Over the last ten years I have been a gypsy wanderer, a traveler, a medicine woman with a bag of tricks, but it was not always this way. I actually started off as a high school teacher at 20. I devoted my life to those students, taking many of them under my wing who felt abandoned by society, home, and life. I held students in my arms who had been gang banged on the weekend, comforted students when suicide befell fellow students, and sat with parents whose worry had created separation and who somehow forgot the art of speaking from the heart. I think what drove me then as now is life experience. At 14 my mother and I moved to El Paso so she could care for her mother who had breast, bone and lung cancer. It was the first time I realized life wasn't all about me. It wasn't not, but for that moment in time, I had the moment to experience that life is fleeting. My grandmother was a very special woman. I can remember my mom at her bedside. I can remember the way they drank each other in through their eyes. I can remember the first time I helped feed her. Perhaps it seems like selflessness, but really, when you love someone it is for you that you are holding their hand, every bit as much as it is for them. Because when you love someone, there will never be enough one more times. And in the end the love you imprint will have to last a life time. After she passed at the young age of 63, overwhelmed by death, I turned to drugs and alchohol. I had a near death experience at 16. My parents moved me two states away. I believe it is the knowing that love exists and the way they were there for me, pleading, talking, loving embracing that I became the teacher I did. When I got a brain tumor in my 20's I continued teaching, sometimes barely making it home and not remembering the drive. My parents relocated to live with me and when I awoke I would eat, sleep and then return to the classroom. Then I met a medicine woman and began my own journey towards health and wholeness. It was not easy. The choices I made at that time in my life were choices that made everyone who loved me cringe. I sold everything, I quit teaching, I put on a backpack and dropped myself down on the island of Kauai without a cellphone, no packing skills or experience, and trusted a divine force that led me to a shamanic burial on Big Island Hawaii. What ended that journey was a final meditaion on the island of Maui, where I received back to me all the love and care of every single family member with whom I had not communicated in almost a year. It was the time of no facebook and calls that came from me were spuratic and done in telephone booths. The choice to self heal and to separate from my tribe was for me one of the many things along the way that changed my understanding of modern day mentality. The mentality that self-realization and self-care is of primary importance. I came to see that it was this mentality that in fact had caused so much separation in our world and the dissolution of tribe. It is self-hood that brings us to our own paths in life, creativity...but truly it is what led me back to a field of service. I see people on their own paths to wholeness and I know how important it is, also, at 39, both parents having survied cancer, three grandparents having passed, one aged and 94, I realize too that in the end, we always return to tribe. Perspective being that tribal unity is what keeps the family seed alive. To care for aged ones and young ones alike. It is the circle of love that brings us back. Perhaps our parents weren't perfect, but we are alive...so the job they did was good. We are always meant to learn and unlearn on our own. But in the end, it is the love we put out that returns to us. I feel lucky to be part of a family that loves deep. We are all a little neurotic, have done one thing or another to each other, forgive, laugh, eat together and always we are family. Some have their own family, some stay to themselves, I travel...we are all our own people. In truth, it is the allowance of that allows tribes to dwell in unity. We need not give up our individuality...but knowing where we come from, our ancestry, our birth, our blood is the first step to healing in the lowest energy body, our physical body, our groundedness, our root it is where we are housed, birth and die. I saw a saying the other day, "not my monkey, not my tree." I laugh now, in this moment because for our tree...we are all each other's monkey. Different aspects of ourselves birthed in the outside world to know the truth and Mexicans do speak truth. The older I get, the more the acts of love I consider ordinary seem to others outstanding, I can't help but think, we must as a race be forgetting something. This behavior of love, care, and devotion used to be normal. I can't help but pray that after we have gone into seclusion and self-inquiry, that we remember it isn't all about the one...it is about the we, the us, the entire human race and that we give ourselves back to that truth. It is similar to the inquisitiveness that befalls my parents when in a yogic group, marveling over their love lasting from high school into their sixties. How do you do it? What is the secret? My parents, slightly confused will look at each other and then back again, it isn't because we think the other perfect, it isn't because there are not minor disagreements it is quite simple...we love each other. And many times I have seen a room go silent. And so what is love? What is the study of love? I can't help but think that love is the study of family. It is the healing of ties, the forgiving of wounds, the willingness to see each other as perfectly flawed and imperfectly trying but never giving up in the trying, in the giving, in the communicating, in the saying of I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. I trust you...such is the four tenets of the Hawaiian Kahunas. Any tribe the world over all indegenous will teach you that seed, that little bit of knowing ohana, family, aloha, love, joined circles connected by fire, and prayer services over the sick that we must stick together and if the yogic practice of being happy, content and at peace while uncomfortable doesn't apply to this...check in with India...family, mother, grandparents is what they live for and marriage is for uniting tribes. I hear alot use of the word tribe and tribal...it is a consciousness, it is a knowing and I believe in time we will come back to what it truly is. It is more than friendship. It is more than fun. To me it is the gift of having each other, to participate in the circle of life, not just in the yoga medicine worlds, but the whole world. And perhaps as we come back in contact with all people's we will round out. Help each other where we have each gone off track. Help each other unite...where we crave bliss...others crave security and is either one the truth of our existence? ...life will always be slightly rickety, there will always be a curve ball, something that switches up our practices and blindsides us with unexpectancy, and in the midst of it...may we find enough hands there to hold us up, to bring us back to center (because God knows as much as I know where I am I sometimes get dizzy) so we can find our joy, our happiness, our bliss despite situations so that the one thing that never changes is our belief that the world is a loving place, that love is all around us and God is real, acting not only for us but through us.
