Going out of orbit

I attended my feng shui teacher's annual workshop on the weekend, and for once, I have to say I was not impressed. This is a 'big thing', really, because I have always been impressed with her. Even if she smiles I'm impressed! you know what I mean?

So I am left with this disappointment deep within. This kind of 'end of an era' feeling,............ which on the flipside of the crap critism and guilt and feelings of loss, actually reminds me that new things are therefore coming in. So it's all ok really.....really.

My lovely teacher has been the source of so many inspirations. She emits an 'inspirational field', and I just love her for it. This year she is 'going global' as she puts it. Publishing a holistic feng shui book and distributing a detox product from a global business. Nothing upsetting me at all about any of that, but she did not put as much into this workshop and she overbooked it, so we all missed out on that small intimate connection you get with a dozen people and a teacher.

(covens, Jesus and apostles kind of thing)

The analogy that clearly came up in my mind was of a bright shining comet that we all love to gaze at and that fills us with 'big' thoughts and wonder, then it night by night fades and continues on it's orbit. It's not gone but we just won't get the benefits of watching and wondering anymore,..for a very long time anyway.

She's often been told that her spirit self is 'galactic'. More than one metaphysical interpreter has let her know she is from another star galaxy of this universe. And you know, usually I 'smile and nod' at people when they say this, not because I don't believe them, but because no-one can prove otherwise, and I'm ok with it. (be from another galaxy! see if I care!) With her though, there is just this otherness that so clashes with the human you see before you, and the warmth she has, and the flaws she has.

Ah anyway. End of an era. Bye bye, stay in touch, keep sending me inspiration from my memories. *sigh*

Integrity, and fame, 'n'stuff.....

Just read this on one of my emails this morning and thought it represented the kind of integrity that attracts me to certain people....

"[Coltrane contemporary and jazz musician] Dave Liebman expands the thought: " 'What stays with me about the Coltrane Quartet is an image of them getting up on the bandstand ... completely burning for two hours without a word to anybody, getting off the stage and sitting down like any other person. Not having an entourage around them or anything. Then doing it again, with unpretentiousness, absolute honesty and matter-of-factness. ... I still try to live up to that image: to do your work, to do it intensely, with conviction, and be honest with the music."Ashley Kahn, A Love Supreme, Penguin, 2002, pp. 66, 210.

It's very similar to the way I was amazed by Deva and Mitten and their unannounced entry to the 'stage'. I wish I would have waited back and given them both a big hug, like I would to anyone giving me a mantra session.... :)

Deva Premal in Brisbane 17.01.07

That was just so full on, and wonderful, and uplifting, and quietning, and calming, and nourishing.

Deva Premal concerts are unlike anything ever experienced before.

From the end of the first little interlude she made it clear that we "don't have to, you know, clap.....after each mantra,........because sometimes, after the mantra ends,......you want to just sit and feel the mantra,................so I am like, giving you the night off....." :)

She's lovely. So slight, and strong, and humble and with just the most lovely lovely lovely resonant voice. To begin the concert she and her husband walked on stage unannounced, very quiet, very slowly and then bowed to the audience, hands in the prayer position, receiving the blessing and sending it back out to all of us. Then they just sat down and got their instruments together, spoke quietly to one another, and then she directs us that "we will start tonight with three Ohms".

If you've ever been in a chanting circle, done a toning meditation with others, or something similar (like belonging to a Welsh choir) you will understand the power that's in a resonant chant. Times that by hundreds of people in one auditorium and you have an idea of why I nearly exploded with JOY on the first Ohm. :))

Their accompanying flautist was great too. Very cute.

The concert went over time as it's their first one of the year and they were getting themselves together and they just went with the flow. It was great. Highlight of the night was the Gayatri Mantra which everyone wished was earlier in the night when our voices were stronger. Oh but it does not matter when really, it was always going to be 'the thing' of the concert for me.

Michelle dressed up so nicely that a complete stranger gave her a compliment. She had a black floor length skirt on with a blood red velvet corset...and her hair up in little Teutonic buns, like a mini Princess Leia. :) I was in linen pants and shirt that creased easily. I looked remarkably well matched to the rest of the audience. :) It had to happen sometime.....

Somethunsafoot......

