Waiting, confidently; what’s next for Kirby

“This waiting is easy, knowing that one day soon you will be able to pursue and accomplish your goals.”  This is paraphrased from Julie Henderson’s interpretation of the I Ching, the book of changes.

If you are a follower of this blog, you may have been wondering why I have been so lackadaisical in my writing of posts as of late.  The I Ching, which I have cultivated a solid relationship with over the past three years plus and who knows how much time previously, states and continues to echo when I ask again and again, the above sentence about confident patience.

But I am not good at waiting.  I have a strong Saturn in my astrology chart – it is in my blood.  I need structure, I need a mission, a goal, a destination.  But apart of my waiting as of late has been just the opposite.  Not knowing where I am going or when I will be able to put forth effort to get wherever that unknown is, I have been in a holding pattern at best and a void of confusion and desperation at less-than-best.  For some time, I thought it best to pursue a future in California, studying somatic psychology at the master’s level as my next destination.  However, it seems this was erroneous as well – although the process and the journey of exploring this path must have (hopefully) served me – and now I am changing course once again.

I will explain this new direction below.  And I want to make it clear that I have allowed this new information to settle for a few months and I am solid with it.  So I feel it is stable enough to let the cat out of the bag:

I began to question what I was doing when I was sick recently.  I had the shingles (the herpes zoster virus manifesting along the left trigeminal nerve of my face to be specific) in the month of March and I had a lot of time to lie in bed and contemplate how much more pain medicine my body could endure…  and other facets of life.  🙂    California is a beautiful state, the school I was looking at was top notch and there are many great Buddhist centers, teachers, groups, etc in the San Francisco Bay Area.  But I questioned all of this in the manner my heart has made its decisions previously – when it was ready, it made it abundantly clear that my mind was not in charge and that my vision had changed.  And once this deep knowing sets in, my superficial mental jabberings lose any sway.

Instead I began to think about several variables from my past and present – my heart teacher (my root lama) suggesting I move to Florida to live closer to his center, the fact that I have more friends down in that part of the world than California, and the way in which the cost of living is lower down there as well.  If you are a Buddhist practitioner, you might say, your root lama made a recommendation for you – why didn’t you follow it to begin with?  Well you might say I am a Buddhist practitioner and I am a follower of my heart.  If I am not entirely certain about something, I kind of need to explore the options on my own.  I want to make my own decisions.  The more and more I experience, the more I am learning that my root lama’s wisdom is rarely if ever “wrong.”  But I suspect I will be questioning more options in the future – although maybe I will be careful what I ask him – if I don’t really want to know, or don’t want the guilt associated with going against his recommendations, then I shouldn’t ask!

Long story short, I am heading down to Florida next week to check out Tampa and its surroundings – grad schools, neighborhoods, the beach – to see if it is a good fit for me.  The way my heart is becoming clearer would indicate that this exploration is unnecessary, but it will be nice to connect with my teacher and friends as well.  Plus I might be able to look at some housing ahead of time.  Depending on my energy and time, I will keep any potential readers informed.  (Recovery from the shingles is surprisingly challenging.)

So wish me luck and thanks for listening to my ramblings.

May 2013 Grandmother ceremony

This material is copyrighted by M. Kirby Moore.  Reproduction without permission is prohibited.  Visit www.mkirbymoore.com to support Kirby’s blogging and business efforts.  Thank you for visiting!

Yesterday I had the gift and blessing of being invited to a local (central Virginia) grandmother ceremony.  To provide a bit of background (I looked around the internet and could not find much to link to on this subject), there is a Cherokee tradition of anyone – men and women – who are 51 or over having the option to say, “I want to step forward, I want to take a stand for my community, for my culture, I want to share the wisdom I have learned up to this point.”  These people take time – at least a year and usually 2 or more years to meditate, dream, do art work, dance and do other creative activities to see what wisdom (animals, visions, dreams) comes forward to match their powerful intention.

This is the 3rd ceremony of this type which I have attended.  And it certainly did not disappoint.  I have heard that typically these ceremonies are done with several people, men and / or women having their ceremonies together.  So there might be 3 or 4 women becoming grandmothers together.  In each ceremony, the grandmother / father makes a piece of clothing – an apron, a shirt, a skirt, a cape – which signifies what wisdom came to them during this process.  And yesterday’s was just a potent as others I have seen.