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When the fires blaze
my heart lights up I come back to remembering our eternal essence is not what we own. I come back to remembering Jesus who when offered a kingdom turned and walked barefoot into the desert Buddha who rejected his wealth to sit under a tree Crackling they endure the heat and I recall the medicines and people who sit in jungles watching the Amazon fall to the ground and facing extinction everyday they pray for us The shamans wife in the Sierras of Mexico does sell her peyote to visit doctors who give her medicine to heal the illness caused by Coca-cola has found the remote villages and history repeats itself in Modelo beer drunken with need for money that cannot be eaten The seed is the kernal that gives life to the people I pray those speaking medicine remember we are here to pray for Earth and humanity and can we step away from our own photos to pray for the wisdom of the ages spreads out as land and sky desert storm clouds rain down many waters spilling blooming sage amid red rocks and scrub brush The sky is infinity vastness overhead horses etched cliffsides sound thunderous gallops pressing forward lazer sharp focus center points internal compass due south seaside Huichotle sweat lodges merge Navajo-Dineh spirits intertwined stories unravel all this land is home: Long ago a young woman held truth in her heart preached it from the pulpits and missed the miracle of Jesus working in her and through her she walked where she was led stood at vistas on Cathedrals pounding a grandfather drum without a song opening her heart she passed through her fears to run up walls stood steady on legs the Goddess route altars of tantric love unionized on rock heads pelvis vulva clitoris making love all at once they touch and pulse life into being we are all born of this earth and will return to its steady still center everything we have will go but the love experiences of service we give to those without money God's divine presence is not for sale It is ours grateful to be guided to ancestral lands whose horror and anger gives way to waves that rush and pulse surrender I will fight no more forever Aging I wear no costume play no games for time now unfolds the grandmothers said... None of this was for sale now I do know what commerce has taken our humanity our fragility our vulnerability to be flawed to cry to speak an unpopular truth we grin and bear that spiritual sanctuaries have created more emptiness Where praises were sung to honor God we raise ourselves up hierarchically crushing the little children who need a knee and sell them hugs for a dollar to feed coconut cravings festival addictions have become highly exaggerated version of self competing egos for the prize of the most spiritual goes no longer to the crone with rosary beads praying privately for her family but to the young beautiful and rich who sell you guru and hold back friendship-- for how can we charge for what used to be free even elders sell tipi but I remember when we came together to eat-sing-play-dance I remember when friendship became sales's gimmicks and struggling for money we crawled begging our way Back to the Kings and Queens of the New Age Movement Royalty in the making we have created a parallel structure of successfully spiritual and abundant Flyers, cards, costumes, and websites Deny God Claiming self as Creator... No longer part or particle I drop to one knee in the desert Humbly remember the ones who have come before me and pray to know another way lineage passes on this: We are now asleep sitting together and shining only our bliss we neglect to use our privilege, health as candles lighting the way Awaken in dark places we look and find humanity huddled together without fanfare authentic like the stars remembering it is all about time spent together Love shared is the presence of God Sacred commerce has become another rat race with flowers of life, crystals, hoola hoops, fire and drugs lots of them to elevate the experience and make us believe We are in ceremony communion with the Divine Mother whose breast has run dry and fires rage in small towns we cry what is lost Remember the value of friends when we had nothing we stood together in embrace that is free God is with us all along the way reminding us that love is the only thing that matters it is how we are here and the struggle is the birth canal to our first primal yelp this existence will be a cycle of emptying and filling and no matter what comes in we will all shit it out and cry our hearts out to be loved--have attention--affection--praise Connection to our Mother in utero we were cared for and magically formed Into this land is a beautiful woman and do we plant and water her until she blooms or bulldoze her counting money and profits raping the one who gives unconditionally to dole out a chunk and dig up ancestral finds of outer space origins a knife to stab us in our own hearts Living this life as if this is all there is or looking towards eternal bliss in oneness we are all here now divided only by our stories projections entitled blissed truly insecure and vulnerable we are only human and dependent upon this planet She will go on the endless sky and stars do tell us things burn out civilizations dissolve water runs out no plastic bottle can be filled with what has dried and do we now frack and infect our supplies for moneys and addictions squandering the future with toxic fumes and GMO strains cancerous dumps of fertilizers to feed the masses who do not plant seeds who do not have land to grow Laws are broken with the hope of freedom and still we are enslaved to serfdom working what is not ours in due season we reap what we sow spraying dandelions and then taking pharmaceuticals for kidneys-livers-bladders- passing stones and beverages made with sugar rots our teeth mercury our brains We have given our food supply and organic practices over to corporations who are now the doorway to the apothecaries must sell the rights to herbs to be bought and I remember when the silent scream unfurled inside myself that the one had become a million in every far reaches of land we have sold ourselves and become slaves to our master brands bringing our talents our voices our hearts our vision to make others millions and trade amongst ourselves playing cool kids at 40 competing ticks of the trade Trimming our intrinsic value declining everyday we sit for chocolate All our thoughts and ideas wired into a handheld device that tracks us to sell us what is already ours in yoga postures, stretch pants We forget yogis in loin cloths sat in caves praying for Universal peace they gave over their egos and served Our spirits now one with the new god-- money is energy that propels things forward we stream grabbing for that which is temporary and Our souls of faith crave peace that comes only in union with God who makes the sun to rise the waves to cycle with Goddess moon Someday we will join the particles of our life to the one now here and when that essence dissipates into God will it pray land trees flowers hope children and God itself back into being or perpetuate the concrete poison and technology that is our cancer may we learn to fear the cause more than the disease and turn our focus back to health color music dance slow time dance in the breeze in trees to childrens laughter---and my heart beseeches everyone: Come together honor our partners safegaurd our lineage that is family forgive the separateness bring us back to the one realization that can save us beyond dreaming beyond hallucinations let us be in the world and on the earth humans reaching out to our grandmothers slowing down to one breath one look that says I am here for you and Yes--young ones-- I am greying despite all my practices, prayers, travels, medicines, service, love, joy, bliss willingness to shadow to cry to scream to panic to not know what to do if all this beauty love humanity is lost in a cloud be it fire, peace pipe, or solar flare The time to break free of our addictons and escape from behind fences to which we have been fleeing separating people in open spaces Find freedom from people who sell you eternal youth and your own authenticity Walk your truth in cities at home with your aged parents and true friends hold you in times of loss nurture yourself wholey rested return to the work You've given your life over to the work is for others to lift them up to give hope where it has left Pray remembrance life into death experience miracles and Not to sell people God but to guide them so that God is in them around them moving them and one person at a time We will re-fill be fulfilled. Reconnect remember: Our human race healing our Mother and preserving our children for generations to come. I recently sat in a tipi ceremony where the prayer was for a man desiring to become a healer. Its a good prayer. He now works with trees. The greatest nation of teachers there are. I sat and listened to advice and pathways, watched as he filtered it all back to the fire giving thanks to the Creator for allowing him this moment to continue with his transformation. I said little by way of advice, remembering all the words I have listened to over the years about certifications, classes and trainings and I realize, the true path of a healer comes when humility and confidence merge together into one.
