Irrigation as a metaphor

So we irrigated a few days ago. 

It was the first irrigation of the year, and as usual, all the accumulated leaves and junk come down the whole length of the acequia and end up in our pipes.  We spend a lot of time on the first watering just scooping out the debris so the water can flow freely.  A lot of water comes in through overflow, before I even lift the gate to let it into the property.  Then when it's all clear, and I open the gate, the rush comes in and finishes the flooding.  

me in the flood

I was thinking about how much this process resembles the rush of new information I have absorbed in the last few years, 2010 in particular.  That is the year I discovered my intuition, my totem animals, and my ability to sense energetic patterns.  I learned something about past lives, soul tribes, and soul mates.  I found that I can see an aura occasionally, or sometimes pick up other people's memories when my hands are on them.  I even accidentally got into someone else's dream once when we were sleeping next to each other. 

I learned that what I used to call "coincidence" may be better termed synchronicity… and that when the student is ready, the teachers arrive.  From all over the place.

A very intense year, for sure, especially for someone who thought ESP and "psychic" phenomena were all total BS before I found out that I had access to them.

It used to be a cue for the weird music, and now it's just a part of my daily reality.

I have often said that I felt as if I were on the receiving end of a fire hose of information.  Like the flood waters, it was intense and at times very overwhelming.  Also like the irrigation, a lot of information came to me the "sneaky" way -- through leakage and overflow.  It took a lot for me to integrate the new avenues of knowledge that were being presented to me, especially to stop doubting their reality.  As someone who had been brought up to believe that Western Science was the be-all and end-all of information, it was a truly stunning left-turn into a different paradigm.  My right brain and left brain were at odds quite frequently, and yet I could not doubt the evidence... that this knowledge that I received --- in a non-standard manner!--- helped me achieve successful treatments with my clients.  

Much as the water deeply covers the ground, and provokes a burst of growth and blossoming from apparently dormant plants, the flood of information I received also provoked a huge amount of personal growth and blossoming in myself as well.

ahhhh, the cherries!

Scooping out the detritus of old material from the water is also symbolic of all the things, both material as well as mental and spiritual, that I had to let go of in order to free my internal space to accept the new knowledge.  In Polarity Training, we learned to hold a neutral space for ourselves and for our clients, in order that we do not interfere in their journey or their process.  This mental, emotional, and spiritual clearing allows us to know what "stuff" belongs to ourselves, and what belongs to our clients.  This has been an invaluable tool for me to release ideas, physical adaptations, and stuck energetic patterns that were outmoded and not useful to me anymore.

The old leaves I can use as mulch to give life to the new growth… the old ideas I can use as a yardstick for perspective on how far I have come and how much I have learned.  But I do not have to hold onto anything that does not serve me anymore either, and this is a huge relief.

I have a little mantra taped to the front of my computer, which reads, "Letting go of your fears makes more room for your dreams."  It was truly in the letting go that I learned to free myself to follow my true path in life.... which, THANK GOD/SOURCE/UNIVERSE, I found here, now.

Namaste.

A little bit about animal totems, or how I knew this template was the right one

When I looked at opening this blog last night, I was following the instructions to start it; and was, at one point, asked to select a template.  You can't really look at them first, and can only see a tiny image, but I picked the one called "ethereal" because it seemed simple enough and ... possibly... because some of what I want to talk about falls into that realm.

When the page came up, I saw that it had hummingbirds in the design, and then I knew that, accidentally or otherwise, I had chosen the right layout.

I have a tattoo of a hummingbird on the inside of my right arm, which is one of the two most recent tattoos I had done.  Unlike most of the other designs that I carry on my body, when I was choosing designs last summer, I did a lot of research into what I wanted on my skin this time.  I was also thinking about the direction of energetic flow, and what I wanted to be going outwards from me to my clients.  The hummingbird symbolizes a great many things, chiefly among them:  ecstatic love, healing energy, endurance, persistence, miracles, beauty, and joy.  (It is also symbolic of the warrior spirit, which is the soul tribe I belong to.)

Here is a great link to interpret animal totems.

A few months after getting inked, one of my clients saw my aura during a session, and he told me it was green (healing) and it had hummingbirds in it.  He did not know of my tattoo, and was startled to see it.  We were both a little startled (and pleased) with the coincidence or synchronicity of that vision.

I don't know exactly how or why I went down this path to working in the healing arts, but the end result is that I am doing work that is more meaningful to me than any other work I have ever done in this life.... and it has come to me that this work is something I have done before, in many lives, many times.  There are a lot of things I have learned about myself in the last three years, and it has been a rush of information, much like standing on the receiving end of a fire-hose.  What I do know for certain, though, is that being still enough -- to listen, and see, and notice  -- has been vital for me to make connections and integrate all the knowing into my work.

Hello

My name is Ellen.

I am new at this blogging business.

Briefly, though, I am a fairly recently-minted massage therapist and associate polarity practitioner, who is also studying craniosacral therapy and other energy-based bodywork, and I want to create a space for my musings about life and bodywork, or whatever else may come to mind, in order that people who read this blog (all two of you?) might have a chance to ponder some of what goes on in the mind and heart of a practitioner.... and perhaps some of the story of how I went from being a hard-scientist to believing in and practicing intuitive and energy work.

I will be posting the occasional essay, perhaps some artwork, and some links that I think are interesting and good to think about.  Also the fun ones!