Reflections on the wrong side of the road ~

 The other day I popped out of the van to open a gate. I was feeling exuberant happiness as we explored new landscapes off the beaten track.  I closed the gate behind the van and my childlike delight skipped me over to climb back in.  As I moved to open the door I am shocked to see Kenneth’s face through the window.  My brain gets twisted as it rearranges it’s perception of reality. The thought “what’s he doing in my seat…why’s he in the passenger seat?” Quickly morphs to a laugh at myself. My habitual “right-side-of- the-car passenger seat” is the driver’s side here in the upside down worlds of New Zealand and Australia.

After eight months, moments of complete roadway disorientation still show up… The driver just got out of the car stopped up ahead and left his car in the middle of the road.  The driver of that car happens to be a St Bernard, or a six year old.  And that driver, who just zoomed past us, was eating something while looking at a map and going down the road at 100 kilometers per hour.   It takes just a second of shock before my brain sorts things out.

These experiences reflect back to me the beautiful way we living beings navigate through most of our life on pure automatic instinct and conditioning.  Thank goodness we don’t have to consciously control everything we do!  That would be so crazy!   But these experiences of driving on the left side of the road stir my curiosity.  What am I unconsciously doing that doesn’t serve me?  Like well worn ruts on my favorite country road it usually feels familiar and safe to follow the same route.  Going through life in the ruts is an invitation to zone out in “automatic” and go through the moment, day or an entire life, unconscious.

I never was one for always staying on the known path.  I crave change, challenge and adventure.  And I’ve discovered that change, challenge and adventure can be stirred by very simple practices. Simple, but not always easy. Practices that bring the highest quality of attention to each moment; making each moment fresh and new.

Try “radical discontinuity”.   If you usually hold your toothbrush in your right hand, try brushing your teeth holding your toothbrush in the left hand.  Eat dessert first.  Sleep on the other side of the bed.  Write with your non-dominate hand.  Stir up your neuro-pathways by doing something ordinary in an extraordinary way.

Another powerful way to stir those pathways, and get a good laugh, is by the “monkey breath”.   Bring your full breathing down to you belly. Now move your facial muscles in ways you normally never would. Really exaggerate the movements; like you were stretching your face in every embarrassing way possible.  Bug out and squint your eyes. Stretch your mouth. Be sure to include your tongue.  Throw in some monkey sounds to top things off.

Our facial expressions are directly connected to our emotional state.  Our habitual facial expressions kept triggering our familiar emotional patterns even when they are disempowering.    The next time you feel yourself getting triggered.  Or when want to make yourself more receptive as you learn something new. practice the monkey breath.  If you find yourself moving into a familiar routine during your lovemaking, try the monkey breath. Invite something new and surprising to come in.