If anyone were to ask me where to start, my answer is with faith. With putting your life in the hands of God and proving that you believe there is a force greater than yourself guiding you because it is the height of arrogance to ever think we actually know what is best for anyone. I have had the privilege to sit and witness the prayerful receptivity of people who have cancer, releasing of traumas and accidents in stories and I have also be a witness to people who are so deeply identified with their stories of pain, suffering and wounding that I have chosen to be merely an observer, allowing them their path, however long they wish it to be. For the work of faith is a personal one, it is internal, and I do know I can not take a person anywhere they are afraid to go. I grew up believing in Jesus and the benign force of a Creator whose miracle worker representative responded to a blind man who approached him saying, "if you just want to make me well, I will be healed" by reaching out and placing his hands on the eyes of this man and saying, "I want to." I have the story of his compassion and kindness emblazoned upon my deep consciousness and also, the willingness of the people approaching him to believe. I have a belief that is validated and confirmed for me by my experience. I have experienced spontaneous instantaneous miracles when as a 28 year old my pituitary tumor came out my nose from, of all things, a spiritual experience (Shamanic Burial) confirmed by MRI to have healed my gland of its imbalance and the chaos it was wrecking upon my vision and my endocrine system. And I sink into that space of knowing that healing, true to the bones, cellular altering healing, happens both ways. It is both the responsibility of the giver and receiver to accept that change is possible, not at a mental level where we tell stories and dictate timelines, but in our bones. True willing to be broken-hearted willing to press forward and know beyond all expectation beyond all the things people have to say in fear, beyond all the seeds any doctor has planted that you are now in a new body experiences new things and to accept with a state of wonder that you are not the same soul, spirit, mind or body. to give the outcome over to God...even if it means disappointment...that to me is the greatest act of faith. To live as though the miracle has happened, to live as though you have been given a new lease on life, to leave off the fear to follow your heart, to allow space for it to be true...that is the healing that is hope...and where there is hope, there is life. Now or in dreams to come. I know people will read this and have many experiences to share of people who are faithful whose bodies did succumb to illness, I have my own. I have also seen where paradigms have moved people whose metastasized grapefruit sized tumors have become gelatinous and quarter sized to go through with mastectomy and to this I say, "Thank God for modern medicine, thank God for internal guidance systems, thank God for all things." And perhaps I have been challenged with being too idealistic, or too much of a dreamer, but that is my personal magic. It is what leads me to have the faith to let go of one life and leave for another where uncountable miracles take place and blessings are experienced, but I am not naive enough to say all people should follow this path of not knowing of passing through the void of money, home, friends, health and future in a belief that things can change at any moment in time, not because of anything I say or do, but because I do know there is a force greater than all of us that has set the sun rising and setting so that everyday can be brand new, the stars at night to guide us back to the light no matter how lost we may feel, and dreams to keep us from giving up when all things seem lost. During some of my travels through conspiracies and wandering for 12 hours a day not knowing where I would sleep, I came to realize the greatest medicine we can ever give to ourselves and to the next generation is to remember things the way we would like them to be, not the way we fear they are. There is a way to balance our worries about our bodies or the future of the planet, there is a way to bring those things of the dark into the light and then bless them for their teachings on balance, on simplicity, on organic, on natural, on Earth medicine, on rejecting GMO, on not ingesting poisons and chemicals, and there is a place of knowing were are miraculous adaptable organisms who have somehow managed to survive. Will we survive as a human race? Can we return to mental health? Can we remember ourselves whole and complete? Can we remember love, forgiveness, and drop our boundaries that have become walls that block us from human contact and healing our relations? Can we come back to community? Can we leave off technology that gives us the impression we are connected and actually lift our heads to see who is here with us now and to be present in the moment they are? Can we learn that discernment is different than judgement? Can we come back to believing in things of the light like devotion, integrity, care-taking for the old and poor? Can we come back to balance and not forget that we will age, we will grow old, we will die and what will our legacy to the next generation be? Will we teach them to see the sickness and death or will be teach them how to focus on the fire, the light, the potentiality within each of us to instantaneously transform and allow our bodies and relations to be healthy? Two of the first teachings I learned in the tipi ceremonies were: You (as in the spirit essence, the unalterable God core in each cell...YOU) are as perfect today as the day you were born. You can choose to walk out the door and leave all everything behind, walking into the world in a state of wonder...that everything, everything has changed. And in that moment of hopelessness within me or others, when people ask how...I am naive enough to smile at the most horrendous of things. I am willing to stake my future and life on the belief that there is a force in control of this chaos and surrender my fear to look people in the eyes who don't understand, even when I also do not understand and say GOD. How will it transform? How will it heal? I don't know, but I surrender everything all belief all thoughts all actions over to this one intelligence and imagine miracles are real, miracles are possible. The retreat I am organizing right now is basesd on journals I have been writing since the age of 7. Journals that have moved from mere observations into how I have been taught to transform my fears and worries (and all words and thoughts are prayers) into prayers of healing, manifesting. That if we can not change anything else, if all seems lost, how can we turn our thoughts because in the end, it is the way we feel about our life, our experiences and others that will heal everything else...one love breath word at a time. And I turn from shadow work to light work, that I can choose to break through now and behave as one who has all my prayers answered, meaning one who is happy, healthy and abundant. I ask, what does Zonia who is happy, healthy and abundant do? She grabs hold of people now, she openly loves, dances, and believes. She takes care of her grandmother and smiles about it. She does her yoga, tells God thank you when all her housing has fallen away and packs her car up for the road, not because of what has been lost, but because of what she is looking forward to enjoying. There have been enough experiences now that I know something beautiful is coming. That is I can bypass regrets I can right now, today, in this moment act as one who is blessed. Because no matter what is happening, I do know I am blessed because I am here. Somehow despite my father stepping on a landmine in Vietnam, somehow despite my ancestors being surrounded by genocides, crossing oceans, somehow the greatest miracle of all has happened today...I am here. The sun is shining. The birds are singing. And I take the time today, to thank God for all the reasons I have to be grateful. Thank you to each and everyone of you for sharing this life with me and for believing in and trusting the love between us no matter how much time or space may pass between us...I bless you. I bless our relation. I bless our lives and pray for all of us a bright and happy future filled with miracles that are working for you. This is the Eighth Sign: "You will see many youth, who wear their hair long like my people, come and join the tribal nations, to learn their ways and wisdom...."
