Resonance, or what feels natural...

It's feeling like an early Spring here in Gainesville, and I imagine up and down the east coast. I have still been adjusting to living in a new place and slowly feeling my way into a new career and even more slowly leaning toward some kind of social life. This is the most elusive piece for me lately, which is strange because it's never been that way for me in other places. And this is ironic, because when I got to Gainesville and started school the better part of a year ago, it looked a lot like I was in a place more rich with my tribe. Things don't always proceed as we expect, though, and change is always happening.

(These first few are taken on Payne's Prairie in Gainesville, around sunset)






Lately, though, I have had some really special - if fleeting - visits from out of town friends. They have reminded me of the richness that can be found in kindred connections with soul friends. They have reminded me, also, that there are folks out there who share my frequency. Maybe it sounds silly to say this, but I tend to forget this for long stretches of time, and sometimes forget who I am when not often encountering clear soul mirrors.




(These are taken in Washington Oaks State Park south of St. Augustine, FL - A place I always love to visit when I'm over that way. Bruce and I had a nice outing there when he was visiting, and we found some circles...)





Speaking of clear soul mirrors, these are all recent photos from my iphone. I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying taking photos with this phone, and it feels really good - this hipstamatic app is like the instant gratification of developing and printing film without the darkroom time.

(These are from a local park here in Gainesville, about 3/4 mile from my house. I love to go there and stomp around in the primordial creek and find shark's teeth and other treasures... )





I was drawn away from the path to this amazing tree (below) by the beauty of its bark and it's spirit. Would you believe that although I was curious about the depression in the bark and photographed it, I did not see the arrow until I later downloaded the photo....


(And back on the prairie again the next weekend...)



(And then to the beach again...)


This last photo I'm posting not because it's a nice photo (obviously it's not), but because I have been thinking about the dophins. I have been a bit concerned because the last couple times I've been over to the beach I have not seen any, and in between these visits I have seen news postings about mass beachings of dead or dying dolphins. Also, I had a dream of dolphins in shallow waters breaking the water's surface and lifting into the air, then turning into birds and then simply vanishing.

When I got home from the beach late last night and downloaded the photos I took at sunset, I saw the dolphin in this photo. Look at the cloud in the center, top of the photo. I see a dolphin....

New Toy...

Ok, so I got an iPhone a few weeks ago, and then yesterday I finally figured out how to put a cool photo app on it. So far I had only enjoyed the much nicer ring tones than my old 6 year old phone (that was dying) and the calendar that synchs to my laptop (very cool and very useful, considering my budding new career). Now I can take fun photos! And it's a square format, that I have missed so much since borrowing Heinz's Hasselblad while at SI. Here are some of the first shots... Enjoy!


(see if you can find the full moon in the image below)





(full moon)


(full moon)




Also, in the last several days, I have watched a group of 5 soaring sandhill cranes circle overhead five times - making their way up to warmer, faster air, found 5 shark's teeth in a local creek, gone to a party where I didn't know a single person there on arriving, yet met some cool peeps and had some great conversations, I received the best massage ever, have breathed deeply, have given chair massage to some really interesting folks at the hospital, and to some caring teachers at a preschool (some of whom came crying because since they were being surprised they thought they were in trouble) - oh, yeah, was licked by a lemur - and today, before the beautiful full moon came into view, a passing swallowtail butterfly, fluttering by, peed on my lip. I think things are shifting...

Dancing the Shadow

I was in a bit of a funk for a few days. It happens sometimes. And it just is what it is - not something to get hung up on or feel bad about, but something to notice, feel, give a little attention to and simply let it be. Yesterday morning, when a lot of folks were at church, I went to the park, where a crystal clear creek runs. On my last visit I had scoped out just the perfect tree to sit in, that hangs over the creek - so I am suspended in the tree, over the water, under the owls and other tree- and sky-dwelling creatures. It was a beautiful day, and just as I had hoped, I got there at the right time to have the sun shine on me while I was in the tree. It was very quiet, the only noise that stood out was the call of a hawk in the near distance. It is hard to be in a funk while at perfect peace, sitting in such a spot.

Afterward, I continued on to the coffee shop to read over some dreams from the last year and see if I could find some threads that stood out. While there, I got a phone call from a dear friend with some bad news about his health. Pretty devastating news, actually. I was speechless, and sad, and in my mind was looking for the right words to say, the right thoughts, something useful. Shit.

Any funk of mine was history, and now I was in a wholly different space. A space of expansion. The expansion that happens when our Oneness is at hand. When it is viscerally evident that we are all the same, all One, all part of the same whole. I feel it as if it were my own news - is it mine, this disease? I was muttering to myself all the way home on my bike. And when I got home I was very quiet and peaceful, feeling the expansiveness of the Oneness in a different way.

I noticed the light in the back yard - sun slanted low in the late winter afternoon. What was illuminated was a vine in a late stage of life, yellowed and yet still vibrant and alive.


And I noticed the shadow of the vine and tree, seemingly interacting with them. The tree and vine dancing with their shadows, or really vice versa. Later in the evening, still in the haze of the news from my friend, some words came in response to the images.

