Holding the Vision: Right Brain Workout, Spring Equinox 3-23-13

Amidst the homeless sleeping on picnic tables, the families running about, and the fantastic huge fig tree by the pavilion, loyal Lisa and I hunkered down with my basket of supplies, seeds and dreams and yes,  we did our Right Brain Workout.   It goes to show that regardless of my expectations and planning,  LIFE will dictate its own agenda.   Lisa and I have a lovely shorthand,  so it was a beautiful exchange to share our dreams and visions for the coming year.   (Her piece is top, mine bottom).

I feel strangely shy to go any deeper than this (for now).   In fact,  the entire weekend,  whether out on the roads running or attending to the chore list,  I felt as if 'something' is working its magic on us all,  preparing for changes we can't yet begin to see....making all best-laid plans simple incubation of seeds and intentions. 

Our timelines are all different.   The Big Teachers out there moving and shaking it found their audiences, students, clients.  Who knows,  maybe mine is STILL developing....and meanwhile the therapeutic encounter always comes with its own wholly sanctified and sacred energy.  Whether you are one on one,  or a part of any group,  it all comes back to encounter with Self;  we are all finding our way in a big, changing world.

Thank-you,  dear Lisa.  I felt lots of love in that alcove amidst the vast trunk of that amazing tree.  Whatever comes,   we all encourage each other to keep our feet on the path,  believe in the highest we've got, no matter how it may look....there is always much at work,  on the unseen.   

Mysterious Times

As a Spring baby,  something always stirs in me this time of year,   I can feel it right through my feet, in my pores,  that delicious, fresh feeling of New Things patiently waiting to punch through the surface and grow, blossom, provide us with all the magical sustenance of Life.
As I geared up for Sunday's long run,  I felt dogged by the fatigue, aches and pains and stress of the week;  mysterious times indeed, even at work,  the morphing of challenges and changes means staying light on my feet, adjusting and staying focused on moving it all forward in some productive way.....

But the morning light was calling,  the temps were very mild, and the overcast skies gave more depth to the feeling of stepping out into another world.   I couldn't care less anymore about how long, how fast, how well it goes....just running has becomes its own joy.  So I pointed myself east and headed for the beach.

There is nothing ordinary about Florida on her worse day.   All the atmospherics here come in big packages...the skies,  the ever-changing ocean waters,  the big air full of beach scents often blustery and blowing through the flat salt marshes....and the Light!   Brassy,  bright or muted down into the spectrum of grey and cool blues....Florida gives every day, every run.

It was a struggle getting there.   I hung out long enough to take pix and breathe in that fantastic briny air, and absorb the healing that comes with a pause in the miles,  the week, the life of a busy counselor.   It was the way back that gave me a few of those magical stretches when finally enough blood flow and comfort came to my achy legs and I could stretch myself along the open back roads flying free -if only for minutes at a time.

There is such a buzz about this Equinox.  I am seeing many posts tap us to the enormous new window of change upon us,  3 months down the road from 12-21 Solstice.  The potential for positive change seems in direct proportion to how willing we are to give up all our preconceived ideas about how it should all look or be.   On the run,  the tired humdrum feeling of 'oh no another long run' was quickly replaced with "WOW! that was GREAT!" even as I walked a good bit of the last bits home.

Fly free this week with the energies now upon us all....catch where you carry the old beliefs that make you shun the new risk, venture, creative project,  the act of connection,  forgiveness or fortitude....the art within you,  of manifesting just by being alive!  By breathing,  you participate anyway.  Why not make it a conscious effort and see just how far down the road you've gone? 

There is a 'runner' in us all....we all came out of the gate and are making our way on the Course of our Lives.....looking for the markers,  the cheerleaders,  the help when we get tired, or lost.   Look around you,  see those other runners?  They might look to YOU for their inspiration,  if you only keep on your feet....let the momentum of the Spring Push bring you along.....closer than ever to your dreams.

REMINDER!

Join me THIS SATURDAY MARCH 23rd  2:00PM

Hugh Birch State Park

off Sunrise Ave.  Ft. Lauderdale

for another RIGHT BRAIN WORKOUT

PLANTING THE SEEDS OF OUR DREAMS

bring real seeds which represent your dreams, park fee, donations appreciated

and GET INTO YOUR RIGHT MIND!