The Hopi spoke of a time, which is now, that we would see the forces of light procreating and expanding their consciousness to all beings. In this, I have been lucky enough these last two weeks to make friends with both an 8 year old and a 9 year old. The amount of widom they have been transmuting to me as we run through golden fields and sit at banks of rivers eating wild mint has been the healing my heart has been waiting for over the years I have departed from public high school. What I have experienced in their presence is the keen ability to walk between worlds without vascilating. To be in their presence is to feel the deep connection they have, not only to the spirit world, but also the Earth. They are both Earth Child and Star Child living with parents and surrounded by people who are both prayerful and soulfully living in harmony with Earth. Yesterday, I arrived on the land of friends to have a 9 year old approach me in absolute confidence. "I need your help." "Okay...what is it you need help with?" " I am preparing a ceremony and I have been told to gather cattails." It was so matter of fact that I had no doubt as to the truth of both her claims: She was is fact being guided by outside forces and surely, they were teaching her how to pray with the Earth, not only for herself, but for all people. Of course, I put on my jacket and hat to walk over the three hills that led to the marsh where the cattails grew. I saw her deliberately pick out the cattails and give thanks for their life. As the sun began to fade for the day she returned and disappeared into the trees on her property. Moments later she reappeared, sneaking me into the trees and away from the group in which I was gathered...we emerged in the midst of stripped cattails, fluffy like dandelion seeds, piled high into the sky like a snowy mountain. Breathless for a moment, I felt wonder enter into my being and fill my head with possibilities...and light spread across my face in a smile. When I looked at the bottom of the billowy hill, I saw a young boy like a wizard, covered in cattails, laughing and smiling joyously as he motioned with his hands to the sky, from his heart to the hill, and finally from the earth up his legs and again to the sky. I looked at my new friend, shiny eyed and smiling back at me, isn't it beautiful? she asked. I quietly whispered...yes...yes...and yes. More of these moments have been gifted to me as I let go of the past and sink into the dreams and visions of my friend the 8 year old. She grabs my hand and asks me...do you want to race to the mailbox? Yeah! And away we run. Returning she points to a fence that leads to a pasture...come with me, she invites. I look down at my sari Haloween costume complete with petticoat...awww...I will get stuck on the barbed wire. She looks at me. Grabs me with both hands. Stares me in the eyes and says with all her heart. I've got you...no matter what...I am here for you. And I believe her...so that seconds later I am stepping through an 8 inch gap with yards of material and indeed she did have me. She brushes aside blackberry bushes and then smiles at me as we see the last rays of the sun peeping over tree tops and spilling like gold onto the yellow cow pasture. Isn't it beautiful, she asks me. Yes. I answer again. Yes. Yes. Let's run she says as she extends her palm to touch mine and away we run to investigate fairy houses and mint patches...to discover skulls and leap over cow patties until joy is running me. She teaches me to swing under the big walnut tree and we laugh taking turns and inviting the 10 year old standing by to try. All three of us...present in this moment. Still in our gratitude. And the golden light of humanity at peace with each other, the Earth, and taking the time for these sacred simple moments wherein the Creator makes self known beams through the faces of these Rainbow, Crystal, now peaceable Indigo. And I see the rainbow of possibilities this new generation extend in their smiles, in the light issuing from their eyes...I see the effect of being soulfully raised in healthy human bodies. I see their open hearts, their natural connections, and feel the vibration of harmony as they show me what an integrated 8 octave being truly is. They show me what it is to be whole and holy. They show me what it is to let go of stories and identities. They show me what it is to be one with all life. It is pure...like the youth who hold my hands and pray earth...it is humble. And I give thanks for my new little teachers and their wisdom that is deeper than my grandmothers...because it is stretching forward into the dream of perfect and perfectability that lie inherent in each one of us...in each beautiful moment...each day...each gift of breath...may we all praise Jah with gratitude of heart and the stillness of divine presence will fill us... I sit in the midst of the cedar trees, realizing as I do that it is an answer to prayers uttered in El Paso, Texas one month ago. "Please Creator, let me be with my greatest love in the cedar trees." In my heart, medicine ways and cedar trees are one in the same. I collect the leaves wherever I am, a little bag that carries my heartbeat filled with cedar leaves from Washington, Lake Tahoe, Haleakela, Prescott, India, and Ruidoso. To carry the cedar, is to carry all of the people and places in my heart from the many places I visit. To find the cedar tree wherever I stand, is to reaffirm that no matter where or for what we stand we are still a human being with our two feet upon the Mother Earth.