In this particular ceremony, there was just one person becoming a grandmother.  But it went incredibly seamlessly.  First, one of the organizing grandmothers introduced the ceremony.  Then the grandmother spoke about her process and how there was a lot of resistance at first, but once she set the date for the ceremony, she said things just fell into place and the living metaphors just surrounded her.  She described the cape she made which was stunningly beautiful!  Plus her good friend spoke about how alive she is, appreciating every little aspect of her life.  Then her partner spoke on the spur of the moment and his words were so moving!

Overall, I am so glad I went.  The audience was a very highly aware and conscious group of people.  At first, I had a headache and I was resistant to going in the first place.  But once I was witnessing the beauty and empowerment unfolding, I was so glad to be there!  It was inspiring and up-lifting.  I learned quite a bit and I am amazed at the amount of growth I witnessed in the grandmother who was more present, more potent, more calm and more at peace with her life and her being.  Wow!

For me personally, I am 34 years old (I am too young for grandfather-ing), but I would love to have a ceremony like this where I make a major commitment to improve and empower myself.  To work through some of my demons, whether using dreamwork or art.  This would be an incredible way to affirm my devotion to my community and to my fellow Sangha (friends, community members, spiritual community).  There needs to be a coming of age ceremony for all men and women.  I wish I had more resources to make something like this happen!

Being grounded in Tibetan Buddhism

Kirby at Tashi Choeling

This material is copyrighted by M. Kirby Moore.  Reproduction without permission is prohibited.  You can visit Kirby’s website at www.mkirbymoore.com if you want to support his blogging and business efforts.  Thank you!

Come on America!  Get it together!  Why is it that nearly every Tibetan I meet and nearly every Buddhist monk or nun I meet think that out of all the countries in the world, Americans are the most likely to be “crazy.”  I have crazy in quotations as I will explain below.  In fact, one lineage – the Drukpa (Kagyu) lineage – have not invested much in the way of teachers or other resources in America because of how difficult it is to tame our minds here.  They have strong showings in Europe and other countries, but don’t mess with them Americans, we crazy!  Doh!  Not good!  We can change though – at least there is that silver lining.

And I will let you in on a little secret here.  If you are white (like me) and you start wearing Tibetan or Asian-styled clothing to Dharma Centers and teachings, then the Tibetans and Tibetan Lamas will immediately question your mental stability.  Why?  Because either one of two things is going to be true, and they want to know which it is for obvious reasons: 1) You are wearing Tibetan style clothing because you have studied a lot of Tibetology and you know the religion inside and out and you have a very stable, calm mind OR 2) you are basically a mental gypsy – you do not fit in with your culture and are exploring others – or you detest your culture’s clothing enough to choose a very foreign and possibly stigmatizing style or you have absolutely no clue what you are doing but you want to look good while you are doing it.  If any of number 2’s items are accurate, then your mind stream is not stable and congratulations, your clothing just made it so there is a big red flag sticking up above your head (in their eyes).

What do I recommend then?  Unless you have studied Tibetan culture and language and religion (these three really cannot be divorced from each other), then go with clothes from cultures that you know.  Go with the culture that you were born into, even if it is more of a grunge style of rebellion.  At least you won’t be labeled as another “crazy American.”

So what do I mean by crazy above?  Well I think it primarily has to do with American’s desire for instant results, or we go directly after the highest most advanced practices as soon as possible, without having the slightest understanding or foundation upon which to receive those teachings.  Here are some examples:

I am completely guilty of this myself, so don’t think I am trying to hide while standing on my soapbox.  I will freely admit it – I was ignorant of Tibetan Buddhist practices eight or nine years ago.  I did not know what Bodhicitta meant.  I did not understand cause and effect as well as I do today.  Yes I believed in reincarnation and karma, but now my understanding of these areas has deepened as well.  But in my first retreat, I thought Tibetan Lamas were mystical magicians capable of flying and other supernatural abilities (many of them do have unusual skills and talents, but they keep these hidden for their student’s benefit – see some other posts in the Dharma category or my Dharma page as examples).  Now, after attending hundreds of teachings, retreats and various teachers, I have yet to see anyone fly.  And while I had such ignorantly juvenile knowledge about Tibetan Buddhism, I still asked the main teacher if he could teach me Dream Yoga.  Dream Yoga is an extremely advanced practice.  I did not know this at the time.

