It was a blustery night, the winds sweeping the temperature downwards.
Trees were hit hard, weakened by strangulating concrete at their trunks.
I stopped at a red light and was approached by a young boy, maybe 11 years old.
He wanted me to buy from the strings of scented flowers which he dangled in one hand.
I would have, but the night was done and my hair, for once, was short and left open.
Had it been up I would have wrapped the flowers around it and let their scent infuse my hair.
And so I declined.
Then Raju smiled a smile that was open and so happy. Again he whispered: Take this bud and smell it, please! He transformed the moment. He was not selling. He was not thinking of money. He was just being.
I looked at him.
He was feeling the single flower between two fingers so gently, holding it out to me.
I thought I had not heard him clearly, what he was saying was so unexpected. He repeated himself and said :Take this, smell it.
And so I did.
It was heady as I knew it would be, but not every flower smells as good.
I looked at him.
His hair was bleached by the sun and his smile was radiant and we smiled at each other while I fished for something to give him in return.
Where are you from, I asked, surprised that my heart could do a double take in that instant. I could have adopted him right then, raised him as my own.
He twinkled and the grin became even freer, almost naughty: All I know is that I sell flowers, he said chuckling, as we both noticed the light turn green.
I drove off, feeling elated. Thinking back to the rush of feeling the boy had evoked, I realised how foolishly it had transgressed our boundaries. Suddenly, I could sense that compared with his world, mine was made of walls that could imprison, and a solitariness that could eat into the soul of someone so young. Who was I to project my feelings into a future that might take Raju away from the soil that made him capable of being happy.
We had shared that happiness for a few minutes and that was all.
Raju was one of many reminders that life is about such momenta. It is about unencumbered feelings of joy that leap into one's cells.
This is the feeling that translates into a life force within us. This is the healing potion no one can recreate and bottle. That is what we all need to experience and hold on to.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Sunday, March 29, 2009
And what are the feet saying today?
The feet are a good barometer of where we are in ourselves. Explore them and you may find that there are areas of pain you didn't know existed, or patches that are warmer,and other sections that are bloated,red,or flaking.
Whatever the variations, you can be sure that your body is sending out signals in its attempt to draw your attention to things you need to focus on. It could be unresolved issues and conflicts; old traumas; too much stress, or just that you are not fulfilling what you need to do at this moment in time.
Just the other day I was working with someone and the build-up was rather acute in both the feet. Many areas really hurt.
Worrying? Not exactly, since these sorts of build ups are often an indication of stress rising to the surface.
Not surprisingly, the person went on to having a serious meltdown, (which couldn't have been much fun for anyone she was with), but the meltdown signified a release that was essential. Following the episode her feet were relaxed, yielding and much clearer. Of course, not everything was set right in one go and what persisted were only a few deeper patterns that need altering.
The wonderful thing you learn through the feet and from working with a wide variety of people, is that we are given many opportunities to turn our lives around. The question many people ask is: I know something is not quite right, but how do I know what is wrong?
The feet offer you a glimpse into yourselves. And when people journey inwards through them, they sometimes do a double take.
From being totally unmindful, and even irritated, by the niggly physical problems they might have, they suddenly switch track and plug into the language of their feet and find that they can respond first by listening, and then by acting in a way that alters things .
Almost immediately, (that is between the time they have one session and the next), the picture changes.
In the moment when this kind of shift occurs, they suddenly open up to the fact that the pain is not just physical, it's not just an organ that is complaining, it's telling them about a live issue they can be deal with! And, when they respond, they not only change something in their lives, but they also release the physical problem which can then disappear, almost mysteriously.
Can you imagine what this means?
It means that, as Carlos Casteneda once said,we should periodically, 'stop our world.' It takes that kind of pause to contemplate our lives and review things that are happening: good and bad, easy and difficult. As much as we fail to notice repetitive, destructive processes in our lives, we also fail to appreciate the empowering ones that strengthen us.
Holding stock still, is as essential as going to bed at night.
Otherwise we are just racing along and reacting in predictable ways and thereby entrenching ourselves more and more in situations that are no good to us.
That, if the language of the feet tell us anything, is the starting point of dis-ease.