954-665-9536 for more info or email riccirob13@yahoo.com

Musings on Training

A runner is in perpetual preparation.  The runners I admire are like that,  training and prepping for their next race, event,  project....tweaking out their food, sleep, physical therapy,  writing their mileage plans....
I look back and realize I first learned this as a wood carver.  All the time it took to work into the wood,  to get the shape, to refine, to sand, to finish....such a long process.   Training is a long process too.  So as a runner,  I am in perpetual preparation.
This boon is so out of my character, I know it is 'a gift.'   A known impatient person, I have the capacity now to wait out 26 miles to gratification.  Try it,  it's not easy!!  And translated elsewhere in my life,  I have a long-distance view of things.   I can percolate.  I can stay with my base, as I have been lately,  glad that once a week I can up the effort and pull out a decent long run,  when I am validated for that equation, that hard work = success.
Whatever your right brain practice,  if you have longevity with it you know what I'm talking about.  The angst I see in clients (and people in general)  has everything to do with their lack of established healthy routines with their lives...as so much is constant turmoil and reactivity.  The longer they sustain their effort, the greater the benefit for them and those around them....we reverberate way further than we know.

Amongst the angst of my own reactions,  I know a far greater part of me is swimming in a crystalline sea of splendid color,  tapping the moment when it all comes clear, and free.  I find that in running,  in a more visceral way even than art, which has always been my path.   Throwing my body forward makes the connection more immediate;  I have no where to go but forward.   Entrainment was a word that came into fashion with Mickey Hart;  the tap tap of a runner's footsteps is similar to a repetitive dance which just keeps on going....it is hypnotic and I see now that I put myself in trance regularly.  Is it any wonder that I chose rightbrainrunner  and not rightbrainartist to write from?  Who knows maybe I need to look at that.   The bottom line is the Greatest Artist of Them All,  The Great Mother, is so worthy of my honor and respect,  for She led me to the right brain to begin with, where She can be met.  She is waiting there for everyone;  this is Her home.   She who moves the 'heaves and earth',  the Spirit and Breath of Life itself...the creative principle.  And so my mission was born.

Get into YOUR right mind today.   Check your inner list of most favorite things,  those activities or practices which put you in your right brain,  where your relationship with Life is not theoretical, stifled, but expanded into the 'rightness' of the Big Picture,  and your place in it.   Let you be you.  Relax, and keep moving.

Expect the Unexpected- from Full Moon February to March

If duality is the swing of the pendulum from side to side,  then wholeness is the expanded embrace of the entire thing:  the Process of movement itself.   Clarity is the momentary pause at one extreme before sliding over the other way...while the rush of experience presses on its merry way.

From the mid-winter stretch of record-breaking highs and lack of rain,  a cold front is making its way over the south Florida area,  bringing the morning temps down to the high 50's today,  ready to get even lower this weekend.  Taking my time out the door,  hoping the temps would moderate enough with the sun,  although hidden behind a blanket of gray clouds....the winds carrying the chill as I start up Park at a fast walk, determined just to move, and breathe, and move....

My body is ultra-sensitive to environmental factors of all kinds:  smells, noises, temps,  humidity, winds or lack thereof,  or industrials,  and chemicals,  the pressure of other people's energies, etc etc.  In childhood this was a constant source of friction with my father, who thought I was making it all up just to piss him off.  In adulthood,  I am also often misunderstood and called "too sensitive" by those whose constitution is tougher than mine (and believe this type of experience is some sort of whiny cop-out).   Running gave me a way of addressing and stretching this every time I go and place myself out in Nature to take whatever She's dishing out.  It's a way of 'training' myself I suppose to make my peace with the physical world beyond my joy of perception...and ground myself into/with Mother Gaia.

I watch myself walking up Park bracing against the cold as it penetrates even through my new windbreaker,  contracting inward,  stiff and pissed, wanting sun, wanting relief NOW even as the runner in me knows,  there's a loop to do,  we're doing it.  This mental process of relaxing and easing into the run goes the same way every time...the initial inner protest eventually dissolving into the run itself...until up on Ravenswood I caught a nice rhythm and ran it slow and easy up to my Publix pit-stop.