Let me put this in perspective: this might be similar to a 10 month old baby who cannot walk trying to ask a hang glider if she can take his wings for a lift (the baby would be lucky to speak eloquently enough to start with!).  Seriously.  What did my teacher say?  He told me to go ask someone else (Drupon la – who I would learn much later was my Root Lama).  Now in the main teacher’s case, he knew that Drupon would tell me an emphatic “NO!!”  I have heard stories though of Khenchen Rinpoche telling ambitious students that first they should cultivate Bodhicitta (the mind desiring enlightenment for all beings) before he would teach them Tummo or Illusory Body.  So of course, Drupon told me that first I needed to finish my 100,000 prostrations before he would consider teaching me such an advanced practice.  Guess what my response was to that?  “Why do I have to do so many prostrations?”

Yeah, I was quite naive.  He went on to explain that maybe first I should learn the Four Thoughts That Turn the Mind Toward Enlightenment.  I had to ask him what those were – so he sent me to one of his senior students to explain it.  In other words, before I could learn Dream Yoga (which, after eight years I still have not received), I had to finish the first section of Ngondro (preliminary practices) and learn the ordinary Ngondro practices (the 4 Thoughts).  Needless to say, I had A LOT to learn and I still do.  Before I could learn to ride a bike, I had to learn how to crawl!

I wonder as to all the social, psychological and familial ingredients which go into making a culture as arrogant, ignorant and aggressive as we can be.  (Writing as an American that is.)  We are arrogant if we first read about secret-for-1000-years-but-now-moderately-available Tantric Buddhist practices and we believe that we can learn them within weeks or months.  We are ignorant if we believe that just by visualizing some secret remedy – the White Triangle has to enter the Blue Circle first before expanding outward to infinity – (HOGWASH!) we can cure everything that ails us overnight.  And of course there are some who are aggressive enough to ask *multiple Lamas* for these teachings when they get turned away by the first one.  Unfortunately this can lead directly to spiritual materialism – some Lamas will start giving teachings if they are getting big donation money, even if the students are not ready.  (Not good for anyone – the teacher incurs negative karma for teaching an improper vessel and the students may develop wrong views because mysteriously the practices don’t work – go figure!)

So now do you wonder why some authentic and highly successful lineages of Tibetan Buddhism spurn the opportunity to start Dharma Centers in the USA?  If you still wonder, I would suggest developing a wholesome friendship with a Tibetan Lama who has been in the US for at least five to ten years.  Then, about twelve months into that friendship, ask that Lama to tell some stories about the crazy questions he has gotten from wild Westerners (read “Americans”).  You will likely here about someone who has major anger problems asking for a wrathful practice – and goodness knows for what motivation.  Or you might hear about someone who has bounced around from practice to practice – Shamanism to Quigong to Tibetan Buddhism to Taoism to Non-Duality Teachings, etc but then they come back and want to restart their Buddhist practice with advanced Six Yogas of Naropa teachings.  Nope!  Not good – that is when you might get a wrathful response from a Lama, or at least expect to hear, “You must first learn to generate compassion for all beings.”  And don’t forget that this statement includes generating compassion for yourself!  For some of us here in the States, generating kindness and compassion for ourselves is the most difficult part!

So America, make me proud.  Go out today and if you have any wild and crazy questions for your Lamas, hold your tongue.  Instead ask, “what is the most basic and most beneficial practice that I can do?  And how long do you recommend I do this practice for?”  And guess what, when you start putting their advice into practice, you will encounter some difficulty and discomfort.  That is how you know it is working!  This is because your ego-clinging is very slowly getting ground away.  But don’t forget to practice some self-care (read “kindness to self”) in the midst of this practice or else you will not relax your mind in the least.  And most Buddhist practices exist as a method for relaxing and letting go of monkey-like, distractible, afflicted mental states.

So who am I to state these suggestions so brashly?  Well another good question!  I am nobody.  I am just an ordinary human being.  But I would love for Tibetans and Lamas to have a better picture in their minds of our American mental states.

Thank you for reading!

Chenrezig at Tashi Choeling, C’ville

This material is copyrighted by M. Kirby Moore.  Reproduction without permission is prohibited.  Thank you for visiting!

Tashi Choeling ShrineSo I just complete a two day “retreat” on Avalokitesvara or Chenrezig in Tibetan.  Chenrezig is the manifestation of Buddha Shakyamuni’s compassion or put another way, Chenrezig is a Buddha of Compassion himself.  Chenrezig means to see all beings equally, without bias.  I’m going to add that I suspect he views all beings with unsurpassable compassion as well.

