A breath for these tough times

Sending out extra wishes of Safety & Sanctuary for everyone in the path of the hard things, what a scary time we are in, inhaling and exhaling, for compassion, strength, courage, swift and steady miracles.

Announcement / get your copy of Emergency Calming Down Techniques

I’ve been reeling hard lately in some cursed combination of heartache, numbness, political anxiety, winter stuff and some wild panic episodes.

Have been holding on (for dear life) to my Emergency Calm The Hell Down Techniques from a long time ago, and it’s been helping.

I am giving away a copy of these (ebook + audio recordings) to anyone who gives any sum of money to the appreciation funds / discretionary fund in the hopes that we can all keep practicing together, for each other and for the collective, and also for ourselves in these scary times. ❤️

Right Parts

Where am I at home

There is the world of concepts and the world of things, and I live in the world of concepts. I thrive in the world of concepts.

Sometimes I visit the world of things, but I tend to get lost there pretty easily. I tend to get frustrated and demotivated there. It seems like everyone else knows their way around, and I’m always speaking the wrong language or misunderstanding something basic.

You could also say that I have strong absent-minded professor energy, and maybe that’s the ADHD, or maybe it’s the traumatic brain injury, though really it’s always been this way.

I am trying to get better at visiting the world of things more often; paying more attention, orienting myself there, picking up idioms and expressions, being attentive to clues, mapping out a path, taking notes for next time.

Mapping the maps

Last week I crawled under the car to change the oil, which is a very World Of Things activity, so I do it with supervision from someone who is very much at home in the world of things and has the patience and skill to translate for me and explain things slowly and clearly.

My anxiety around this activity is way lower than it used to be, but that doesn’t mean I feel at home doing it.

I consistently have trouble remembering what is where, or which part needs to be turned which way, and in what order, and so on. My mental map of this activity remains hazy. All of this is frustrating to me.

But I keep practicing, in the hope that one day it will land for me, and because I believe that the act of practicing itself has value and meaning. I am trying to learn a new skill; I am trying to acclimate to unfamiliar places.

Surveillance

Beneath the car, I surveyed the damage done to my poor sweet Star Car by colliding with a large elk, and was relieved to see that it all seemed superficial.

But also I took the car to my country mechanic a few days later to get the official checkup.

(Thank you to everyone who lit candles for me, everything went well and there was only good news. The damage was minimal and the fixes were less expensive than I had feared. Blessings abound. Go team!)

Timing

My friend Vincent kept me company on the adventure to the mechanic. I remembered that we also did this last year, and he looked it up on his phone, and it turns out that the third Thursday in April was also Visit A Country Mechanic Day last year too.

So now it’s a ritual. In the books.

Like Goose Day, but for driving way out into the country to a backyard shop that has no name and no sign.

Love a holiday that suggests itself.

Visit A Country Mechanic Day rituals include: coffee, chocolate, laughter. And enjoying the company of another World Of Concepts person in going to visit a World Of Things location.

Panic! At the Disco Auto Parts Store

Anyway, while I was doing the oil change, I realized that the auto parts store had given me the wrong size gasket, and I had a moment of anxiety that maybe I had ordered the wrong one, because I do not reside in the world of things.

That’s exactly the kind of mistake I might make, and that my self-criticism monsters would have a field day over.

The chorus of You Should Know These Things, Why Don’t You Pay Attention. I can beat myself up over that stuff for days if I am not careful.

So I had the wrong part which meant that I didn’t switch out the gasket, which was fine, and I drove to the store to find out if it was my mistake or theirs.

Commotion in motion

And even though I was absolutely covered in grease, or possibly because of this, all the big truck cowboys and mining guys there were tripping over themselves to respectfully flirt with me, which somehow made me feel better about the world and my place in it.

I may not live in the world of things, or even spend much time there, but I can walk into a World Of Things location and cause a commotion, and that’s something. Note to self: always wear leggings to the auto parts store.

Right Parts Rick

There was this old-timer working there who said to call him Right Parts Rick, and he confirmed that someone there had given me the wrong part, even though I’d ordered the right one, which also made me feel better about the world.

It was a world of things person who had screwed up in the world of things this time, not me.

Of course, he explained, he would never have given me the wrong part, that’s why they call him Right Parts Rick, and that next time I should just ask for Right Parts Rick.

Right Parts Rick would never give me the wrong part. Imagine being so at home in the world of things for decades that you just call yourself Right Parts. Incredible.

Vegas

Right Parts Rick said that I should be a dancer in Vegas, even though the $3.45 refund wouldn’t get me there.

I laughed.

This man looked like he was eighty, but he still has game, and I respect that.

Right Parts Rick knows what’s good.

It Solves Itself

Here are some the things that have gracefully and elegantly (or not) Solved Themselves this month, channeling the beautiful superpower of It Solves Itself:

It was time to take my car for a checkup and I just wasn’t doing it, but then I had a collision with an elk, so it had to happen.

And my country mechanic, who is honest, kind, thoughtful, affordable and every possible quality you could want in a mechanic, but very hard to schedule with, fit me in right away because he loves me and was worried about me.