'Water', 'Moon', and 'Rowan'. (top to bottom)

Yes. Well I cleaned up the land of 'spare oom' once again. I seem to be getting drawn to that corner of the house A LOT,.......so best just to give in and do something constructive while I'm hanging about there. Found lots of my old notepads with painfully naive and cringeworthy prose. But some of it I actually like. It's so honest, so I can see past a lot of the angst. (only I would though, anyone else would just think it's shyte....)

Got out a few of my old sketches and scanned in a couple of my dragons. As you can see, I like dragons. And I usually have three or so around at any given time. (virtual or tangible.....)

Chucked a heap of old stuff out that felt real good to get rid of. Sort of like removing 'glug' from my aura. NYYYYYYYYCE.

So here's to a few more sketches being made, a few more reading evenings now that I have my Feng Shui notes in order, and my theory ripe for the picking...

juicy.....

Yep! I'm going 'a chanting'. Yay! :)
So happy I could BURST.
My lovely friend Michelle has come through yet again to be my companion on another spiritual excercise. What a girl. She's even booked the tickets on her card 'cause mine's maxed. What a friend. We've got tickets to see Deva Premal and her lovely husband play at City Hall in Brisbane on Wednesday the 17th.
I must just reiterate.....YAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!

Deva Premal walking on a beach in Maui.

"I luv chanting", that's my new mantra............ :)

I have been listening to Deva Premal for about a year or more now. Didn't know who I was listening to at first until I realised that I 'just LOVED that music', and made it my thing to find out who was singing this great stuff! My Holistic Feng Shui teacher always had it playing in the background at the courses I took.

One of my favourites, or the one I am most connecting with, at the moment is 'Chidananda'.
The lyric is 'Chidananda roopah, shivoham, shivoham'
which translated means ....
'I am eternal bliss, I am Shiva'

All of the lyric (which is quite long and extensive) is to do with accepting one's inherent divinity, by saying that you realise you are not the material self, but the true essence of you is......you, the eternal spirit-soul, the spark of the All.

I like that. :)

The other translations of the chants can be found at....

http://www.mitendevapremal.com/music/lyrics_chords.htm

They are playing at the Brisbane City Hall on the 14th I think. I know it will be sold out by now but if there is a chance that someone has a ticket, I'm there. Really. I'll even give you a lift home. :) !

Namaste, Om Shanti
xx

You know when you have one of those moments when you really do feel that you have just been tipped into a parallel universe where every kind of weird verbal behaviour ever tried out in sketch comedy is coming true?

(Me on the phone to Rob)
"Babe! just went into the accounts to check on the Credit card, and saw that the bank has you overdrawn in your first account!....do you want me to transfer some money into it from your other account?"
(Rob)
"What?"
(Me, again)
"Your direct debit for the car insurance, ....it's put your first account into the red"
(Rob)
"What!?"
(Me)
*getting slightly wary now* "Yeah babe. The first account, the one you use all the time, .......*breathe* it's gone into negative because the insurance for the car has been taken out"
*thinking 'oh dear' to herself*

(Rob)
"Really?"
(Me)
"Yep........."

(Rob)
"..........are you saying it's overdrawn?"
(Me)
"Yeah"

(Rob)
"Ok then babe, take out some money from the bottom account..."
(Me)
"You mean the one marked 'bpay and direct debits' ?"
(Rob)
"...nah, the bottom account......."
(Me)
"Rob, the bottom account has a heading that YOU have put on it and it's marked 'bpay and direct debits'! That IS the one you mean right?"

More painfullness ensues, with me shouting sternly down the phone that I WILL NOT shout down the phone at him, and could he PLEASE answer the fricking question!!

Ded set!

Thank goodness he's got that twinkle......it all helps.

The result of wedded bliss...

I've been married for twelve years on the 7th January.
Twelve whole years.
This has me contemplating what it is about my sweet Roberto that has given our marraige it's longevity.

Could it be just because he's got a lovely twinkle in his eye? Maybe it's the fact that he has compatible DNA, and we have as a result, got simply beautiful children.......
I dreamt about Robbie about a year before I met him. I remember writing down the dream because I had it over and over again, and it was SO vivid. So easy to recall and write about.
Then, when I met Rob he wasn't the normal 'type' of guy I would have been interested in. But I remembered the dream, and knew it was him.
And for the first few years of marriage, I did find myself with my head in my hands just wailing 'why am I with this man?'!?
It all got better though.
We had to get better. Ha! :)

Some things are just meant to be. To be enjoyed. Not to be 'understood'.