In yoga, to open your body and become more flexible, you can't push into it or force it. You have to relax into it. In thinking, to open up your mind and become more flexible, you can't push into it or force it. You have to relax into it.

We can go for years without knowing we don't accept ourselves.
Then we can try for years to accept ourselves.
Then one day,
out of the blue,
the NEED to be what we are NOT vanishes.
It goes through us like an arrow.
And everything changes.

If I don't enjoy the conversation, stop it.
He has a choice to continue with a conversation I find acceptable or one I don't.
I don't need to help him deal with his stuff.
His stuff is not my business.

       .................................

For years my daughter and I experienced vardøger when my husband, Tom, was about to come home from work. We would hear his car in the lane about 10 minutes before it actually arrived. Since we never knew when he'd be finished work or arrive, this signal made it easy to shift from one activity to another during that 10 minute interval. After Tom retired, I didn't get vardøger very often and I thought maybe it wouldn't arrive again. But I heard it again the other day before he drove in. And then the next day, I heard my friend's car in the lane a little while before she was due for a visit. When it happened this second time, I set my kitchen timer for 10 minutes and then got busy with other things. When the timer went off, I looked down the lane, and there her car was, turning into the lane right at that moment.

Vardøger literally means "warning soul" in Norwegian. In "The Sense of Being Stared At", Rupert Sheldrake writes, "Typically, someone at home hears a person walking or driving up to the house, coming in and hanging up his coat. Yet nobody is there. Some ten to thirty minutes later the person really arrives to similar sounds. People get used to it. Housewives put the kettle on as the vardøger arrives, knowing that their husbands will arrive soon." Etiäinen is the Finnish version of the same thing. Like vardøger is in Norway, etiäinen is not an extraordinary phenomenon, but a common part of everyday life.

I like this. It's one of those sweet little mysteries that doesn't need to be understood or solved, just enjoyed.

Twice a year I treat myself to a weekend of yoga with Mar Jean Olson from the Esther Myers Yoga Studio. This weekend was wonderful and Mar Jean, as usual, was brilliant. In two short days I went from tight and stressed to relaxed and open. I felt like a 6 year old when I left. And with tools and ideas to bring home, maybe I can bring more of that 6 year old feeling back into my daily life. Thank you to Mar Jean, to all who attended, and to all who made this possible.

I started exploring mudrā when I found I was unconsciously adopting certain hand positions and body positions when meditating or doing other spiritual activities. And I also discovered that by adopting the postures deliberately, I could encourage specific effects. I wanted more. I wondered if my experience was anything like the experiences of others.

Turns out it was. I discovered that hand positions used in cultures far removed from each other often were similar or even the same.

Like the banishing gesture, shown above. I've seen references to it from south Asia where it has been used to ward off evil or sinful impulses. The same gesture has been used in Northern Europe to chase away wild animals. And a neighbour used it to chase a cat out of his yard.

I've just begun to explore the connections between consciousness and mudrā. I find it fascinating.

In the forest, when a dead or dying tree falls against another, the sudden weight can be stressful, even harmful. But eventually, if the standing tree does not get crushed under the weight, it adjusts and grows strong, while the one that rests against it deteriorates and finally vanishes into the forest floor.

Like my sister says, "Sometimes you just have to live long enough."

Neatorama had an article a while back about water and some of its more odd qualities. My favourite is the section on water having memory. I can not explain homeopathics or flower essences in a way that makes rational sense. But I do know that people respond to them.

link
photo: Claire Hardeman

This is funny.