It is with profound reverence for the Mother that medicine ways preserve our connection to the elements of land, water, breath, and fire opening our hearts and removing the blocks of story and experience holding us back from entering into our joy in divine presence. To give ourselves over to ceremony then, we are giving ourselves over in service to the Mother to accomplish her will that we live in peace and right relation, not only with ourselves and each other but with all beings seen and unseen. To allow ourselves to be moved bodily in the direction of our greatest healings and face the pains in real life that are in need of healing so we can move forward into the future without the wounds of the past. Over the years, I have come to realize that the situation and relationships that arise out of this soul commitment and willingness are often times beyond my wildest imaginings for what a human can and should endure, at least according to modern day paradigms of isolation, cutting cords, and exiling the past into some distant and irreconcilable story. For me, my idealism has led me to believe in web of heart cords and forever love that encircles and protects the planet, giving rise to the Goddess as Mother and allowing her to compassionately transform all beings through love and forgiveness. When people speak of the heart and the cords which bind us to the past, I think upon and consider that if the cords which bind me to the totality of my experience are the web of life that activates the healing potential of all beings then, surely I have the responsibility to bring to light the lessons I have learned in gratitude for the ways they have shaped me in the world I live, not only for myself but for all of existence and in service healing Universal Consciousness, especially in regard to relationship. All of my ex's are my best friends. I have come to see them as a bridge to other facets of myself and in order to love myself whole, I have determined to make peace with my past selves as represented by those I have loved the most. To bless their life, is to bless my own. To open my heart cord to the healing of their lives and the blessing of their new loves, is to allow the prayers they say for me to stream towards me...for they have been, not only my best friends, but also my teachers. When I began down these medicine ways, I sat up in tipi with a group of people who had been sitting and praying together for over 20 years. During that time, many lives had changed, babies born and tragedy endured and still, they sat together, ex lovers, wives, and friends...remembering that beyond the circumstance there is truth and beyond truth there is love...and they all continued on their path...for the children. I remember the 4 song sets of some...that took me on a journey through the pain, anger, to the joy and finally into peace. Through the song of their life, I have come to realize that the healing of all relations begins within...where we hold, heal and forgive love for asking us to continue to rise up in courage...for asking us to grow...for asking us to choose God and his will, even when the situation seems impossible...it is...otherwise we would not be asked to live our prayers...another way of saying walk the talk. Show up for yourself, show up for God...show up for each other and keep choosing life...keep dreaming love...and let that vibration flow with the ringing of the cedars. I awoke this morning with a sense of joy bubbling up in ways I wasn't expecting.
It started this week after weeks of meandering back in time to where I came from both spirit and ancestral, the deconstruction period back to the original seed I am supposed to carry forward. Having retrieved the seed, I knew the next phase was following the trail back to my little self, I call her Zoniacita, and helping her bloom the seed. I prayed with tenderness and humor, "Please, God, teach me how to open and heal my cora-zonicita. I just want her to feel whatever she needs to in order to be authentically happy again. I identify my recurring pattern and do now heal the glitch in my brain that is circling over and over again and giving me a mental disease. Treat me like I am dumb, Creator, and make it really simple to see and understand....because right now, I think I might be retarded." Truth was...that lost in the roles I live day in and day out...I hadn't done the one thing I really needed to do. Cry...It reminded me of the scene in Always with Richard Dreyfuss and Holly Hunter. She goes by a river...one scene shows her balling her eyes out alone. The next clip she is happy and smiling. No one knew but her. It is cathartic and waters flowing are life cleansing the heart. Anyways, I cried...a lot...it was pathetic. I even laughed at myself a bit. Side effects of crying a lot where people see you...fear. My parents got upset... I told them people pay me to cry with them...did you know it is so hard to find a place to cry in the world that people have to pay for it? If this is my home...please let me cry. I am not broken. All tears aren't sadness and they aren't a sign of weakness. My tenderness is my greatest strength. Hold your space. Don't commiserate. Just let me heal myself whole and put all my pieces together because it has been so long since I had the time and room to do it. When I hold space for people. I reflect to them that I know they are strong. I reflect to them they will receive whatever they need. I reflect to them that no matter where they have to go, I will remember them happy. And magic happens they let themselves feel into their own answers and divine connections. So, my parents let me. They let go of the control. They let go and so did I. They stopped seeing me as broken and I stopped having to act like feelings are a tragic flaw. I breathed into my heart cords...all of them...felt all the joys, sorrows and sadnesses and pains and laughter and losses and longing and came back to the one thing that mattered....the love. I wanted to keep my connections to those people and places in times when they were the healthiest. No matter the outcome. My focus became the dream and my emotion all gratitude for the many experiences I have imprinted upon my soul... And then there was the biggest cord of all...the one I heard voices telling me to breathe into as if my life depended on it...because it did. So I took it seriously and took my deepest breaths day after day into the spot on my chest where my hands rested in peace and I realized the cord was to myself. The first thought I had was...I like tatoos. I laughed when I started with that one. My parents hate tatoos. I grew up with them pointing at tatooed kids and saying, "Bah...look at that...." And I did. But with my own eyes...with my ears I heard..."Wow...look at that :)" It was the best moment of the week, the differentiation phase and the re-experiencing of my individuality. It started me laughing. I kept repeating it...I like tatoos. I dyed my hair...Thank God it washes out...I don't like it...but...I did it because I wanted to and I remembered the many phases I went through growing up...red streaks, bleached bangs. I woke up this morning..."I'm a rock star." Not only was my hair black, I was aware of my tatoos and realizing that I had a once in a blue