Tag: river

• What we want

  As I have watched nature showing itself as Flooding, I watched the changing transformation….how it expanded and now how it is contracting, receding back into its normal size.

  I have thought how it is a metaphor for life.  How we will have moments or events that will overflow, create difficulty in life.  We traverse them, grow, gain confidence, wisdom and then they too recede into our past.  A memory.

  I was delighted yesterday morning to see the evidence of the river level dropping.

  
  
  The snow banks are gone, and the chair stands…

  
  
  This is the corner where the river found its exit….and it is still coming out, but much much slower.  And, further up the road there is a place where the river flows back in…like it is testing land for a bit…or perhaps Me.

  
  
  What my jeep looks like after a rough day on the Spring roads.  I actually had to use my four- wheel drive to get out of the mud. But, on my way home yesterday, through the water, it washed the wheels.  A good under body flush while the river was up! 

  
  
  See how green everything is beginning to turn…there are buds on the trees, but very small…a bit of warm weather and another transformation begins.

  I guess what we love are pretty transformations, the ones that seem to require nothing of us, just our admiration upon completion.  But, the transformations that tear apart your insides, demand changes in behavior, etc we deem as 'bad'.

  However, they are the ones who develop us.  Those transformations oddly are course corrections, they are taking away all that isn't our soul's purpose or what is right for us.  

  Most of what I lost were toxic or dysfunctional or abusive.  I didn't lose love, peace and joy….it was through the transformation that I found them.

  And how would we appreciate dry dusty roads, if we didn't have a foot of water to compare them to?  The contrasts of life gives us meaning, helps us navigate into what we want. 

  May 5, 2013

  flooding, nature, river, self, transformations

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• Go with the Flow.

  United we stand united we fall, divided we stand divided we fall…are two phrases that ran around in my head as I laid my weary brain down to sleep.

  There has been a humming of difference going on in our home, a vague and nagging two party rule.

  This split difference seemed to be two strong individuals doing what they felt was right for them and it didn’t affect the atmosphere within our home, for our individual expressions were directed to those who did not live with us.

  Sure we had awkward uncomfortable moments, but they would only arrive when say a party was to be attended and we both didn’t go…yet we both could please ourselves.

  Me by staying home, and them by going, two drastically different responses to one event.

  It seemed to be this great wide-open free space of self-expression and allowing, and it was.

  What happens if our differences fall into our own home, where a person in our relationship changes and our responses are different?

  It became crystal clear to me that we were at a cross roads, both individually and as a team.

  The individual harmony of our home is tipping and sliding and churning over the way we both deal with actions that go against our moral code.

  My daughter’s changing actions have set in motion and are displaying our stark contrasts, where we are both sitting in a very tight spot.

  A spot that we both drew comfort in and it allowed us to be ourselves, we may be asked to leave.

  What we are being asked is to stand with that sentiment or to reverse and head in another direction; it truly is a turning point in our relationship.

  If my daughter continues in the direction she seems to be heading in, she will also change the direction our marriage, it will be the trigger that goes off and we will then be asked to change as well.

  She is the key that will turn this all.

  Our response is the echo and the reply and what I know from past behaviors, we answered differently.

  Can we form as a team and come up with an answering response that will honor both of us?

  I see the looming bends in our river, the rapids that will require each of us to hold to our course and see not one boat called family, but three different canoes.

  I see how the current in each of our lives may lead us down separated journeys, how the potential for parting is strong, how our differences become stronger not weaker, how their forces propel and repel.

  Within each of us lies our sense of self, our value and self worth and that alone is the motor that steers our choices, speaks our voices, and their clamoring for individual power drowns out the unity we once had.

  It isn’t the direction that they are heading in, or the rapids beneath them, but rather the integrity within each boat, the honesty and character that directs these boats in their direction.

  It seems that the Universe pulls them toward like-minded boats; our separation isn’t what the heart wants, but rather what our actions lead.

  The freedom that I lovingly gave that had us all happy in our separate boats, is now coming to bear.

  There is a fork in the river now, a change in the stream, a curve that bends their lives from mine… what I can’t know for sure is will they take the curve or change something inside of them.

  It isn’t me, but the river of life and how you change or it changes you.

  At the end of the day, I am a lady of my own character who has no choice but to follow where it leads…reality wins only but 100% of the time, it is futile for me set my canoe against it.

  This is what happened last time, six years ago, where my canoe didn’t go where the rest all went, where the river bent, and my character simply couldn’t go with the flow against the river of reality.

  I see my daughter’s canoe swirling lost in the struggle against the rivers flow, not wanting what is and lying to make it right, twirling in the swirling waters going against life’s truth, trying to make something right out of what is wrong.

  I have seen this branch of the river before, I have watched as many family members’ canoes got stuck in the madness of seeing an illusion and following.

  My shouts fall short and are lost in the waters of time that race by, telling them it is useless to fight what is.

  Now this time, the illusion has my daughter in its grips, the fantasy that is but a mirage above the river, and I can’t seem to break the spell that will plunge her back into seeing what is.

  And I can’t know the strength and conviction she has with this mirage and how far will she follow it and for how long, and if she does, what will my husband do?

  Will his canoe ride with her?

  Will his words to fall short?