The more you experience life through the feet, the more you realise that there is really no separation between our minds, our souls and our bodies. Together they make us what we are, and what we are becoming. Together they determine our state of mental, physical and emotional health.
This is why someone who does every 'right' thing may still end up dying young of cardiac arrest.
Heath is not about eternal life. It's not about evading death. It's about becoming whole and being able to deal in a much better fashion with everything that may occur in life.
I feel, after 15 years of being a reflexologist, that I am just beginning to understand how profound a master the body is.
The body is at once us, and yet it is something else as well. It has internal wisdom. It is superbly intelligent. It is a repository of all our truths. It seeks and strives at all times to help us to survive, to learn, to grow and to evolve.
And the feet?
The feet are there to help us walk through life with a confident stride.
They are like quiet soothsayers who are ever ready to tell us what kind of future we are creating. They mirror our lives. They mirror our bodies. They mirror us. They are one of the many tools nature has provided us to use as touchstones in our journey through life.
The language of the feet is powerful, clear and direct. If we care to learn this language we might come to be guided by the wisdom of the body. All we have to do is ask: And what are my feet saying today?
Whatever the variations, you can be sure that your body is sending out signals in its attempt to draw your attention to things you need to focus on. It could be unresolved issues and conflicts; old traumas; too much stress, or just that you are not fulfilling what you need to do at this moment in time.
Just the other day I was working with someone and the build-up was rather acute in both the feet. Many areas really hurt.
Worrying? Not exactly, since these sorts of build ups are often an indication of stress rising to the surface.
Not surprisingly, the person went on to having a serious meltdown, (which couldn't have been much fun for anyone she was with), but the meltdown signified a release that was essential. Following the episode her feet were relaxed, yielding and much clearer. Of course, not everything was set right in one go and what persisted were only a few deeper patterns that need altering.
The wonderful thing you learn through the feet and from working with a wide variety of people, is that we are given many opportunities to turn our lives around. The question many people ask is: I know something is not quite right, but how do I know what is wrong?
The feet offer you a glimpse into yourselves. And when people journey inwards through them, they sometimes do a double take.
From being totally unmindful, and even irritated, by the niggly physical problems they might have, they suddenly switch track and plug into the language of their feet and find that they can respond first by listening, and then by acting in a way that alters things .
Almost immediately, (that is between the time they have one session and the next), the picture changes.
In the moment when this kind of shift occurs, they suddenly open up to the fact that the pain is not just physical, it's not just an organ that is complaining, it's telling them about a live issue they can be deal with! And, when they respond, they not only change something in their lives, but they also release the physical problem which can then disappear, almost mysteriously.
Can you imagine what this means?
It means that, as Carlos Casteneda once said,we should periodically, 'stop our world.' It takes that kind of pause to contemplate our lives and review things that are happening: good and bad, easy and difficult. As much as we fail to notice repetitive, destructive processes in our lives, we also fail to appreciate the empowering ones that strengthen us.
Holding stock still, is as essential as going to bed at night.
Otherwise we are just racing along and reacting in predictable ways and thereby entrenching ourselves more and more in situations that are no good to us.
That, if the language of the feet tell us anything, is the starting point of dis-ease.
The more you experience life through the feet, the more you realise that there is really no separation between our minds, our souls and our bodies. Together they make us what we are, and what we are becoming. Together they determine our state of mental, physical and emotional health.
This is why someone who does every 'right' thing may still end up dying young of cardiac arrest.
Heath is not about eternal life. It's not about evading death. It's about becoming whole and being able to deal in a much better fashion with everything that may occur in life.
I feel, after 15 years of being a reflexologist, that I am just beginning to understand how profound a master the body is.
The body is at once us, and yet it is something else as well. It has internal wisdom. It is superbly intelligent. It is a repository of all our truths. It seeks and strives at all times to help us to survive, to learn, to grow and to evolve.
And the feet?
The feet are there to help us walk through life with a confident stride.
They are like quiet soothsayers who are ever ready to tell us what kind of future we are creating. They mirror our lives. They mirror our bodies. They mirror us. They are one of the many tools nature has provided us to use as touchstones in our journey through life.
The language of the feet is powerful, clear and direct. If we care to learn this language we might come to be guided by the wisdom of the body. All we have to do is ask: And what are my feet saying today?
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