moon hangover. Very funny, Zonia. I giggled. Wow...I haven't done that since my 20's and of all places at an Opera fund raiser that was anything but proper with 4 twenty somethings and a couple of 40-50 somethings...all together laughing...It was so fun. They all had known each other for so long no topic was off limits, feeling intrinsically loved and accepted they giggled at their foibles and as I got folded into my unlikely tribe of artists and musicians, I blossomed. I love artists and musicians...they get the medicine ways. Live from your heart. Of course you live that free way...I play violin for a living...Isn't it cool to do what you love? Yeah. It's cool. I get to teach yoga and do massage all over. I get to plant seeds and visit my family all around the world. I get to spend most of the day praying and practicing...and I always get to say yes when people need someone to talk to...lunch at the park...yes, please...and by the way...thank you...I needed that too. People ask me what I am going to do when I grow up...I am grown up, that's why I do what I want and, by the way, this is what I do...and for the last time you got sick and I did it for you....you are welcome. And most importantly...to myself...Its nice to see you again, not in your roles or your practice...but in your heart. And yes, self...I apologize for trying to change you. You are perfect exactly as you are. I promise to stay close to you...because the closer I am to you...the closer I am to God. And God, thank you for all my lessons. Thank you for everything I was asked to give up and sit in a room by myself with no distractions for the past two months praying and doing yoga to look at myself and take responsibility for the ways I had to come back into alignment with my center in order to gain my fluidity...kinda like doing yoga on my friend's pirate ship in Sausalito...but only in life...like living from the still center, but dancing with the flow... Thank you God for my cousins, nephews, brother, parents, and friends....for taking me to do things I would never have chosen to do myself. Turns out I can shoot a bull's eye with a pistol...just call me Annie Oakley and with ear plugs...I don't mind screamo that much....I also like throwing a baseball. Thank you for all the crazy radio stations I have been browsing. Interesting to note, I have just realized I I actually like Christian Rock, Rap and Techno, and Spanish ballads and...yes, those genres have really awful renditions...so bad they are funny. Thank you for integrating me whole so that I realize I am complete. That I like my company and that love is everywhere....partnership can wait...I am falling in love with myself again. Self, in practice of loving my next partner as a whole integrated self-directed connected to God soulful being, I allow myself to treat me with the same kind of respect I should give another being. I give myself the space to unfold, blossom and become everyday. I don't judge myself, I forgive myself, and I trust my desires will be in right relation to the direction of Source energy, Mother Earth, and the Medicine of my Heart. I am not just a healer, I am also healing and I can take my own medicine. Right now, the medicine I need for balance is to love myself and remember who little "I am" is. I am sure that along the road I will also need the medicine of "collective it isn't all about me" too, so I will remember to take my medicine then too. For now, I practice this..."whatever the hell I damn want"...medicine. I give myself permission to listen to my body and eat whatever I want and sometimes not eat at all...because I trust myself and know that I love to be healthy...I am not going to make a bad choice. I give myself permission to go outside barefoot and get dirt all over me because I like it....and if I don't want to take a shower everyday...I won't. And if a totally dorky dance song comes on that makes me happy, I am going to turn it up and dance in the car in traffic because the today when I did it...the people in the cars around me got happy and laughed, waving at me and saying, "It's nice to see someone happy." Yeah! Because I like the way it feels. I don't need to change. I am as perfect today as the day I was born and I was born to do this....it's easy...I was born to be me. Isn't that Lady Gaga? Bless her song writing soul...so true. The journey from the ancestors back to the self is a winding road looping through the spiral staircase of our genetic codes. To unleash and remember where this body came from and its experiences as a total whole now manifested as the being sent forward from original seed is to send roots down deep into the center of Earth and access memories held in store for the time when we would need it most.
But we are not only body...we are spirit and not bound by lineage, stories or time. To journey to the truth of that self we must diverge from the set course of those who would never have traveled the many roads and belief systems to the soul seed that remembers we are far more than our Earthly attachments. We are far more than our ancestors, religions, and our parents' visions for our life. We are part of a Universal whole that is bound to all beings seen and unseen, in this galaxy and far beyond our knowing. Connection is our primary purpose in being born. Yoga's union in action beyond the mat. The connection with the original indigenous seeds who would remember how to live in harmony with the planet and hold space for all the beings planet wide and in the mist of generational separation. This requires a contraction into the past and a remembrance of why and how the ancestors submitted to this multi-generational life cycle of evolution and creation. The connection with the star nation is the coming of full circle back to our selves. It is the original blueprint manifesting in order for us to evolve from animal to soul. Star nation remembers itself as a human form and the many experiences that cause suffering, they however know that in the end the way we have expanded and added to Universal Consciousness is the most important journey of all. The circle and cycle as it was originally implanted by Source. Man made is linear...nature is circular. Though we may not truly understand the concept of time and the omnipotence of a creative force that can hold together the thread of past present and future under the umbrella of NOWness, we can begin to grasp time, not as one who is looking at the scales of a snake through a hole in the fence, but one who is looking at time from a wider perspective and seeing the snake that has brought us all here as eating its own tail. When star nation and earth tribe unite, we have a prismatic color spectrum that unites all people, beliefs, and systems into a rainbow of possibilities. We can choose to see that moment when the prism strikes and alignment is possible as the VOID but truly it is the place of conception where everything is born. It is the still breath when sperm meets egg...it is the moment when the cells begin to divide into the orginal 8 cells of humanity. 8 cells. 