  Will she hear us as we shout; will she trust the mirage or her old reality?

  Where will these three canoes go? Which ones will fight reality and who will go with the flow?

  March 2, 2011

  Character, choices, deceit, differences, fooling, honesty, lies, life, marriage, reality, river, self, struggle, time

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• Steering Our Own Canoes!

  One definition of codependency; Adult children of alcoholics; people in relationships with emotionally or mentally disturbed; people in relationships with chronically ill peoples; parents of children with behavior problems; people in relationships with irresponsible people; professionals – nurses, social workers and others in ‘helping’ occupations.  Even recovering alcoholics noticed they were codependent and perhaps had been long before becoming chemically dependent.

   

  Melody Beatte goes on to write.

   

  “One fairly common denominator was having a relationship personally or professionally, with troubled, needy, or dependent people.  But a second more common denominator seemed to be the unwritten, silent rules that usually develop in the immediate family and set the pace for relationships. These rules prohibit discussion about problems; open expression of feelings; direct, honest communication; realistic expectations, such as being human, vulnerable or imperfect; selfishness; trust in other people and one’s self; playing and having fun; and rocking the delicately balanced family canoe through growth or change – however healthy and beneficial that movement might be.  These rules are common to alcoholic family systems but can emerge in other families too.

   

  Melody’s personal definition is; A codependent person is one who has let another person’s behavior affect him or her, and who is obsessed with controlling that person’s behavior.

                  Melody Beatte

   

  As I sit here 5 ½ years later, I realize that I rocked the family canoe by getting out, I tipped the balance and was seen as crazier than the folks who began steering that canoe long before I was born.

   

  I heard on the radio today, that a family boat is heading down a certain river before a child is born, and our legacy is to pick up an oar and row.

   

  We are taught how to row and in what direction by our parents.  And we don’t start rowing at 18, but at about 1 year old or younger. 

   

  We are taught how to row and where.

   

  It is my opinion that two mentally and emotionally disturbed people were rowing my family’s canoe, and that the only way to save my self was to get out of the boat, and not to just stop rowing.

   

  I was no longer trusting in the elders who steered our family canoe, nor was I going to ride along with the rest, just because we were born in the same boat.

   

  While I couldn’t change the course of the family boat, I could change mine, but in order to do so, I had to jump out.

   

  It is seen as rejection of all who stayed in the boat.

   

  It isn’t seen as healthy or wise, but rather that I have set boundaries to keep them out.

   

  And I guess I have.

   

  I don’t want people in my canoe trying to steer me in a direction I don’t want to go in. 

   

  It has been a long and arduous journey to find the strength and confidence to row myself, to strike out on my own, learning how to row in a direction that is much more healthy than what I was taught.

   

  While the rest may see me as rejecting them, I am only embracing me. 

   

  Embracing my independence, my freedom of choice, my boundaries, and learning what is healthy for me and what causes me pain, what I need to live in peace, love and joy.  Learning how to stay in my canoe and in my business, allowing and honoring each person to ride the river of life as they chose.

  I heartily and cheerfully encourage the rest to jump ship, letting the family’s legacy canoe to finally become empty of dysfunctional codependent folks.  It can happen when one by one each of us begin steering our own canoes!

   

   

   

  August 24, 2010

  canoe, changes, changlings, codependent, empowerment, legacy, life, Melody Beatte, more, no, of, own, patterns, river, self, steering, your

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• Challenge called Daily Yoga.

  I went to the basement today with Carl and Karen’s words of praise and correction front and center, eager to reach the postures to either stand in pride or settle into the pose differently.

   

  The Balancing Stick does make a difference if you look ahead and down, instead of down, and to stretch with your arms and torso forward.

   

  When I came to cobra, I tried hard to do what Carl told me this morning is a reverse push-up. Keeping in mind the compression of the lower back, that that is what our goal is, I even tried to feel the nerves after the release, that Karen talked about.

   

  It way helps to have eyes in our studio, especially eyes of experience yogis.  It is amazing, just show them a picture and they can see where I needed help.

   

  Bikram says in his book, “Look up at the ceiling, raise your head, and, using the strength of your back, lift your torso off the floor. Arch the head and torso back as much as possible; at the same time, press the belly button into the floor.  The belly button and everything below it stays in contact with the floor.”

   

  It is exciting to bring new hints and corrections to the poses, to help you reach your ultimate goal.

   

  Speaking of ultimate goal, it came to me that I completed one goal, 60-day challenge, only to be still in a much larger challenge.

   

  The challenge to continue on, without a short term prize, without a real numbers game to be competing in, instead just doing this in the morning, as part of my day.

   

  Making it become as Carl said, “like taking a shower.”

   

  As I walked Finn outside along the frozen river, as the crystals coated the trees, it occurred to me, we are always looking for the next challenge, the next quick fix, the next thing to complete or compete in, instead of being in the midst of the river of life, we want it to freeze or finish up.

   

  What is wrong with playing in the flow of yoga, to watch your self change daily or sometimes from pose to pose. 

   

  Does there have to be an ending in sight?

  What happens if we are instead in an endless yoga challenge?

   

  An endless challenge called daily yoga.

  March 5, 2010

  Bikram, Challenges, flowing, goals, life, not frozen, river, Yoga

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