This retreat took place at Tashi Choeling Buddhist Center in Charlottesville, Va.  This center is south of town on a fun-named road called Fiddlesticks Lane.  Fitting I think that we seek to peel apart our deluded perception (to see the true nature of reality) at Fiddlesticks.  Anyway, Khenpo Nawang Dorje is the resident monk at Tashi Choeling.  He is a skilled and knowledgeable teacher, able to answer all of our questions and give teachings via a translator.

The format for this retreat was to teach on the meaning of the six syllable mantra on Friday night.  The mantra is Om Mani Pemme Hum (in Tibetan) it is slightly different in Sanskrit – Om Mani Padme Hung.  Each syllable has to do with Chenrezig’s cleansing one of the realms of samsara – the hell realms, the hungry ghost realms, the animal realms, etc.  He cleanses the afflictive emotions of each realm (supposedly).  And each time we chant the mantra with devotion, another Chenrezig is created, going out into the world to offer healing and compassion to all beings. Manjushri Thangka at Tashi Choeling

Saturday was a full day – Jai Nang (permission blessing ceremony) or brief empowerment / initiation; then Khenpo la taught on the text we would practice that afternoon.  After lunch we did practice and then we did a Dharma protectors practice – very potent. I loved it!  I needed a nap afterwards, which was perfect.

Then Sunday we did an hour of the sadhana practice (a text for practicing Dharma) and then offered a feast to the wisdom beings or we had a “Dharma party” to use Khenpo’s words.  The blessed feast is called a Tsok.  Then that was the completion of the weekend.  I am glad I attended.  After working for nearly 18 months straight, I had been missing many Dharma teachings.  For me, I have a strong connection with the Dharma, and it is sort of my medicine.  If my mind stream is getting toxic or clouded over, a Dharma teaching is all I need to imprint on virtuous teachers and cleanse my mind stream.  Ahhh…

Thank you for reading!  And may all beings know themselves to have all that they need and rest in that.  By the way, you can visit Tashi Choeling’s website at http://www.tcbci.org

Thank you to my readers and followers

Dear Readers,

I want to say thank you for bearing with me and my absentee blogging as of late!  There is good news however – I just quit my restaurant job and now I have ample free time to keep the universe updated on my activities.  So be on the lookout for more Spiritual Astrology posts, blurbs about self care and of course the near constant updates on Dharma activities in the United States.

I am excited to be traveling to Tampa Florida in June – I will visit my heart teacher Drupon Thinley Ningpo and other friends, along with visiting the beach and touring the city.  I plan to spend about ten days out of town (two days are transit days as it is a twelve hour drive total).

Then in July I am heading out to California for a little vacation and visit.  I will see a couple of friends, visit the Sequoias National Park and make a pilgrimage to the Land of the Medicine Buddhas (Retreat Center).  Who knows what else I will do?

As I mentioned, I quit my recent time-consuming job, so now I am focused entirely on my business offering process-oriented bodywork and spiritual astrology interpretations.

Visit my website or give me a call to schedule an appointment – www.mkirbymoore.com or call 434.465.0603

Single Pointed Mind, Not Wasting Time

This material is copyrighted by M. Kirby Moore.  Reproduction without permission is prohibited.  Please support Kirby’s projects and business by visiting www.mkirbymoore.com.  Thank you!

I am very blessed to be friends with many powerful people – practitioners, healers, teachers, nurses, holistic health practitioners, etc.  One of my friends is presently doing a one year retreat.  He has allowed some time to connect via phone with some of his closer friends, which I am grateful for.  And let me tell you, I am extremely grateful for the presence and wisdom which come across the line when we chat.  Here are tidbits from our recent conversation:

I recently quit my job.  And I am looking at tons of free time which I have not had in over 18 months.  So guess what I have done for at least a couple hours a day?  Yes, I have regressed back to playing old computer games from the 90’s.  Old bad habits die hard – even if I took five years off from them.  How does that happen anyway?  So I mentioned my time wasting to him.  He gave me some pith advice:

Wasting time is toxic, it creates poor mental health.  Get this out of my system now and move on with ease and grace and single pointed mindfulness.  And he is absolutely correct.  Who knew that playing a few hours of games a day could be so toxic?  I am wondering if there is some toxicity due to my having taken Buddhist vows.  Plus after one or two hours of sitting and playing, there are definitely physical signs that it is not good for me – stiff joints, aches and body grumpiness and my kidneys sometimes feel like someone is playing the drums back there…  Not entirely healthy I suspect!  Plus, I sat with a local Buddhist sangha not too long ago and we did some Deity Yoga practice.  That was one of the first times I actually detoxed a bad smell – of course when I was athletic in the past I had some BO issues.  But I was sitting there chanting mantras when I started heating up, sweating and then stinking!  Good grief!  Wasting time is toxic.  The evidence was right there.