All of the above maybe

My electronic gate was being fussy, and someone very kindly offered to fix it because they felt bad about their colleague driving into it, and so it just got fixed, and I didn’t need to do anything.

I had a wish about making friends out here in the wilds, and this month I suddenly made a bunch of new friends after five years of being out here not making friends. I am not sure what changed other than everything? Attitude shift? Trying new things? Magic? Luck? All of the above maybe.

Also I was brave and joined a hiking club, which turned out to be awesome, but then other friends came into my life at the same time, seemingly out of nowhere. IT SOLVED ITSELF.

You already have it

Oh, and I had this big ongoing wish in process about Mojo Back / Groove Back, and didn’t know how to go about this.

But it turns out that all I had to do was visit the auto parts store, and all is right in the world again. What I thought was a big complicated wish was actually almost ludicrously simple. Go see Right Parts Rick.

Superpower of you already have the right parts. Of course you do. Or someone else knows where the right parts are. It all works out.

Superpower of the thing you are craving is not distant, it is not beyond the horizon, it was right around the bend, or it was there all along and you just forgot about it for a while.

Forest yoga

My hiking friends invited me to forest yoga, which is basically a combination of every single thing I love.

Being around trees, in fresh mountain air, breathing deliciously, being in community, experiencing a sense of harmoniousness and of joy, moving my body, looking up at the sky, feeling playful and embodied and alive.

There were fifteen of us in a clearing, surrounded by glorious ponderosa pines.

We watched the blue sky. We observed the blue sky between our toes, legs in the air.

A forest delight

At the end of an hour of slow steady movement sequences, we were given fifteen minutes to free-form wander and channel childlike curiosity: pick up a pinecone, toss some pine needles, meet a tree, climb something, move slowly and be alert to everything, stay playful.

I put my nose right into a ponderosa pine while hugging it and inhaled its magical scent of vanilla and reassurance. A forest delight.

Then we rested on our pine-needle covered mats and watched the sky between the trees and that was class.

Grounded, Undulating, Focused, Ready

I loved yoga in a forest clearing so much that I went to another class, and the theme of that class was GROUNDED, UNDULATING, FOCUSED.

This turned out to be the best possible remedy (for me) for a day of anxiety and heartache and reactiveness.

What beautiful qualities, what useful superpowers. Earth under my feet. Moving like a big cat. Stretching, extending, feeling a building up of kinetic energy ready to be unleashed.

I might be a world of concepts person but I maybe most of all love the world of being a big wild cat out under the big wild sky.

Moving powerfully, breathing steadily, perfectly fine with causing a commotion when I am ready to pounce.

Readying for the readying

These are the themes for me right now.

Everything I don’t know how to solve is going into the wishing cauldron of It Solves Itself.

Beyond that, I keep practicing, I keep wishing, I keep training, I keep breathing and hugging trees and taking in their scent.

Staying ready. Big cat stretches. Big cat yawns. Prowling for the joy of prowling. Becoming someone who can recognize the right parts, or go to the places where the right parts already are.

What would my grounded tall tree self do? What would my powerful big cat self do? One breath and then another breath. One wish and then another wish. It solves itself, let’s keep playing.

Come play in the comments, I appreciate the company

Leave a pebble (o) to say you were here, so I know I’m not doing this alone.

Also it feels good to pick up a pebble and place it somewhere, I have noticed.

You are invited to share any Right Parts style stories of your own if you like, or name any wishes that are in process.

And of course you are welcome to share anything that sparked for you while reading, anything that helped, clues received, or anything on your mind, wish some wishes, process what’s percolating…

I am lighting a candle for us and our beautiful heart-wishes. What a brave thing it is to allow ourselves to want something better for us and for the world.

Or if there’s anything you’d like to explore further or toss into the wishing pot, the healing power of the collective is no small thing, companionship helps.

Whatever comes to mind or heart. Let’s support each other’s hope-sparks…

Housekeeping note: You can subscribe to posts by email again!

If you aren’t seeing these updates in your in your email and want to, you can can solve that here.

This will pop up a new page on Follow.It that lets you subscribe via email, newsletter, or RSS reader. They say “expect 50 stories a week”, and that’s a very imaginary number, once a week is the dream.

I am emailing copies of the Emergency Calming Techniques package!

Anyone who gives to the Discretionary this week (more info below) will get my Emergency Calming Techniques package by email as a pdf. I am only checking email twice a week because I no longer have wifi at my place, long story, so be patient with me but if it doesn’t show up within the week then let me know!

I have some ideas for the next ebook too but if you do too, shoot me an email or share in the comments.

A request!

If you received clues or perspective or want to send appreciation for the writing and work/play we do here, I appreciate it tremendously.

I am accepting support (with joy & gratitude) in the form of Appreciation Money to the Discretionary Fund. Asking is not where my strength resides but Brave & Stalwart is the theme these days, and pattern-rewriting is the work, it all helps with fixing the many broken things.

And if those aren’t options, I get it, you can light a candle for support (or light one in your mind!), share this with someone who loves words, tell people about these techniques, approaches and themes, send them here, it all helps, it’s all welcome, and I appreciate it and you so much. ❤️