Water

- Week of Water -

Yesterday afternoon I went with a circle of gal friends to see 'The Secret Life of Bees' - what a wonderful, powerful movie! My mama would have called it a '5 Hankie' show! Such rich images, dialogue, & chances for recrimination - I love the absolution of the black Madonna, & 'August's' words to Lili - that she can't blame herself for events she feels she's caused. So sweet - & what a good release of tears.

For a lot of years, my stories were so important to me - this is what happened, then this & this, . . . When I read Redfield's 'Celestine Prophecy,' I identified with the drama he framed 'interrogator' (I'll ask questions, & you'd better give the right answer!) balanced by 'aloof' (see if you can make me talk!) . . . but my version of aloof was 'drown them in information!' (see if you can find me behind the babble!)

I still like to talk story - I'm a harper, after all! But try to make the story pertinent to the people around me, & to make room for their stories as well. If I feel interrogated, I work on shifting the dynamic. My grown daughter & I learned to ask each other "What do you need me to hear?" if it feels we're talking in circles, arguing.

Water has also been an important healing place for me - I love baths, & have candles in a wall sconce, so most of my baths are candle-lit. For about 4 years I lived & worked at Breitenbush Hot Springs Resort - a psychic on staff commented that it was an intense place to live - in the cauldron, so to speak. That the Native Americans who used it time out of mind never lived there year round! & when folks didn't deal with their 'stuff,' it often bit them in the pants.

At about 9 I nearly drown in the Deschutes River, & had never really learned to swim. In 1964 before a flood closed the old resort, my folks & I visited my uncle Bill at the springs. I looked down at the swimming pool, & thought "I could learn to swim there!" In the intervening years, friends helped me get closer to that goal, & when I moved to Breitenbush, the goal was finally met, & I did learn to swim in the naturally heated mineral water open air pool!
A favorite memory, floating with a gal friend in a rubber boat, while her boyfriend fed us peeled grapes - Cleopatra on the Barge! Or floating on my back (much easier in mineral water!) under the stars.

The sauna, the meadow pools, the medicine wheel, Devil's Hole (between the resort & the 'summer homes' on forest service land), such sacred pools.

Here is a blessing, done with water, from that shared by another friend, Amorah. She tells that the Greek women would bless little girls at 7, anointing them with water. Yes, you can do it on yourself! I wrote a simple tune, & added a chorus. Many blessings

Always see beauty (eyes)
Always speak truth (lips)
Always hear only the truth (ears)
Always trust your instincts & knowing (throat & heart)
Trust your intuition (third eye)
Honor your body's wisdom (gently brush )down arms

Walk in beauty, live in beauty, in sweet harmony.
Walk with honor, live in beauty & you'll always be free.
Walk in beauty, gentle sister (brother), always be free.
Always be free!

My soul mission is to share beauty, to be true to my own wisdom & spark that in others.

Blessed Bee