My Blog

Live your questions now ~ Rilke

Diane — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 20:31:32 GMT

Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything, live the questions now. Live your questions now, and perhaps even without knowing it, you will live along some distant day into your answers. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ I graduated my Feldenkrais training Friday. I received a diploma not in recognition of a mass of factoids now in my possession, but to charge me to go forth and live Wondering, live Questioning, live listening deeply to those beings around me. to go forth transforming fear to love. no lie -- that was what my teacher/mentor charged us to do in his commencement remarks. I look forward to all my friends' support and reminders to me along this unending road.

Felden-what?! Feldenkrais

Diane — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 04:30:42 GMT

After 4 years of disappearing for the summers, I will be a Guild Certified Feldenkrais Practitioner in *3 weeks*! I'm fired up to experiment with lots of different people, so I'll be turning to you, my friends, to be guinea pigs on my table. But more on that later. What is the Feldenkrais Method? A learning system that uses self awareness and particular movement sequences to help us relearn new, more efficient movement and break unuseful, habitual patterns. Why? Greater ease and enjoyment of all our life activities -- comfortable posture, effortless walking and standing, easy sittinging at your computer, energetic guitar playing, etc. You name it, Feldenkrais can help finesse it. These things have changed for me: ** daily low back pain has disappeared. I again enjoy my work as a massage therapist, rather than dread it. ** emotional anxiety has diminshed, as my chronic abdominal tensing released. I can think more clearly in stressful social situations. ** neck/shoulder/jaw tightness from childhood injury have softened. I no longer need chiropractic or acupuncture for it. ** creative thinking has improved, with refined ability to focus attention, or diffuse it widely as desired. I hope you will consider getting together with me for some one-on-one Feldenkrais time this fall -- it would be a great benefit and joy to me to share this method with you. Stay tuned!

Passion Begins with a Burden

Diane — Tue, 08 May 2007 16:11:52 GMT

"Passion begins with a burden and a split-second moment when you understand something like never before. That burden is on those who know. Those who don't know are at peace. Those of us who do know get disturbed and are forced to take action." ~ Wangari Maathai, the first environmentalist ever to win the Nobel Peace Prize (2004). A Kenyan woman who spent thirty years inspiring the planting of 20 million trees across Kenya and spreading the message that protecting the environment protects democracy. Via the National Council of Women, her Green Belt Movement organized women to plant trees on their farms and on school and church grounds. In December 2002, Professor Maathai was elected to parliament with an overwhelming 98% of the vote.

Fig Moves on

Diane — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:54:48 GMT

The King Known As Fig has gone on to the Big Foodbowl in the Sky. To everyone over the years who has loved him (even those who don't like cats), suffered his claws, taken care of him when I was gone -- you have my deepest gratitude. He had a wonderful life, full of fabulous friends who fed him and waited on him hand and foot. He was my constant companion for nearly 15 years and it was our friends, housemates and neighbors who gave him such a good life. After putting up for a couple years with 1) declining kidneys, 2) fusing lumbar vertebrae, 3) lung tumors, 4) sinus tumors, 5) broken fang (inoperable) and 6) FIV (yes, the kitty version) AND STILL being his usual badass self through it all, mid March it was time. Dr. Charles McKinney of All Seasons Mobile Vet Clinic came to our house to help, and all I can say is this: When the time comes, I want Dr. McKinney to put ME down! absolutely. I love Dr. McKinney, what a grand old gentleman. Kissed me on the head and called me dear. I recommend him for everything! Afterward, we swaddled Fig in a babyblanket and hiked up into the Oakland hills to bury him in a redwood grove, in a patch of sunlight with a big mossy rock and rock cairn on top. We buried him with tons of jasmine and roses and good champagne. Much much gratitude to Anton and Linda for their loving participation (and gravedigging). I can't recommend highly enough keeping your pet's body and burying them with your own hands. It very much helped me complete the process and feel good about fully taking care of my friend, fulfilling my responsibility, all the way to the last. To the wise friends who helped me make the decision to put Fig down, you were indispensible. Thank you for not letting me let him suffer any longer. In retrospect, it is clear how many signs I missed that Fig was struggling, and now I wish I had called it quits for him a month sooner. Only dear friends could lift my brain fog and help me see clearly that "killing your pet" isn't ghoulish, it is compassionate. In considering When To Do It, Uncle Mikey's words were so comforting: "Whatever you do, it will be the right thing." To Fig, who enjoyed a long life of indolence, comfort, affection and food on demand (again, thanks Uncle Mikey).

from wise beings, Kahlil Gibran via Davis Fischer

Diane — Wed, 06 Dec 2006 02:21:41 GMT

You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore. You shall be together when white wings of death scatter your days. Aye, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God. But let there be spaces in your togetherness, And let the winds of the heavens dance between you. Love one another but make not a bond of love: Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls. Fill each other's cup but drink not from one cup. Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf. Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone, Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music. Give your hearts, but not into each other's keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts. And stand together, yet not too near together: For the pillars of the temple stand apart, And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other's shadow.