Life As Paradox

Living with duality: The notion of life as being simply one truth, one set of rules, one quantifiable experience in a static reality is about as kook-a-dook as a monkey driving a minivan filled with bon-bons on his way to a somatic therapy session with snoopy. (I suppose this could really happen, but for the sake of this thread, work with me) I witness the beautiful paradox in everything and as I embrace this notion of duality it becomes like a sweater that I love to wear and that same sweater becomes a part of who I am (i'm thinking merino wool--those soft new zealand sheep---mmmm). Inhale. Exhale. Ebb and flow. Peanut butter and jelly. 

Yeah.

CALCO

Every conversation that I have these days leads me straight to the concepts at the core of CALCO: Embodied Learning, implicit learning, experiential learning. learn how to learn. Witness the learning to change the pattern. Good times.

Us And Them

Where is the line that divides us? Divides our loyalties and our love? Where is the line that demarcates the end of our love's supply? I can tell you where it is: in the faces of supermodels selling us our image; in the catchy melodies of jingles selling us our desires; and in the clever wrote-word defining our life's mission--go without. "If you're not going within, you're going without." -God--as quoted in: Conversations With God by Neale Donald Walsh.

The Dance

I believe that all beings experience and continually move through what I am calling "The dance". That moving back and forth, side to side, up and down and, yes, all around. Example: Someone is in the midst of a break-up from a long relationship. Now, being in the 'midst' of a break-up can mean any number of things: it happened today and you are crushed; you split up a month ago...You are getting over it; You desperately want him/her back and will do anything to...etcetera, etcetera. How does this relate? A break-up is a wonderful example of the dance we enter into when experiencing a major transformation. We DO want to end things AND get back together AND just have sex AND get married and have ten babies AND become a monk AND try again! That's all part of the process of both disentanglement and the physiological resetting of our deeply entrenched bio-rythyms. ( I am little outta my league with that kind of talk, but I think you see my point...) It's where the lava meets the ocean and there is no stopping it; only slowing it down. And, much like that lava flow, deep,lasting,  transformational change takes time. When you witness yourself flowing just let it go and hang on. When you see yourself 'waffling' about something (an ex, a job, a movie even) that is the process of unhinging the old and connecting to the new!!! The demons never go away. We simply grow less attached to them and, simultaneously, better able to listen to our authentic voice and act in accord with our deepest intrinsic need. 

Our sexiest dance partner is in our mind and we need to politely decline the next time it asks to tango. 

Moments.

How is it that moments in time last so long? How can a moment from deep in my past occupy space in my heart still today? the notion that time is linear on a continuum is flawed and almost seems ridiculous. As Utah Phillips said when someone told him he always talked about the past, "I can go outside and pick up the oldest rock I can find and come in here and drop it on your foot. Now, the past didn't go anywhere, did it?!" No, the past didn't go anywhere. It is here, inside of us. Always.

And Away We Go!

It has to start somewhere, and this is where I chose to begin. 

I want to investigate the nature of our emotional responses to anything from why men can only cry at movies to why women can't walk alone on streets at night. How, through the media--and by media I mean: television, film, print, radio and the internet to name the biggies--are we shaped and molded and programmed to respond? How can we identify the source of that response and then work to reshape it? What does it take to start this process and how is the process different for everyone? 

Just some questions to think on. Off we go.