Sunday, June 12, 2016

The Questions We Carry

I am preparing to go to Topanga Canyon for my second Healers' Intensive with Deena Metzger.  She has asked each of us to prepare a 3-minute introduction about the questions we are carrying and about why we were called to be there.  I'm glad she asked; I've found it helpful to think about it, to consider why it is that I feel so moved to go again.  This is what I've come up with so far.

It's interesting to me that I've felt so strongly to come to the Intensive both of the last two years.  I knew I wanted to work with Deena more, but I think of myself much more as a writer than a healer (Deena also offers a Writers' Intensive).  But it's been very clear to me that I felt called to this one.

Last year we spent the week honing a question.  Mine is:  What would an indigenous grandmother do?  I have lived with this question for a year, and it's still my question.  The indigenous part is because I still have plenty of work to do on divesting myself of acculturated mind and on living an authentic life, in relationship to Spirit.  The grandmother part is because I spend a lot of time with my three young granddaughters and am distressed and scared about the world they are growing up in, and also because of issues and concerns (and questions) about aging and mortality.  How much do I (or should I) accept the limitations I feel are associated with an aging body?  How can I be a true elder, of service to my family and community?  How much effort is enough, and what are the efforts I ought to make?

I am curious about what insights I may get this week about being a healer.  A year and a half ago a psychic said to me, "You're a teacher and a healer."  I get the teacher part, but the healer label stunned me.  I am grateful to her for it because I don't think I'd have either heard or followed the call to go to last year's intensive if she hadn't opened that door for me.

In my SoulCollage® work, the card I pulled for 2016 is one of the few single-image cards I have made.  I was drawn to the image only to discover after I made the card that the artist called her Proserpina.  Such synchronicity - that I would make another Persephone card and not even realize it!

She is holding a box of mystery.  So here is another big question for me:  What is its significance for me?