Soon To Be Heading Back East ...

As we ease through the Summer Solstice, savouring the longest daylight of the year (even more pronounced at this latitude), I present my final entry from the “Left Coast”, as we look toward our home in Guysborough where we will return with hearts brimming full of joyful memories and wonderful energy. The fifty days have gone by so quickly; the week that remains will be just a blur.

Since my last entry, I have been privileged to attend a Healing Circle in Skidegate, a Haida community near here. It was tremendously revealing and inspiring. I consequently heard about, and was able to take advantage of a session on an Amethyst Stone Bio-Mat. I will share much more info on that later(Google it, if you’d like); suffice to say that the experience was quite unique … I am going back for a second session before we leave in a week’s time.

Two other recent highlights would have to be the local celebration of “Hospital Day” (like all of Come Home Week squeezed into 24 hours) and our Fathers’ Day Hike to the Pesuta, an eighty year-old shipwreck 5 km up a beach. (that’s 10 k round-trip) The accompanying photos give a hint of both of those experiences.

My yoga sessions here on Haida Gwaii will end this Thursday, and, I must say that I have really appreciated the opportunity to maintain my focus both on and off the mat, and to have the privilege to share my time with some wonderful inspiring yoginis.

I will close now with a thought that I heard expressed at the Healing Circle in Skidegate …

“Each of us comes from different life experiences, and this combined diversity is a potent force.”; a great reminder that we are all connected. We are all One.

Namaste,

Chris

Concert at Skidegate

Things have e ramped up here and life is a paradox whereas the pace is very slow as you watch … everyone is busy almost every minute.

I was wowed when there was still light in the sky at 9:00 PM. Now my dears, it is still bright at 10:30 I plan to put a photo up on June 22!

On Sunday June 7 we took in a concert in Skidegate which proved to be very interesting. The theme of the evening was “Oceans Alive“, so all the performances connected with that in song and dance. It opened with a group of Haida singers and dancers in traditional costume. They sang a song of welcome in Haida and of in the forest and ocean. We were told of how important the salmon is to this culture. The salmon bring the spirit of the forest to the sea. They are born in the forest streams and return to the forest to spawn and die. The group also talked of how in the creation myths of many cultures, life begins in the sea and how we long to go back to the sea… That was just the colourful introduction to the evening.
There were offerings form the Gwaii Singers, Classical Piano, Atlantic Sea Shanties (by Sean Muise!),Story Poem, Pacific Jug band and a singer/songwriter who being a fisherman’s wife and a fisher herself sang her story with eloquence.

Today we took some time to go part way up Sleeping Beauty and I will leave you with that picture which is well worth more than a thousand words. The little village you see in the distance is Charlotte City.

Until next time ...

Welcome June

Joyful June Greetings

The weather is so spectacular here this week that I had to take a photo of the report. Hope this entry finds you well and in the process of detoxing from the madness of winter (I don't mean the weather) I mean where life takes you with stresses an schedules.

Last evening I got to enjoy a talk by Gabor Mate who is a physician and author who has studied the connection of stress and disease in our society he works with street folks in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. The body,mind, spirit connection which the ancients taught us is finally being recognized by science in some areas.

The two strongest messages were that when we have been prevented from learning how to say no (to stressful situations)our bodies may end up saying it for us.-When the Body Says No

The second thing is that those of us who have experienced unconditional love, see life as a a challenge and those who have not, see life as a chore to get through. Eventually the latter leads to a build up in tension and addictions that cause physical health issues. -system overload. It's all about discovering our true nature which is not chronic illness or cancer but good health.

This may seem just too simplistic put this way, but in the scope of a couple of sentences I can't do justice to his theories. I would encourage you to check out his website http://www.drgabormate.com/ or www.whenthebodysaysno.ca/book.html

If you have children of any age, his book Hold on to your Kids Why Parents Need to Matter More Than Peers . "a loud wake-up call for mothers and fathers...This (book) offers what many of the others do not-that rare commodity known as common sense."-Winnipeg Free Press

His books support rather than condemn us in our journey through this realm and encourage us to support others around us.

Till next time

Love and Light to all

Namaste

Chris