Penetrate what I do with my intention.  He also told me this.  The problem is, I am little shaky right now.  My intention is to be of benefit to others always.  Sometimes I have to practice more self care and if this is the case, I might need to pause being really useful to others.  I am up in the air about moving – it will either be California or Florida.  Some trips this summer will determine which I choose.  It is my intention to be in grad school in the fall.  So I am dealing with many many transitions.  I feel a little porous at the moment.  Hard to nail down an intention aside from being completely present as I surrender to my destiny.

Do what I love, pursue what I love.  So what do I love?  Again, here we are with these pithy advices.  This requires that I get crystal clear about what I love.  I think I am floundering a little deep inside.  As one of my teachers, Julie Henderson would say, I am making a slow transition from personal pleasures to more mature joys of daily spiritual practice, but there have been at least one or two steps backwards as I slowly climb toward liberation and unconditional joy.  So what do I love?  I love practicing the Tibetan language.  I have my good days and less than good days, but I love how it stretches my mind.  Plus I am slowly getting better.  I love spending time with Buddhist monks and solid practitioners (of course, if you wanted to improve your mindfulness and presence of being, who wouldn’t!).  I am very blessed to have these resources around me.  I might as well take advantage of my blessings while I have them!  I also love being of benefit to others – whether through healing facilitation or astrology interpretation.  If my words or hands can communicate the Buddhist prayers without being secular, that is great!  That is my intention by the way.

For now, one of the only cards I can play is to let go, surrender and go with the flow.

Well these are my ramblings for the day here.  Thanks for being party to them.  By the way, one way you could help me spend my time more productively is by purchasing a Spiritual Astrology interpretation or a bodywork session.  Nonetheless, wish me well as I strive for equanimity and deep presence and single pointedness.

Alternative Shingles Treatments

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The first alternative treatment for shingles that was offered to me was to take lysine internally in tablet form – the amino acid L lysine and to take St. John’s Wort both internally and externally.  The Lysine was to make the sores go away faster and I think it worked.  I guess the external St. John’s Wort was also to do this?  Not sure – or an external treatment for the nerves?  Internally I am guessing it worked with the nervous system to calm things down.

The second alternative treatment that was offered, and I did not get the chance to try this out because the sores were practically dried up by the time I found out, was Red Marine Algae.  This was to replace the Valtrex – the anti-viral medicine which definitely did the trick for me!  The Valtrex plus Lysine had my sores drying up within three days and thank goodness because for a few days there, the left side of my face was crusty and oozy and pocked.  Yick!

Yet another alternative treatment which is supposed to help the nerves over time, and I do not fully understand this, but I read an article on it which persuaded me to give it a try, was to use Castor Oil Heated Liver Packs at least once a day.  The way one goes about doing this is to put Castor Oil on a piece of flannel wool, put a piece of plastic wrap over that so the heating pad does not get oily and to let the oil soak into the body for at least an hour.  Here is what I can tell you: if you happened to get the shingles (because your immune system was very very depleted from it) because you have a lot of suppressed resentment and / or frustration or irritation, then these livers packs are just for you.  Doing them will literally force you to stop suppressing that said resentment.  Trust me, only after the second day of doing one hour per day, I noticed results.  And by the way, this is an Edgar Cayce remedy.

Last but not least, I have not tried these homeopathic remedies yet, however I am still in pain seven weeks later, so I will give it a shot soon, there are several homeopathic options.  Ideally, I think we should work with a solid homeopath who can take down all of our details – for instance there might be a different treatment for herpes zoster on the ribs vs. herpes zoster (the shingles virus) on the face.  From the research I did, it sounded like extremely high potency doses of Mag-Phos could help with the nerve pain.  So I am going to give that a try next.

If you happen to be very, and I mean very sensitive, then you will not react well to Valtrex.  I heard several people mention that it caused them rough headaches and other side effects.  If you are exquisitely sensitive (which can be a great blessing once you understand it), then even L-Lysine might be a bit much for your liver, especially over extended periods of time.  So trust your intuition and your body.  If the doctors are telling you one thing and your body is screaming the exact opposite, back off and find out how to come back into alignment.  I think that rest is the ultimate shingles cure.  Once I stopped watching sports highlights and wasting time here and there, once I just rested for 16 hours straight for a few days in a row, that was when I felt much much better.

