Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Gathered Thoughts and Meditations - Late Summer

It's been a long time since I updated; and there are a number of insights and meditations I want to gather up and put here.
Insights
I've been working slowly through the implications of the body meditation I mentioned in the last blog post. As in so many cases before, the most profound effect of the meditation is not the conscious insights of the meditation, but the release of subconscious blocks or false beliefs, which make things easier (without me always knowing why!). I've found it easier to eat according to what my body wants, despite the stress and hurry of the last 3 weeks. I haven't actually weighed myself since getting back (I haven't felt a strong desire to) but I know I haven't put on (or lost) much weight, despite everything.
I feel strongly that the next step is slow, incremental integration towards raw vegan. That is, something like: week 1, eliminate fish; week 2, eliminate cheese; week 3, eliminate white grains; etc. For exercise, I'm following my body's desire to take a break from running and focus more on walking, yoga, upper-body, and (perhaps before October is out) swimming.
Zion Dream & Meditation
The wedding did not exactly go all that smoothly... So in Zion I asked for some information about that.
Dreams: two stand out. In one, Melanie wrote to us to tell us it would be fine for the kids to stay at Quiet Hills with me over the summer, but we'd need to watch out for a few things -- including the children at the playground with 'contagious' lupus. (Lupus is actually an autoimmune syndrome, either congenital or environmentally triggered. Not sure what that's about.) In the other... David Tennant was giving me acting lessons so that I could be more 'authentic'....!
Meditation: the spirits blasted a tunnel through a granite mountain for us (not unlike the stone towers in Zion). It meant we didn't have to climb all the way to the top to get over; although we climbed a huge portion of the way. On the other side of the mountain is a misty pine forest, and we are advised to proceed, but cautiously: 'moccasins in the mist'. My best guess is that this refers to navigating the journey from Pittsburgh to Seattle. There was other bits too, answering my query about why our wedding was not-really-perfect, and the answer has to do with our attempt to satisfy both the human demands (particularly those of Ali's family) and spirit's demands, and that it was just impossible to do both.
From L's Reading
We checked in with psychic Lumari in Santa Fe. Some of the highlights of the reading, as far as I can remember:

  • The future of the couple:
    • We're a good match -- Jeff as detail-oriented, active, directed, while Ali as big-picture go-with-the-flow. Practical in the sense of seeking harmony in matters, but not 'dull'.
    • Financially we will have nothing more to worry about, but money will have no hold over us.
  • Jeff's career:
    • Leadership position. Helping people be better.
    • Nothing about writing, but she suggested 'playing with words', thinking about apps that allow the user to compose 'spells' based on phonosemantics -- interactive things that encourage engagement with the spiritual underpinnings of words
  • Ali's career:
    • 13 Moons. General advice about how to find inspiration. Asking 'who are you talking to? who your audience?' Ali didn't know. NOT topic, but audience.
    • Ali doesn't do well with assignments, but she's been treating this as an assignments, which leads to procrastination
    • Now that Jeff is doing really well, Ali can afford to relax and focus more on her art(s).
  • The kids
    • She suggested 3 one-month visits rather than 1 3-month visit, suggesting it would be (a) easier on the kids and (b) less traumatic for Emily. Or: allowing Em to pick between the options would give her a sense of control and reduce her opposition. 
    • Em worried about kids education? When they're away from her, will their education be neglected?
    • Also important to start getting the kids feedback on plans, since this is something Emily does not do.
    • More generally: getting kids to think about how they can give back, what gifts they can offer

This Morning's Meditation
Asking for general information... I got a vision of a gully / gulch / arroyo in the desert; I was there, standing next to a stunted tree at the bottom of it. (It was an evergreen with bark that sort of peeled...) My anima said this landscape was sort of where I was now: in a tight spot, the going was a bit rough, but it was the best option for now. Soon the landscape would open out some, but for now it was best to follow the water, even though it meant you couldn't see far. Climbing to the top to get a better view would just be a waste of time.