons, author of "Man and Boy", alot like Nick Hornby, London lounger finds purpose) has a tai chi instructor in it, who is always admonishing the protagonist to take it slowly. My own practitioner asked me if I knew the Chinese "way". I didn't. It is: when learning something new, only give 70%. Americans give 120%, she giggles, and injure themselves.
This is the second book I've read this month that has a Chinese practioner in it. Isabelle Allende's "Daughter of Fortune" is the story of a Chilean girl and a Chinese herbalist/doctor during the California Gold Rush. Lots about Chinese medicine in the book. I gave it to the Doubter to introduce him to a few concepts. Let Isabelle do the work for me. All that information did not meet with resistance because it's a darn good yarn, and it's only fiction. It went down like a spoonful of strawberry ice cream.
My body hurts because it is armored from years of girding. It was not prepared to contain all the energy I've called through it recently. Esther Hicks, channelingAbraham , says you can never get it done, you can never get it right. If you don't like it change it. Relax.
Now that the energy is here, I have to relax my body around it. Working hard at relaxation defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Goodness, I'll just have to relax about relaxation
Posted by Dakota at December 18, 2003 09:55 PM