Doris Maranda

GREETINGS FOR THE SUMMER SOLISTICE & ABORIGINAL DAY!

As the warm summer days lengthen, enjoying the beauty & lusciousness of the trees & plants coming into the fullness of their blooming time, I am about to go on another healing journey. Tomorrow I will be having surgery that will give me a new hip and assist me in regaining much of the range & strength in my weight bearing activities that have been curtailed for three and a half years. Arriving at this decision has not been an easy one and I have processed and run through fear, despair, hope, and even shame & failure. “If only I had taken care of myself better, done more Continuum, been more faithful to the arthritis diet, etc., etc.” You know the drill. Then last week, there was a switch from feelings of anxiety and dread to my feeling ready and prepared to enter into this unknown situation. I don’t know for sure what will happen and all I can do is prepare myself with the inner resources and support that I have in my community. According to Emilie Conrad, preparation is so very important. I am also grateful that there is this alternative available. In my Winter/Spring Newsletter, I referred to the interview with Benjamin Zander, the conductor of the Boston Symphony who spoke on The Art of Possibility. I was very taken with his ideas, especially with the one in which the conductor receives his power by enabling and assisting each member of the orchestra to come to his/her full potential. This spoke to me of my teaching of the Continuum process as well as the work of Somatic Experiencing in my Counselling practice. It also confirmed my sense of true intelligence and spirituality in which decisions are made for the benefit of oneself and of all beings.

Recently, I read the book by Benjamin and Rosamund Zander on “The Art of Possibility” and was able to more clearly understand their ideas. We live in a culture which they entitle, the world of measurement, where survival thinking is rampant and competition and comparing reign. In this way of thinking, you have to be calculating and look out for Number 1 because there is scarcity and you may not get your share. However, if one takes the stance that the world is invented and the above thinking may be an illusion, then it opens up the world of possibility which is based on abundance and connectedness. In this way of attending and perceiving the world, I create a context and let life unfold.(Sound familiar to those of you who have taken Continuum!) It allows one to accept feelings like fear, frustration, sadness, anger and let them move through you. Then, one moves into “And what else?” Herein there is expansiveness and unthoughtofbeforepossibilities emerge. Practically speaking, this means that I will not be able to teach Continuum this summer. My plans are to resume my Continuum classes & workshops in late September or early October. I intend to hold workshops in Kelowna & Victoria later in the fall. Penny Allport holds classes and workshops throughout the summer in Steveston and on the Sunshine Coast at her retreat place so please contact her for more information: penny@swarainspiritations.ca.

Please pray for me and hold me in your thoughts and prayers during this time. My friends and family have been wonderful and supportive and I am learning so much about receiving and asking. I feel so touched and held by my community and the many circles of which I am a part. “I” truly becomes a “We.” In closing, I want to offer you some words from “Divine Mother—The Matrix” which has inspired me in the past. I wish for you to feel the abundance and wisdom of the cosmos within yourselves.

I am the intelligence from which the universe emanates And in which it abides. The ignorant believe that I am merely nature But the wise experience me as the true Self within themselves. They glimpse me in their own hearts When their minds become as still and clear as an ocean without waves. With love & blessings, DorisJune 20^th, 2005

NEWSLETTER – WINTER/SPRING 2004 “SEASON’S GREETINGS”   Such a poignant, rich, meaningful & full time of the year.   Many cultures and traditions interface – the Christian – Christ’s birth and our culture’s Christmas, the pagan Winter Solstice, the Jewish Hanukkah.  The music of Christmas pours from the radio and our stereo collections, lights flood many houses, buildings, cranes, boats and yards, the stores and billboards are constant reminders with their decorations and exhortations to buy gifts for one’s loved ones as there is only so many more days until Christmas.   So many Christmas concerts and functions as well as the parties and gatherings put on by friends and the multitude of tasks that accompany this season.   The common question is “Are you ready for Christmas?” For many people, it is also a very difficult, even depressing time of the year.  Expectations, disappointments and negative family experiences leave their imprint.   For some, like Scrooge, Christmas is humbug!  Perhaps rejecting the predominant commercialism, it is difficult to find some meaning and the songs for joy and peace leave us empty. Personally, I loved Christmas as a child and when my children were young, I was caught up in their excitement.   Then, some years ago I realized that I wanted to find a meaning in this time of the year that spoke to me personally and to the many experiences that have come into my life. I wanted to develop both for myself and with my community of friends and family, our own ways of celebrating and ritual that incorporate the traditional paths.   That has been and continues to be a challenge.

“Are you ready for Christmas?”   I offer you this challenge, the challenge to find your own meaning within the culture and the traditions. I also offer you the gift of suspending your beliefs, of questioning and being curious and attending to yourself throughout this time and in the new year to come. Seasonally, this is the dark time of the year, moving into the Winter Solstice and the return of the light.   In that vein, it is a time of hibernating, of dreaming, of gestating and renewal, in preparation for spring and the new seeding into one’s life of what has been laid fallow.    Let yourself, as Terry Tempest Williams expresses so beautifully, “become a caretaker of silence, a connoisseur of stillness,” so that you can “slow down and recover the rhythm in the heart that moves the body first, and the mind second.”  “Open the space” and let yourself have “time to breath, to dream, to dare, to play, to pray, to move freely, in a world our minds have forgotten but our bodies remember.” Wishing you joy, peace, love and re-membering! December 12^th, 2003                                               With love & blessings,

Doris

CONTINUUM 

VANCOUVER NEWSLETTER FALL 2004

EMBRACING THE MYSTERY – Sobonfu Some, wise, earthy woman from the Dagara people in West Africa, gave a talk here in Vancouver last week on African Mysteries.  According to Sobonfu, mysteries have a life of their own and they bring our inner life into play so that that intrinsic life can be expressed outwardly. Pema Chodren said in an article in the Shambhala Sun, “A warrior accepts that we can never know what will happen to us next. We can try to control the uncontrollable by looking for security and predictability, always hoping to be comfortable and safe.  But the truth is that we can never avoid uncertainty.  This not knowing is part of the adventure, and, it is also what makes us afraid.”

FEAR – of???  What do we do when we feel threatened?   It is very much an unconscious, automatic reaction which often doesn’t even make logical sense in light of the situation which has created this fear.   I do think that we are prone to our safe, known habitual patterns but I also know that this fear response can be  triggered by a present situation that recalls a past event that is still unresolved.  When this happens, we very much feel isolated, alone, overwhelmed and confused as to how to handle our response. The Somatic Experiencing model has been a welcome adjunct to the Continuum process in helping myself and others deal with situations like this.  We do shake up the habitual patterns in our Continuum gatherings, sometimes deliberately and sometimes, it happens as we are delving deeply into our sensorial selves where the implicit memories are residing.

Listening to Sobonfu, I was reminded of my experiences in Bali.   The Balinese people don’t hold much value (if any) in “individuality.”   There is not a “evil person,”  there is EVIL which to them is disconnection.  When evil occurs, the village as a whole takes action in ritual, ceremonies and prayers to heal the situation.   Sobonfu addressed issues like raising children, grieving for the dead, “mentally ill” and disabled people who act as messengers to the village that there is an issue needing to be addressed.   I was struck once again with a society that is a real community, that holds and supports individuals and families so that spiritual growth, healing and day-to-day living can thrive.   How we lack that in our culture and how we need to listen to those cultures who honour community as part of life so that we can create circles of community for ourselves in the midst of this culture we were born into, a culture that esteems individuality, achievement and success.

Reach inside, follow your deepest desires, embrace the mystery and let it flow outward, a bit at a time. August 18^th, 2004                  With love & blessings,     Doris