Nothing stays the same forever, except Love and Spirit.   And even They must shape themselves around the same imperatives, the pendulum swings which serve to benchmark our rhythm in life,  from light to dark,  grief to joy,  distance from Self to intimacy,  the exquisite wonder of our own pace, our own time through the loop of the day,  the week, the months rolling into the years which bring us Here,  Now,  ready to do it all again in some new and unexpected way.

Running frees my right brain to dive deep into all the questions which could crowd the enthusiasm out of my daily routines,  giving me the outlet to 'exhaust' them until all I have left is the feeling of lightness, of lift,  of living on the razor edge of earth and sky which is where the runner lives....half-way off the ground. 

You may think you know what's coming:  as we pay our taxes,  activate our political/social agendas,  care for ourselves, our families, friends,  walk the Planet, drive our cars,  consume what we think we need or want or wish for what we are told is impossible, unrealistic....take a minute to review.   How much did you anticipate where you are now??  Could you imagine the magnitude of it all?  For LIFE is so much bigger than we ever grasp.  There is no meditation,  no guru,  no master man or woman who has it ALL....therefore,  expect what you cannot predict or imagine in the best of all possible worlds...it is MORE than that!  Expect the unexpected and pay attention- the miracle will appear:  any day, any moment now....

Felt like summer Beach Run 2-24-13

It's been a lonely road lately,   as busy as ever,  in fact more so,  with the minutia of taxes and finances,  clients and juggling time,  keeping a focus on physical maintenance and all the upkeep that entails for acquiring good food,  lots of rest and of course running and yoga.

I headed out the door Sunday with no plan.  Forecasts called for record temps and for some reason that prompted the desire to see the beach....  

...together with all the other walkers, runners, bladers, blikers, wanderers down on the Broadwalk.... soaking up the hot morning sun.

I just let my body get on 'automatic pilot' to run there,  take my time soaking up the scene,  and on the way back,  cut down to the parallel alley where all this magnificent Nature hid along the backs of properties...heading on west crossing the major streets until I walked the last bit home.

Words come from multi-layered filters;  from my bodily senses,  my perceptual radar,  my inner compass which takes the world more as 'suggestion',  I found myself stopping more just to check out the light, the smells,  the color and shapes around me.  Finding the words, which usually comes easily, has been more difficult lately.   Emotions crowd around and say "who cares?  who sees?  who understands?"

When you are suddenly aware of your vast alone-ness in the world,  don't give up the sanctity of your solitude so easily.   After all,  Mother Nature knows you,  has freely offered Her gifts,  and you receive them every day.   The sense that we are walking separate from our own lives is the loneliest feeling of all.    But the World conspires to break you open anyway.  Nature sends Her beautiful smorgasbord of wonders and asks you to entrain with her constancy.   She grabbed hold of me as each fence row of blooms made me stop: focus: admire.  

Imagine if every time we saw one another we were filled with the same sense of awe and beauty...!!  Imagine what that would feel like if someone treated you this way.  I imagine.   I come back to Gaia....as She waits for me patiently,  like the good Mother She is....I know She carries me there, and back....every day. 

Ups and Downs: Run with the Cycles of Your Life

Just as mysteriously the gods granted me that week of effortless running,  this week has been all hard work.  My body feels as if it's been twisted up like a twizzler, firing the nerves in all the hot spots,  and making good sleep elusive.   Nevertheless,  the weekend runs gave me plenty of open roads to stretch my heart,  stopping at this beautiful spot on the 35th Ave cut-down I pass regularly, just to absorb the beauty of those big trees.   And this week,  my very modest attempts give me good doses of sun and breezy air.  Whether I walk really fast (which is surely how it must look) or run really slow,  simply moving along will eventually loosen me up and give a rise to the endorphins which situate me for the rest of the day.