It is light that defines us
shadow refines us
solidity is only an illusion
we can only see our shadow
from our delusion of self
our true Self contains us
while the ego just claims us
as different, as separate, as whole
our Oneness becomes us
as we see the wholeness
that mostly eludes us
when we look as from loneness
we’ll continue this dance
with our shadows
as long as we walk in the light
and just as we dream
in the nights in between
it’s ours to keep our life bright

My dear friend is a hearty soul. I know that however his journey continues, he will meet its path wholeheartedly and steadfastly, as always, and because of this, I know he will keep whole and bright.



Oh, and if you look closely at the second photo, to the right - in the midst of the shadow - there is a door.

Your Table Awaits!

I have been very busy this last week working at the Helping Hands Chiropractic Center here in Gainesville and with a few massages over in Crescent Beach. And I'm looking forward to getting my own practice up and running.



Please call or email today to book an appointment for yourself or a loved one!

My massage work is tailored to the needs of each client, drawing from a foundation of:
~Neuromuscular Therapy
~Connective Tissue Therapy
~Swedish Massage
~Polarity Therapy
~Sports Massage
~Hydrotherapy
~Reiki

I offer my total presence and awareness to clients, creating a safe environment where their own awareness can be further opened to enhance healing and invite balance and ease of movement.

If you are feeling any of the following, you will benefit from massage:
~Restriction of movement
~Pain or discomfort in your body
~Trouble sleeping
~Postural imbalance
~Stiffness or soreness
~Injury or stress
~The need to slow down and relax

Benefits often include:
~Greater ease of movement
~Increased range of motion
~Relief of pain and stress
~Relaxation
~Improved Sleep
~Enhanced feeling of well-being

I invite you to create an opportunity for stillness to occur, in which to recognize and restore balance in your own body, mind and spirit. Call or email me today and let’s find a time to get started! Be sure to inquire about my package discounts and gift certificates.

Happy New Year to you! May you find many blessings and much peaceful transformation in the coming year!

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It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted here. Life has been full. I have completed the program at Florida School of Massage and am now a licensed massage therapist. I have moved once again, this time into town and a really sweet little house that couldn’t be more perfect - very peaceful even though it’s right in town, with a great big lovely back yard for the cats (and me), and the perfect treatment room for clients. I am looking forward to doing some good work here, along with other work in the community.

It’s strange to have gone so long without posting any art or musings - almost a year, really. I am thinking a lot, for some reason, on the Cumberland Island time of magic last February, and maybe that is reminding me to reserve a spot for this next February to explore some more. Maybe it’s pointing me back to the magic and the energy for making art again. I feel closer and closer, now, and there is space in my new home for art making, too.

In the meantime, there is much to do to cultivate this new career in healing arts, and finding ways to integrate all the various art in my life. I am happy to think that all of these skills and interests seem to feed each other - each honing the other in some subtle way. I love that the meditative artwork I had been doing was all the while teaching me how to be a more clear conduit for - well, for whatever it is that moves through us as we create. For this is much the same stuff as must be present in the healing arts. The same stillness, presence and awareness are required for good work in massage. It is so essential to be present and able to listen and somehow receive direction about what is needed in any given moment - listening to the breath, the tissue, the subtle visual or energetic cues that can happen - the rhythms of the body. What an amazing dance it all is. What a wonderful opportunity to learn more each day, each moment, each time contact is made or broken or sustained.

I am continuing with dreamwork, too, and looking forward to starting a new small group here in my home, for sharing and growing with dreams.

I did do a handful of small mandala-like drawings during my time here in FL this year, so I will post a few here.

Living at the edges of time...

Last Spring/Summer, I was getting the feeling that the layers/dimensions of time/s were compressing and I was sensing a bleedthrough happening more and more. Lately, though, I have progressed from my feelings about dimensions/time-space frames bleeding through and compressing, to them approaching integration into only one time-space continuum. This is what the shift is all about. Then end of separate dimensions/layers of time and the beginning of the ONE CONSCIOUSNESS as an integrated whole. I am more and more aware of soul groups gathering in a more organized fashion - I find myself more and more readily with folks I resonate to and so I think about cymatics and how as the Earth’s vibration rises, of course we reorganize into more complex and beautiful arrangements. Of course we find our way to those we’ve shared lifetimes with (or more accurately, are always sharing with them). Perhaps, more realistically, they are actually pieces and parts of US. As the layers converge, we will integrate into our original ONE. One self. And ultimately, perhaps, one consciousness that is comprised by us ALL. Of course then I think it can’t matter that we gravitate toward a select few - for we all still comprise the whole. But then no, I remember we are but parts of the whole, and so of course those of us who are the liver are together, those who are the feet are together and so on. We are still one body. We must still find our design and fit our roles together. Complete the circuit, the circle, repolarize. Only when we are ready to act as one will we complete this unification. What can make us do this? What can make us ready to act as ONE?????

Forgot to mention...

I started working on a new website: silvermoonfrog.moonfruit.com