Forrest Gump said, it, “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you are going to get.”
Well, I wish I was eating with Forrest Gump, because a box of chocolates sure is fun. But lately, I have been eating from the big pot of gumbo, here at the Cosmic Café. Lord knows, I am trying to watch my sugar intake, so I’ll take the gumbo any day of the week. And gumbo is much more body nourishing and soul sustaining. Gumbo is good for the long haul.
Why gumbo, you ask? I like gumbo, it’s got everything in it. You can just throw anything in there, everything that is in the fridge that needs eating up. All the little bits and pieces that are too weird for their own dish get thrown into the gumbo. Even the little wiggly bits with tentacles that came from God knows where can find a home there. It’s magic, some kitchen alchemy, that suddenly turns all that random stuff into lunch.
Best lunch ever.
You know there is a crazy story attached to the whole gumbo analogy. Here it is.
Just a few weekends ago we graduated our most recent third year students from the Rhys Thomas Institute of Energy Medicine. Graduation is always an amazing event. It’s a moment when I feel so proud and sad too. Proud of all the hard work our students do in the three years that they are with us. Proud of myself and our teaching staff for getting them there. (It’s harder then it looks folks!) But really proud of the people that they have become.
Our grads are the grooviest, most grounded, heart-opened people that you will ever meet. They are switched on, baby!
And sad, since I will miss them as they go off into the world, sharing the love in their own unique ways. On graduation day, I am a proud, happy mama.
On Sunday morning, the last day of class for the year, Rhys and I do a very powerful meditation. It’s called the Temple of Light and I think it’s my favorite part of the whole year. It’s beautiful and takes a lot of preparation work to energetically set the space, so we both come in early on Sunday to do this.
I got there first to discover that the door to Solstice had been busted open and the place was tossed around pretty good.
I stood there trying to make sense of what I was seeing. A lot of weird thoughts ran through my head, like – Did the students come here last night and party and trash the place? (Like crazy teenagers after graduation day?)
I wondered if the teaching assistants who closed up did the same thing. Maybe it was a prank?
Then the penny dropped. We had been robbed. ROBBED! OMG! On graduation day, right before the Temple of Light meditation. Weird, gross energy had entered the temple.
I called the police. I called Rhys, and the building super and the landlord. Thus began a long morning of sorting out the mess. The thieves hit every office in our building, which is an old, gorgeous mill building. They got the $30 from the cash drawer and a laptop, but it could have been so much worse. I think we got off pretty lucky. But it was a weird, creepy, yucky feeling to be sure.
Here is where the gumbo comes in.
Eventually it all got sorted out, the police left, the students came and we had a great meditation. Afterwards Rhys and I compared notes and we agreed that it was the most intense, highest frequency meditation that we have ever done.
I thought I would be thrown off by all the yuckiness of the morning, but I wasn’t. The first image that I had in the meditation was to see life as a big pot of stew. Gumbo! I could feel the fullness of life, if you know what I mean. Like life is a big pot of gumbo with everything tossed into it all floating around and bubbling in it.
The gumbo contains it all. All the ups and down that we get in life. Sweet stuff, scary things and even the weird wiggly stuff that has tentacles and lives at the bottom of the ocean. This gumbo had it all- angels and demons. The robbers, and the nice policemen who helped us. And everything in between. It’s all part of the great Soup of Life. All points on the spectrum must be occupied and from that perspective it’s all good.
There is sadness, loss, grief, suffering and pain. Even evil. But it is also full of love, beauty and hope. The saints, the prophets and the masters, all swimming around in the same pot. And I loved it all. I could see the beauty and the rightness of the whole pattern. It’s a bit hard to describe the feeling that I had through this. Joy, love, total acceptance for what is- a feeing of ecstatic joy at the beauty of the pattern, and a sort of humble awe for being in the mix.
Best gumbo ever.
As part of the meditation, I got an “upgrade.” It’s like a level up experience, the summation of all the work I have done lately. (Thanks MJ! You are the best.) As I said in my last blog, I have just gone through all seven chakras seven times in the course for the seven years I have been teaching with Rhys in the Energy Medicine Institute. The result of this work, is that I feel more peaceful and happier then I ever have. Truly, deeply content.
My work is getting so much deeper. Doing sessions is almost effortless. I feel like I have more energy then ever before too. Don’t need much sleep. I feel very inspired. Inspired to write, to plan my classes, to bring myself out into the world more boldly. And it is just happening, unrolling out in front of me, like the yellow brick road.
It’s the difference between striving and working hard because I don’t have enough and AM NOT enough- to working because I want to and that is what I am here to do. It’s not so much about accomplishing something out of a sense of lack, but more about expressing myself deeply. Sharing.
Something has shifted in me where feel that I am no longer searching for happiness and fulfillment outside of myself. Who I am doesn’t depend on anything that is external to me. Life goes up and down, but I am still me, not needing to reference anything outside of myself to tell me who I am.
Life goes up and down. Money comes in and goes out of the bank account. People come and go. Horrible and beautiful things happen around me all the time, mostly in equal measure. There are funerals and tragedies on the news. And also weddings and babies born, everyday.
Laundry gets done. Or not. The lawn still needs mowing, and the garden needs weeding and will again forever more.
And still I am just me.
And through engaging in the ups and downs, the washing and the weeding, the coming and going, I feel great joy. Joy in all the small moments of life. Each moment full of pleasure, interest, meaning and connection Each moment an opportunity to be treasured and enjoyed. I feel the joy of being alive, of being my own weird wiggly tentacle in the pot of the Universal Gumbo.
I feel like this sense of peace, inner fullness and connectedness is a new baseline for me. And I have to say I think I will need it since some very cool things are happening in my life.
More to come on that!
