Dispatch from the Inner Corridors : : : Wrapped in Peace
Dispatch from the Inner Corridors
Happy almost Valentines, Friends ~
I hope everyone is thriving, learning and loving inside the infancy of the year.
When I was in elementary school, a few friends and I created a club we called the Kingdom of Peace. The kingdom itself was on the backside of a pond at a campsite right on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was magical. We would take canoes out across the pond and sit on our stump thrones and take care of all that needed tending to and during the school week even had a secret newsletter we would circulate so as to further our message of nature and nurture and the true meaning of peace, Yes, I am a product of the hippy generation and yes my namesake is one who birthed a Beatle and later became a beautiful ballad, but nevertheless, there are things that children know, that nature knows, and that moments of deep and deepening silence know that we can all benefit by remembering.
Today I thank my lucky stars for all the details of my origin ecosystem and I find a lot of those initial seeds that got planted when I come to my cushion.
~
It’s noteworthy and rather curious to me how so often there will be themes in the 1:1 work that I do. Last fall it was anger. It was coning through in waves and we did so much work on alchemizing this powerful emotion and gleaning wisdom from its fire. What these women burned through and came out with (and away from) was astounding. Since the beginning of the year, there’s been a huge theme around relationship, and i’ve been so honored to witness, point out blind spots, and help set the scene for these women to get where they want to go - shedding so much and leaning in to their partnerships in new and evolved ways. Renowned psychologist, researcher and teacher, Stan Tatkin talks extensively about romantic love and attachment and points out the evolution from war minded unions to something more peaceful. This is clearly an evolution that is also wanting on a global scale. Although, given the rise in access to indigenous wisdom and ancient practices in addition to a grassroots moral imperative, compass, and intellect, it feels the general public is getting there much faster than our leadership and our institutions, but that’s a different conversation for different day...
I would guess that one of the most potent ways we can begin to really lean in to evolutionary wisdom and peace is finding that relational space at home in these bones and a meditation practice is a beautiful avenue that can take us there.
So is forming a ‘club’ and going out into the ‘wilderness’ together :)
Next week we will begin a 3 work journey into better understanding of what it is to be with ourselves deeply, coherently, and with all the love in the world.
Meditation- The Poetics of Presence and Loving Stillness
I hope you can join us for 3 Tuesday evening form 6- 7.30pm MT as we get practical and poetic about this pinnacle and pivotal practice that can bring so much to our inner order and our outer world.
February 13, 20, & 27 , 6-7.30pm MT, together on ZOOM ~
This series is enriching for both the advanced practitioner and the budding novice and helpful if you want to have very real steps toward embodying the following:
an inroad when meditation has felt elusive or beyond comprehension
a deepening path to an already established practice
an understanding of what it is to hold opposing forces and how that very union gives birth to nothing short of the universe itself
an understanding of physiological and psychological benefits
an experience of the deepest sort of activism there is - personal, social and environmental
an experience of truth in your world that often leads to states of flow, joy and synchronicity and certainly points to all the things in their way
an established practice when it’s been hard to commit, with weekly challenges of personal practice
Investment:
$ 75-135 Sliding scale
(25 each for those of low income, 35 for medium, 45 for financially comfortable)
*** included- TWO zoom classes/ week should you chose to supplement and help prep the body with an asana practice (next leveling) and if it works for your schedule
Quite frankly, my friends, i’m not sure if there’s a more profound practice right now. I also don’t think it can be done on its own. But when a practice is fostered, we are more likely to move into the world and chose ‘right action’ as the Buddhists would say. We are also a lot more likely to continue something onward when we establish a practice of it for 21 days. And you cant beat the momentum we harness when we do it in community.
Email with ‘one ticket to Peacetown’ to register. Or buy a couple for your friends ;)
Wanna be in a secret club?
I hope to see you across the pond,
Love Julia
: : Painting by Gillian Eilidh O’Mara