And by the way, I am not a doctor, I do not claim to treat, cure, prevent, or diagnose any disease, rather here I am just sharing my experience from having the shingles on my left trigeminal nerve.  So take any advice at your own risk  🙂  and enjoy it as entertainment if not.

I wish you wellness on your journey and thank you for reading!  To set up an appointment with Kirby for Astrology or Bodywork, go to http://www.mkirbymoore.com

Auspicious Day, Apr 2013

This material is copyrighted by M. Kirby Moore.  Reproduction without permission is prohibited.  Please visit Kirby’s website at http://www.mkirbymoore.com (link on right also) to support his business and blogging efforts.  Thank you for visiting!

Driving up to NOVA to see Garchen Rinpoche. Abridged version (slow typer on iPad).

Started out early, not a morning person these days. Misjudged the 30 to 40 traffics lights on 29 north, afraid of being late, argh! Arrive to park next to my friend David from NYC, ahhh, that’s better.

Morning talk on Buddhanature. So precious. Garchen Rinpoche is one of the most sublime beings I have ever attended. He has no text in front of him, just spontaneous realization. Two hours of a potent and general talk on how to realize our innate Buddhanature – what is it? Where is it? What is mind? How do we purify our deep habit of grasping at a self? It takes a long time and lots of perseverance. I slip in and out of meditative samadhi. Stuff is happening in my body – probably just being in Rinpoche’s presence is moving, shifting, healing, melting parts of me which had become rigid, contracted, frozen. Ahhhhhh….

The scene was the Auspicious Cloud Monastery in Haymarket Cirginia, a little north of Warrenton. It is incredibly serene there! Big vast open sky. Many statues of seated Buddhas, standing Bodhisattvas, a female Buddha on a lotus surrounded by pools of water. And a large Shakyamuni Buddha in a pavilion out in a field. To get to him, one must walk through a promenade of outdoor lotus lamps. Being there in Rinpoche’s mandala, it truly felt like a pure realm. Plus they provided us with delicious vegetarian Vietnamese food! Yummy!

I got to catch up with old friends and meet some new ones, as it has been a year since I have done Dharma outside of C’ville. And actually, since I usually do the Tibetan Meditation Center in Frederick Maryland, there were mostly people I had not met before. Plus there was a good number of Vietnamese people with their translator too! Wow!

The afternoon was questions and answers. I was full of good food, so at first my body was sitting in meditation posture with ease. Toward the end though, I could not stay comfortable. I should have brought my own cushion and blanket (note to self…). 🙂

Garchen Rinpoche gave out a copy of the Great Perfection of Samanthabhadra’s Aspirations otherwise known as the King of Aspiration prayer. Then when I offered my khata, he gave me a copy of the little yellow 37 Bodhisattva practices booklet. That man is so kind and precious, it is beyond words… Many people cried as they received blessings from him. I wanted to.

Thank you for reading.

Sun Salutation

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Good day, my dear readers (that is assuming of course that my month long absence has not chased everyone off).

This morning I woke up at 5:30 am, which considering I work late shifts in a restaurant, is highly unusual. I was going for a mountain drive with a friend to take sunrise pictures. As I waited for her though, I got to witness the most vivid scene I have encountered in a while. The birds were saluting the upcoming sun with a majestic chorus of songs! I slowly walked around the parking lot, staying warm in the chilly air, and one robin in particular was just belting it out. I could only tell it was a robin because in the dark misty morning, only its proud-chest-puffed-out silhouette was visible. My movement caused it to fly a little ways off, but it continued to call for the sun. Yearning, using all its vocal might to conjure the beauty that is sunrise. Aahhhh!

So I am slowly mending from the shingles and I intend to be back in the blogging about once a week world. I have tried to go back to work full time, but I am changed. After those preciously nurturing three weeks of downtime, I find myself more sensitive to stress and I can no longer handle restaurant work, surprise surprise! So I plan to see more clients but more importantly I intend to enjoy myself.

I have eleven weeks before I fly to California to investigate my future and do some gorgeous sight seeing. Then I will return and start packing up my life for a major transition! In the meantime, I’d like to visit the beach, to honor my inner waves as I rest and heal in the warm sand. If possible, I intend to visit Florida to see my heart teacher Drupon Thinley Ningpo and other friends in Tampa. Plus I would like to visit the DC area to see family and friends and to treat some clients. On top of all this, I need to heal. I have a hunger for deep rest. Napping like I have never rested before 🙂 Profound, radical, advanced napping. I am excited as I move forward!

I wish you happiness and ease in your day. ~Kirby