8 chakra. A complete whole human being in harmony with spirit. Are we in harmony with spirit? The only way to know is if we are in harmony with love for all beings, not just ourselves. This is the tenet of right relations. That we begin to think not only of our own freedom, but of the generations to come. That we are willing to be uncomfortable and release ourselves from attachments of all sorts in order to allow places, people and events to come into alignment with Universal order. In the energy system of the chakras, the heart is the uniting force that guides us to understand where we came from so we don't make the same mistakes again and also so we can preserve the very things people of the past were willing to die for and manifest through course of action and will. That I do speak often of my ancestors and their stories, I also have guiding me my unborn children. I know not if they will ever manifest on the physical plane, but I see them in dreams playing in a field under a giant oak tree. This week as I visited the gravesites of my ancestors, I joined a force greater than myself that is love and Earth combined in wisdom with my life experience as a travelling medicine person. I have gone against many spiritual beliefs of both my parents, been willing to face my fears and let go of things I held true and valued, I have made medicine teas and sat in sacred circle and I remember two tenets that are not to be broken in ceremony. Never let anyone get between you and the fire. Never let anyone get between you and the medicine. They are two separate tenets. One is the relationship with the fire, God, eternity, your soul...when we say not to let anything get in between you and the fire, it means not even yourself. Get out of the way and let the fire do its work on you. At every part of the ceremony there is something else happening. As we pass through the time of darkness, when we are away from the sun, that is when we are shown the things of our heart that are making ourselves and connections, and we are all connected, sick. IF we are to rid ourselves of the disease of the HUMAN collective mind, we must look at the places in our lives where we must right actions and take responsibility for the words, thoughts, prayers, and ideas that cause imbalance in a world of excess and consumerism, however love driven and honestly innocent the intentions were. Sometimes...we are wrong. Do we trust the inextinguishable Source of all things and allow that being to move us in the direction we must travel to heal, not only ourselves but the collective connection to Source as One Medicine Wheel for all peoples, not just the ones in the tipi, and certainly not just for the stone we are. The other is you and your personal medicine of your heart. It is expansive and free. It speaks truth, sings it, lives it, prays it and moves us in the direction of our dreams. It cures dis-ease born of sadness, shame, fear, and isolation. It opens us to the possibility of joy, courage, celebration and connection. It views us as the source of either great happiness or sadness. It teaches us how to open and where. As the sun begins its route back to morning, we are purified by the fire, we are then born-again as divine beings who can trust our hearts to be good and know that if we get off track we are willing to change. Humility mixed with supreme confidence in our heart's guidance system. The roots of a tree...in relation to the Sun. Father Sky illumination and shining a light on the dark places of ourselves where we have forgotten to look. Mother Earth, blessings and perfectibility of bliss. Standing in two worlds...star nation and earth seed. Living in two consciousnesses, Father Sky and Mother Earth. Brought together in one little being who is both spirit and ancestor, you. To be of this current generation, we are flowing along on an ocean of consciousness that requires we root and ground down, but it also demands that we learn how to fly free. It is for us then to honor the teachings of both worlds. The world of technology harnessing not dominating the codes of nature. It is the empowerment and celebratory essence of rainbow tribe festival people rooted with the experience and wisdom of tribal heart cords. I am grateful that I did not grow up in the land of my ancestors, because my ways have flourished to encompass and understand the mountain people of India and the Islamic on their knees, as well as the Christians on pilgrimages in front of crosses, and the Hawaiians with their stones. I have seen God in every place and detail of all peoples. I honor the ways of others as well as the way of my tribe. Passed down in stories, I know my great great great grandmother Maggie who massaged and realigned bones is with me in sessions the same way I know my heart cords have the power to tell me when to come home because I can hear the heart prayer of my parents needing help while care-taking for my 99 year old grandfather. Living on the land in Maui and loving the bliss of my life, it is a cord stronger than my own experience. It is the same cord that stood me to attention to be at the bedside of my dear cousin as she miscarried at 3 months so I could hold her son Christian in my hands until he grew still. All of this without even a phone call. These are the defining moments of my life, every bit as much as the tapestry of the travels I have taken on my own. To be sure I will never forget the hillside in Ulapalakua where I watched the sun set for months, nor will I forget the sound of birds chirping at my window while I worked and lived in the jungle of Huelo. It is in my blood to honor my relations, but it is also a part of my youth and joy to dance 5 rhythms in Nevada City with my friend Mike who wears a big tye-dye shirt and for me to bathe naked in the hot springs on Big Sur Coast. I know who I am from the roots of my tree to every branch and leaf. I know who I must become, like the hawk that soars through the sky. And though I force myself to look in the face of the beliefs of others to know where it is they are learning love, I can not deny the essence of myself that has brought me home, or the one that will lead me to the land where I see flowers. There will be many times in my life that will draw me home to El Paso where I learn to let go of my youth, but there are so many more that will draw me forward to live life to the fullest now and forever young. May we all honor the medicine within, make peace with those who have disconnected us from it, and give reverence to the medicine without...reaching for the stars and beyond the limitations of the potential we have been gifted. A living scale of balance, aware enough to know when we need more for ourselves and when we need more for others. It is the balance between red tantra and white. It is the love that binds it all together at the center...where our own essence lives...and only we can ever know that. Two weeks ago I began not only performing newly channeled ceremonies on others, but also on myself. Not sure how they would affect me or my life, I began anyways. First with The Roses, a ceremony designed to heal ancestral connections and sexual wounds. I then proceeded on to The Sun, a ceremony designed to help tap into personal strength...then The Forest, which connects us like children to our place as a collective whole on Earth...and finally, The Moon, a ceremony to connect with the Divine Mother and be guided by unseen forces.
