What are yours?
If any of the themes below resonate with you, I’d love to hear from you.
with love ✨, CATHERINE
Observations on moving, breathing and being. These are mine.
I’ve been writing them down since 2020.
I took a long pause. I’m back now.
A reflection on wilting
I came home from Vermont late Saturday night to find the flowers in my flower box underneath my front window severely wilted. At first, I cried foul—poison! Someone poisoned my flowers! Now, I wonder if they weren’t a sacrificial death—perhaps a symbol of the year up ‘til now, a foreshadow of what was still to come, a snapshot of my current state so I might investigate further the need for better healing options.
Flowers need nuanced care in order to thrive. Their caregiver must properly tend to their needs, appreciating how much sun is appropriate, how much water is required. The caretaker must observe the flowers with compassion, intellect and patience. They must be willing to remove any weeds that otherwise might stop the flowers’ growth, or to transplant them if they’ve outgrown their containers. The caretaker must provide enough nourishment for strong roots to develop and for the flowers to weather any storm.
We, too, need nuanced care in order to thrive…
A reflection on the Earth as medicine
I’ve been learning about koans—paradoxical riddles of sort in Zen Buddhism on which students meditate in order to uncover knowledge, intuition, enlightenment. This morning’s lesson was particularly relevant, as though the koan purposefully presented itself to me. Of note, I happen to be in Vermont for the week to ruminate more deeply on this past year-to-date and what I might (continue to) learn from it moving forward. So…you can likely see how this particular koan being the meditation of the day piqued my interest.
Other translations of the koan include:
Medicine and disease (or sickness) exactly correspond (or correspond to each other).
The whole Earth is medicine.
What is self? (Or what are you?)
There are many types of disease…
A reflection on the importance of the hug
Virginia Satir, often referred to as the pioneer of family therapy, highlighted the importance of physical touch overall—and specifically hugs—when she equated modes of life (survival, maintenance, growth) with the number of hugs received per day (4, 8, 12).
The need for touch is real. It is a significant part of the human experience, connecting us to self and to others. Without it, we can feel deprived, even starved, for physical contact with another.
A reflection on turning impediments into fortune
I’ve heard that vinyl records have enjoyed a resurgence of late. If you remember them at all, you might recall that they have grooves. Vinyls tend to work until these grooves become scratched or broken such that the result is an endless loop across the same recorded section…over and over again.
We as humans have similar grooves, too. And we also tend to work until these grooves result in repeated patterns of behavior, difficult to resist, that no longer serve us yet which we relive…over and over again…keeping us “stuck” or frozen in the past.
In yoga, we know these grooves to be samskaras…
A reflection on penning our own life's story
Stories are often created from ignoring the truth of a person, behavior, situation, culture, system and the like. Within our own lives, we allow ourselves to become actors, learning to play our roles quite well within these stories, both understanding and dancing around the often multi-layered, underlying subtext never to be spoken. We proudly wear our costumes and masks. We diligently show up for rehearsal. Occasionally we dare to improvise, exposing contextual moments of truth, often unknown to most, including ourselves. But eventually, as good actors do, we circle back to the story’s original intent so as to arrive at curtain call as expected.
Pause. Re-read if need be.
Life itself is made up of a compilation of these stories…
A reflection on badassery
bad·ass·e·ry | \ ˈbad-¦a-sə-rē \
1. The state or condition of being a badass: badass quality or character
2. The actions or behaviour characteristic of a badass
bad·ass | \ ˈbad-ˌas \
2. Of formidable strength or skill
One of my best friends stopped through town this past weekend. In addition to sharing delicious food and drink and overall inspiring conversation, specifically we discussed the notion of “badassery”—what it is (IMO, overall impressiveness) and how to both recognize and celebrate this state of mind, in others and in ourselves.
It’s this last part…badassery in ourselves…that kept me up at night: why is it so much easier to acknowledge it in anyone other than in ourselves?
A reflection on the inner child
Compassion (def.) – sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress, together with a desire to alleviate it
Self-Compassion – directing this compassion towards one’s self
Yoga philosophy* teaches us that our true nature can become imbalanced due to physical, mental and emotional conditions. These may manifest as tightness in our bodies and breath or as feelings of restlessness, worry, helplessness and the like. We can work to reduce or prevent these imbalances through practice—moving, breathing, sitting—learning to nurture attitudes of friendliness, compassion, pleasure and non-judgement. These healing virtues, or “yogic vitamins”, have as much to do with our relationship with ourselves as they do with our relationships with others.
I have struggled over the years with accepting compassion, in particular, as a two-way exchange…
A reflection on overwhelm
Most people who know me would likely describe me as a highly motivated person. I would tend to agree. I have a lot of drive that, when channelled appropriately, can propel me into action, and, when not, can stop me in my tracks.
At times, it can seemingly do both…