Perfectionist and performance oriented folks, as I tend to be,  have difficulty riding with the cycles of life.  Especially now,  with the planet undergoing the most tremendous transformation since Creation,  we are billions of cells in the human/earth body on the receiving end of solar winds, planetary tides,  galactic alignments of all kinds with heavenly forces and bodies we can only barely perceive with either 5 physical senses or any others at our disposal!  And yet,  with brave hearts,  we wake up each day to take up our respective tasks,  arrive at our jobs, take care of our children, our parents, our partners, ourselves....cook our food,  address our issues,  seek solace,  create dreams,  love each other....all while the wobble of existence causes dramatic shifts in our energy or paradigms at any given time.    Is it any wonder there are days when the going is like a magic carpet ride,  full of mysterious and effortless results,  and others when it seems as if the very air is thick like molasses,  holding us up in our hard casings of bodily or emotional distress?

I may have finally found that step back,  where I take a longer look at the Big Picture....and showing up every day at work is honoring the dharma of my mission, making myself available to the Powers that Be in whatever way I'm led,  to offer guidance, inspiration and model the desire to stay in the game.   Or running morphs into a Zen practice of simply moving,  and finding the pace of the day,  no matter what my expectations may demand.   Or creating means finding the elements of my household life like colors in my art box,  making the landscape of my home full of living;  the plants lush and colorful,  the rhythm of work, interactions,  sleep and dreams...the inner life of Soul, impressing itself upon me, and asking me always,  Where is your attention now?  SEE what is truly there!

It takes downtime to appreciate the nurturing of shadows,  silence,  contemplation and solitude.  We mask the benefits with our cultural 'guilt trips',  when instead we can roll with it,  as if we had any other choice,  into our shamanic investigation...and come back out with greater insight,  confidence and resilience!  Why are we so afraid of our own inner Self??  This Valentine's Day,   as the world 'sells' us a picture of romantic love,  remember there is no love possible unless it lives inside of us.  The wounded,  betrayed, childlike heart hiding behind our adult masks, is calling to us to embrace it,  nurture it back into the Soul family,  where your acceptance and integration will give it new life and meaning.   Take a step in the direction of your next cycle and embrace your ups and downs.   Love even the question in-between. 

Pushing Through the Big Griffin Loop

Compared to other places I've lived,  I think of my SoFlo area as an urban development.  You can visit great parks, and of course the beaches,  but running in any direction will get you miles of neighborhoods and pseudo-industrial enclaves...some beautiful,  some not so much.   For my Sunday long run,  I decided to head for my big Griffin loop,  which extends west and north to capture connecting streets full of lush mystery and trashy charms.  There were more runners out yesterday (Ft. Lauderdale race is soon!),  and more trash along the roads.   The cool-down felt great with the sun blazing through clear skies....I got warm quickly and loosened up after my first few miles.

It was fun comparing notes with cousin Steve,  who also runs.  An injury side-lined him some years back,  but he was showing off his new Mizunos,  so I was happy to hear he was back.  Some of the runners I saw on my loop were younger, faster and more relaxed looking than me.  But as I tackled first one section,  then another,  I had to allow myself some pride;  I've been running now almost 10 years and "come hell or high water" have managed to STAY running all that time, minus a few days or so here and there.  So it hasn't exactly gone as 'planned':  I am not the 'uber-runner' of my fantasies.  My body,  built for anything but speed, seems to take running as a really long, fast walk!  With occasional spurts of greatness,  meaning I can actually get a good gait going,  I have morphed 'training' into a comfortable familiarity with all my loops and routes....knowing just how much will get me awake,  or stretch my limits and my legs.  And no races since Miami '12.

Hanging with Steve reminds me that every runner has their own 'Inner Runner'...flavored by personality, ambition,  competitiveness and drive.  I had much more ambition in the beginning.  Now I have drive, enough to convince me 3-5 days a week that it's worth my while to get out there again.   I was goal-oriented;  training for events.  These days,  I am most interested in how it feels and what I see along the way.   As above,  this shot of a canal overpass on 29th,  a semi-industrial park connector between Stirling and home.   Enchanting spot!

Some times I push through and like yesterday,  find it worthwhile.  Other times I choose my couch, my notebooks, my floor,  my yoga routine....or dive into my kitchen and play with good foods to feed my hopes and dreams.   As I watched a young gal running ahead of me yesterday I thought "great job,  young one,  now let's see you keep it up another 30 years!"
Age is a good thing.  Now I know when I can,  when I shouldn't,  and when none of that matters!