February. Valentines Day.When the ease and acceptance of Love comes alive. The beginning of new Spring growth seen in the crocus and little flowers poking up through the snow.
There is some kind of love that happens in the earth whether we have greenery and flowers visible or not. Even in Winter there is a healing current in the earth and all around us.
When we can tap into the ease and acceptance that is there when love is alive, we become calm and able to harmonize with the life force that sustains us all.
I have shifted from the HYGGE of Denmark to the Aloha of Hawaii now. In this time of healing and hoping for physical restoration of my ability to walk, I am listening now to the slack key guitars and soft voices that echo Mother Ocean Heart.
I found a series of short videos on YouTube that show the culture of Aloha on the different islands. The Hawaiian ancient culture, so tied to the land and ocean and sky, can teach us about gratefulness and mindfulness as we try to find that every day peace of mind.
There is so much in nature to support our well being. It is there under the conflicts of the day, if we but listen with our heart.
There is a softness about it that can care for the cells of our bodies. The gentle strength it affords us is palpable when we are calm.
I am not an expert in relationship, but I am learning from what Dr. Eckman is teaching us. HH The Dalai Lama commissioned this expert in facial character/emotional landscape to create an Atlas of Emotions to help us in the west cultivate something that the Tibetan Buddhists have in their hearts and minds. That is compassion and kindness. It is what we in the west call Non Violent Communication.
It is very difficult for me to understand relationship. It is tough to understand that misunderstanding happen all the time when we are living the daily grind and need each other. The only hope there is will be to find a place inside that we can create the space of healing.
I have found that any disturbance or conflict between persons will cause a situation with no resolution. I do not know why, I just know it is true. The calm nature of harmonious words and encouraging tones is what is so healing.
In the world of Aloha, like the happiness index in Denmark, other people who value happiness as paramount are teaching us this way of relating in community, in family and in ourselves.
Listening to the slack key repertoire can bring this soothing melody into our being and thus we can mitigate any conflict the appears within us.
Keola Beamer and Raitea Helm bring you some slack key in this YouTube video;
Last year at Valentines day I contemplated the ease and acceptance that is present when love is alive and felt that at times. There is a healing quality to that love. There is a feeling of belonging to the Universe with that ease.
Michael Stillwater has a capacity with music for us to open our acceptance in ourselves. I did take a workshop from him when I arrived in Hawaii in 2008 and this encouraged me to study Healing Touch and Feldenkrais Method. This was to (As George Harrison sings:) unwind my love and explore a thread of that to myself and my community.
When we can find ways to connect to each other with cards and flowers and candy and poetry then our notion of romantic love is in the forefront. I am talking about a different kind of nurturing and sustaining love that runs as a current under it all.
So, while this is a short piece born of the necessity of writing through physical pain, it is possible to contact the best feelings of what we hope to manifest in our energies for ourselves and for each other.
I wish you a wonderful February as we await the arrival of Springtime.