And remember, while stirring things up, always drive safely.  Especially when you are driving on the “wrong” side of the road

~~~~~
and Hafiz says …

Leave the familiar for a while.
Let your senses and bodies stretch out
Like a welcomed season
Onto the meadow and shores and hills.

Open up to the Roof.
Make a new watermark on your excitement
And love.

Like a blooming night flower,
Bestow your vital fragrance of happiness
And giving
Upon our intimate assembly.

Change rooms in your mind for a day.

All the hemispheres in existence
Lie beside an equator
In your heart.

Greet Yourself
In your thousand other forms
As you mount the hidden tide and travel
Back home.

All the hemispheres in heaven
Are sitting around a fire
Chatting
While stitching themselves together
Into the Great Circle inside of
You

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Dolphin*Love ~ Blessing For Japan ~ Blessing For Our World

After a joyous dolphin-filled walk on the beach I was ecstatically full of vitality and exuberance. It’s astonishing  how watching the playfulness of surfing dolphins could raise my heart song to a new octave of love-vibration.   Such magnificent animals. I was wowed by the graceful beauty as they soared along the crest of the waves or flipped and jumped from what I dreamed was absolute delight.    In my fullness I turned around to see Kenneth, sitting on the beach appreciating the same dolphin show.   From out of the corner of nowhere I was overtaken by a flood of awe at this human being right in front of me.  How beautiful and miraculous we human beings are!   And I wondered, how would my life be different if I saw each human being my path crossed as magical, glorious and captivating as I saw these dolphins?

My reflections turned toward Japan;  the very different reality so many souls are experiencing there right now.  Turning my heart toward them I realized that the greatest contribution I could make, in this moment, was to offer the highest vibration of my life force to every moment and every one.  And to send that vibration of love across the miles to my Japanese family.    I felt deep gratitude for the gift the dolphins blessed me with.

Later, when I went to Facebook, I found this note from Deva Premal:

“When I woke up this morning my first waking thought was of the Japanese people and what horrors they are faced with. Thinking of how I could serve most from so far away.

The answer that came to me was: Do everything you do with even more focus on love. I want to encourage you to do the same: That we consciously dedicate every act in our daily life to love or the divine…using the disasters in Japan as a wake up call – a challenge.

Sharing love will have the same ripple effect as an earthquake..it touches everyone that we come in contact with, and encourages them to share their love, too. It is a realization that this life is too precious to waste a single moment, and to do whatever we do as a sacred act, an offering to the higher good.”

With love from us both, Deva

One of the comments to the above post was from Sandhan, one of my new friends here in Byron Bay.  She added this very simple, practical gift we can each share with Japan (and the many other place in the world that are going through crisis, loss and change):

On and off, throughout the day, please join me in doing four things:
Close your eyes.
Imagine a beam of light originating from your heart.
Direct this healing light out toward Japan and see it enveloping the whole nation.
Keep sending this beam… of Divine Love for at least sixty seconds
We CAN make a huge difference

I leave you with this version of Deva Premal & Miten’s InThe Light Of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGWAZVZG1TA

Love and dolphin blessings to you,
Sharon

God’s love letter ~

Your sexuality is god’s love letter to you, a miracle of biological engineering that could have been devised only by a mind of vast and humorous generosity, a mind that knew the pain and the sense of confinement earthly beings would feel and wanted to make sure you might always have glimpses of heaven.
— Jalaja Bonheim, Aphrodite’s Daughters

Breathing in life!

I’ve been starting my days with a mediation I learned several years ago.  The foundation of this practice originated from my dear friend, and gifted aromatherapist, Ixchel Leigh   The mediation is one of invoking the vibration of the elements into every cell of my body.   This morning I started with the denser energy of earth and worked my up to water, fire and then air;  but that’s not the order I always do this in.  I follow my guidance and each time I come to this practice it’s own form emerges with each experience having a different flavor.

Using my breath and intention  I invite the vibration of the element to infuse every cell of my body.  I stay with one element until I feel fully saturated then I move to the next element and do this same thing with it.    At first, in it’s simplicity, I didn’t expect this to be very powerful.   But extraordinary potential often lives in the simplest of things. I’ve seen that time and time again, but it still can catch me by surprise. Coming back to this elemental mediation, again and again, I have been astonished at the realization and reflections I have gathered.  I notice myself wanting to describe some of these insights to you.   But truly, my heart’s desire is for your own unique insights to reveal themselves to you in their own time and form, with no preconceived idea or expectation.   Then, I’d love for the two of us to sit together over a cup of tea and talk about what’s alive for each of us, face to face.  Meet me wherever I am and I’ll put the kettle on!

~~~If you want to add some alchemy to this practice contact Ixchel and have have her blend a personalized potion specifically for you.       http://www.ixchelleigh.com

Choosing Love

A moment of simple practice can make all the difference ….  I hope you enjoy this offering from David Deida:

“Right now, you can feel into the deepest love in your heart. You can remember someone you truly love, or you can simply feel directly into your deep heart, attending to its openness, compassion, and care. You can do this through the day. Even when something upsets you, you can choose to put your attention on your heart, and feel into the domain of love.”

This moment I choose love.  Please join me

The Rose ~Hafiz

How
did the rose
ever open its heart
and give to this world all of its beauty?

It felt the encouragement of light against its being,
otherwise we all remain too frightened.

Hafiz

Tilicho Lake

In this high place
it is as simple as this,
leave everything you know behind.

Step toward the cold surface,
say the old prayer of rough love
and open both arms.

Those who come with empty hands
will stare into the lake astonished,
there, in the cold light
reflecting pure snow,

the true shape of your own face.

~ David Whyte ~

(Where Many Rivers Meet)

Dancing With The Divine

Welcome to The StarDance ~ Sharing my reflections, inspirations and pondering on this mysterious, glorious life.

Over the years my husband and I have offered retreats & workshops called
Sacred Loving.  (You can see what we’re up to at    www.stardancertantra.com)

This blog is blossoming out of my desire to  continue that exploration of Sacred Loving and  join others in this extraordinary journey of learning about love.

“I have estimated the influence of Reason upon Love and found that it is like that of a raindrop upon the ocean, which makes one little mark upon the water’s face and disappears.” Hafiz

Blessings on your dance of love,

Sharon