Celebrate Life and your own Wisdom

Dear readers,

my shiny stats counter shows me I have many people browsing, reading, sneaking a peek at this blog, and so Thank You!

I am a bit in shock and awe today at the vagaries of Mother Nature - here in Montreal, a week after Easter, snow and sleet and cold. Not too unusual in early April, but after a week in hot tropical Panama, Central America, it's a huge contrast.

This morning I felt so grateful to have an oasis within to turn to for comfort. One look outside, a cup of coffee and toast, then back upstairs to my duvet and a peaceful, deep, nourishing hour of sitting with my core, in silence.

This practice just gets better I tell you, and it is not only available to yoginis and mystics. It's a practical practice, and it lets me join my rhythm of life within, where a celebration of life is always happening. See link to wordsofpeace.com for information.

Just got a flyer from Kripalu, my favourite yoga retreat place in the Berkshires, and got dizzy reading all the workshops offered. I notice most of them offer "shortcuts" and "breakthroughs" to the "full potential" and improved consciousness of bliss. An avid workshop goer, I love reading the descriptions, and most of them tempt me, but the truth is, once you are back home with yourself, it's up to you and you alone to find the source of (whatever it is you think it is called) within.

What I love about the inner wisdom I am learning is that it has no dogma, no dharma practices, no rituals, no rules, no chanting, no asanas, no fasting, no pujas. It is the inner puja of the soul, the harnessing of the mind to the heart, a simple but deep exploration in silence of the wonder of You.

Fresh, beautiful, changing every day yet always the same. The true Tao, it is said cannot be described, only felt.

Ah, yes, feeling - the only gateway to your self!

Ok enough about the Inner Gate to Wisdom. I am taking a workshop this weekend called Awakening Feminine energies, here in Montreal at the NHC Institute. Can't wait to find out what that is all about, cause one day I want to turn around and share what I have learned.

Dear wonderful women who are seeking shortcuts: one thing I do know is that it starts by listening to your body. In the pool in Panama, my friend Sylvie and I talked about our cycles, and how neat it is to know that you are in an up-swing cycle or a down-beat cycle - just like the moon who is shrinking from fullness right now I think, into the dark phase soon, then waxing from new moon into full moon again. We don't have to shine full on 100 watt bright all the time. Isn't that a relief?

There is a cycle even after menopause, and that surprised me! My energy still comes and goes in waves.

Ok so the one that really pulls me at Kripalu, just so you know, is called Sacred Passages, with medicine woman Marcela Lobos, to experience women's rites of passage the way our mothers could not teach us. Sounds awesome!

happy spring weather, however wacky it is where ever you are,
in love and peace,

jenn