Though I would not have performed all these ceremonies on any ONE person and certainly not all in one week, I did perform them one right after another on myself. Each day I performed it on myself...the next couple of days someone would come along who needed that exact ceremony. And so I proceeded, allowing the energy to increase and all the while watching with an observing mind. As my ceremonies transitioned, so did my yoga practice. At times I had the insatiable need to run and at times the energy ran through the night, I would awaken with the thought "I am dying" and I would assure myself..."it's ok, you agreed to it." I continued to reaffirm that I was willing to let all patterns and belief systems that were blocking me to genuine connection and guidance from the highest source to die away from me. I wasn't sure where my practice was going but I was determined to change...I kept moving and my backbends were deeper, my lunges stronger, my practice seemed never ending...continuously I was drawn back to my mat. One fine day, just before performing The Moon, I received a message of pain that rang through my back like a bolt of lightening...slow down...it said. It was so powerful a lesson that I had no choice but to listen immediately. I dropped to my knees and asked to put my awareness on the place of my greatest pain. When I did, I realized that I had actually been moving so fast and letting go of so much that I was not in healing mode...I was in a healing crisis. It was at this moment that I decided to video tape myself doing yoga. Viewing myself as a student and now taking the teacher role, I saw that my feet and hands were not activated on the mat, my hips were out of alignment, my right leg shorter than my left, my right shoulder was twisting forward, I was lifting my hip into side bends, and, yes, voice in my head...I was not breathing my spine slowly to its full extent, I was using my muscle and power to create change. Somehow I had moved from co-creator to creator and I was not allowing myself to be guided to the greatest places of healing by the breath of life that knows me more intimately than my mind ever could. Thank goodness for the divine reflection, a mirror to me of what was happening inside reflected on the outside on video. I performed The Moon directly after this and was rewarded with a deep stillness and peace that pervaded my every cell. It came to me in the night like sparkle dust on my chest and ignited love memories of all the moments for which I am grateful. They floated through me and returned me to my breath. The thoughts and voices that had been driving me for weeks to push harder, faster now encouraged me to lay still and just breathe. I started over again, the same way I started doing yoga 10 years ago after my accident. I focused on my feet. I spread my toes and felt into my hastabhanda, RE-membering what it symbolizes I breathed my awareness into the center of my joined feet and said, "I choose to live a life in right relation to the Earth. Please, guide my feet." I stepped one step and took a deep breath through my pain. I came down to my knees and bowed down saying, "I give myself over to the divine consciousness and allow myself to be moved to the greatest place of my healing." I came up onto my hands and knees and breathed into my hands and said, "I give my hands over to you for the healing of others. Please teach me how to give and receive in balance." I sat with my legs extended in front of me and focused on my heels. I felt the right leg lengthen and I breathed into my right side. "Please, help me to balance the male and female within myself. I forgive all relationships and take responsibility for the way they have turned out. I allow myself now to be guided to understand what right relation is." I took a seated side bend and opened my chest, now attentive to my sits bones instead of depth, I felt my torso lengthen and lift out of my hip. "Surrendering myself to the medicine of my heart." And I felt the throbbing of my uterus...and breathed healing energy into my own sacred space. Twice a day I did 6 postures. It took me 2 hours. In the meantime, my life unfolded in visions of the El Paso landscapes, the place of my birth, I started painting, teaching yoga as slowly as I performed it, doing healing work, aware of my feet and letting go of my muscles so the energy flowed through me, not to me and, finally, the week ended at the gravesites of my grandparents...all of them...5 generations back...and I let go of dreams associated with paradigms I do not believe in from my core. As my body came back into alignment, my heart came back to the center. From the center of my core I felt the medicine of my heart and know that though I am not my grandmother and will not live in a kitchen passing salt, there are other ways of giving in little ways that all day long say "I love you." Though I am not everyday walking the small steps with my grandmother to the bathroom, I do know that I get to through my aunts and uncles who are serving their mother in the same ways she served them. I am also not the same woman, who I love and admire for her strength, who gave 50 years to a man who came and went when he pleased had other children with other women and left her to care for 7. I see the trials and tribulations of the women of my family who gave their power over life and their sacred space to men who didn't appreciate or love them until they were gone. My grandfather who kept my grandmother's memory alive 20 years after she passed, never loved and appreciated her so much as when she was gone. I honor the women of my lineage for their strength and I add my freedom from religious doctrines that bound them to situations they would not leave. I honor the women of my lineage for the forgiving hearts, and add to it the example of my father, who has never strayed, who has loved my mother since they were in high school, and who everyday teaches me what a man of honor is. To be sure, I do not know where my practice of the last two weeks will lead me, but I am grateful that it has returned me to center and aligned me with my path as a medicine woman., who sits in the strength of her sacred space, holds ceremony, and realizes the power she receives is from the Earth, and even the Mother Earth knows she needs the sun to give life, and life, it is a gift to us from the dead, and they watch over us in the stillness of dreams uttered by children yet unborn but remembering us as their grandmother who stood for the medicine that we pass forward. I am grateful to yoga, for the union of my mind-heart with my body. Thank you for the connection of the present with the past and future. May I ever acknowledge all the stories that created me and slowly learn to unwind the wounds of the past so I can soar into the unknown blessed future. Harnessing the love of the Goddess for the healing of all beings. Mother/Father this is not for self, but that I may serve your little children:
I honor the deep love medicine of my ancestors and accept my role in preserving its lineage through sacred service to the divine mother and the consciousness that connects all being through our hearts to the Earth. May our humanity shine in our interactions with all beings, lifting them up to a higher vibration of being and the healing energy that belongs to the innocence of God's children. May we walk in our souls and spirits caring deeply for the seed of potential implanted within all of us to embody metaphorically the consciousness of conception born from union between Earth and Sky. To create a life, flesh and blood, and imbue it with spirit. Giving birth to family, helping us pray our lives and heal family relations. By living in right relation, I strive to heal our past wounds with father and mother to be born again whole and holy connected to God, the Father, and add to the beauty of our Goddess, the Mother, by living in harmony with the land and my brothers and sisters. I no longer harness energy from others, but rather connect to the inexhaustible source that is life's potential, the singularity. Together with my brothers and sisters, we are growing as a family in awareness of our actions, consecrating our lives over to the Creator, source of life energy within and without, to do with our lives what is needed to fulfill the divine's will. Living happily within the freedom granted to the children of the divine, while still humbly giving it over for the healing of all beings seen and unseen, past and still present, becoming part of a whole, living as a tribe united as one by THE Mother and Father. I add my stone to the wheel and see the seed of God potential inside of me, joining with the seed potential inside all beings to bring back God WHOLE, dancing, singing, loving, opening that breathing presence into the world. I also open myself to the knowing of the ancestors, now one with the divine and able to communicate the experience of their life through the prayer of my life. Thank you, Grandmother. Thank you, Grandfather. For the wisdom of the ages and the knowing within my DNA codes, your life stories and the righting of your own ways through me. May those things you wish to have done differently manifest in my life, now perfected through the experience of generations and my own personal experience of the modern age. May we remember our birth, our Earth and let our life praises ring. I pray to the Goddess and thank her for the continuance of life on this planet and the lives of those who came before me. May I honor them through my choices and continue to heal my genealogy, preserving the medicine of connection and love, for future generations. Ahomitakoyasin |
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