Monday, July 20, 2015

Om with Oma
















     My three-year-old granddaughter has heard the word 'yoga' often enough, and knows that I practice it, but when she overheard me talking to someone about an upcoming class, she asked, "Oma, what's yoga?" I described it simply as a relaxing form of exercise, then asked if she would like me to show her some yoga poses. She certainly did. So after her nap, we each carried a mat out into the backyard, then placed them side by side on the grass, in the shade of a maple. Settling into seated Easy pose, I encouraged her to gaze at the trees and the clouds. Together, we then flowed through Cat, Downward Dog, Child, Sphinx, Butterfly and Happy Baby, before returning to Easy pose, to finish off by chanting Om several times.  She did not miss a beat during the entire process - effortless, yet engaged, she was fully in it.  Glancing over at her occasionally during our practice, and seeing the earnest expression on her sweet face, I was tempted to take a photo, but of course, that would have taken us both out of the experience. 
     After we finished, she spontaneously wrapped herself up in her mat and informed me that she was a newborn baby. Feeling reborn through yoga - she certainly picked up on that concept.
www.diaryofanintuitive.com

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

No Ordinary Weekend

     









     A recent sunny Whistler weekend getaway was filled with incredible moments of synchronicity. The only pre-planned part of the trip was doing tarot readings at a mountaintop event, on the Friday evening. My husband and I had decided to make a weekend of it, booking in at the RV park. With so much to offer, the location supported an effortless flow between being active (biking the valley trail, hiking around Lost Lake, walking to the village) and enjoying restful pastimes (impromptu riverside picnic, brunch on a lakeside patio, Scrabble in the shade). 
     Saturday evening, during an after-dinner stroll through the village, I heard my name called and turned to see one of my cousins seated with someone on a nearby restaurant patio. He lives a few hours away, and we had not seen each other for three years. After a round of hugs and getting introduced to his girlfriend, we took them up on their offer to join them for a drink. We discovered that just minutes before we were spotted, a table had been freed up on the patio, and his girlfriend had requested they move out there, instead of remaining at their inside table. They had arrived at the resort earlier that evening and were leaving shortly after noon the next day. Small window of time to run into them. And as it turned out, Sunday morning our paths crossed again - while leaving the farmer's market, we bumped into them just as they were heading over to check it out. Another short conversation and more hugs.
     Sunday afternoon, my husband and I decided to wander down to one of several coffee shops in the area. Being the 7th of the month, I was feeling a little melancholy, with Michael in my thoughts even more than usual. It would be one of the very rare times when I would not be taking flowers to Boal Memorial on this date. My husband had been walking a few steps ahead of me and was waiting on a bench near the cafe. Sitting down beside, I was about to ask him what he'd like to order when I noticed a memorial plaque on the backrest, and reading the inscription, realized it was in honour of a young man who had lived in Whistler, and died just over a year ago, at age twenty-four. Through a mutual friend, I met his mother once, shortly after her son's death, and we had shared our experiences regarding the deaths of our sons, including reference to the metaphysical realm. What were the chances? Of all the seating available in Whistler, this was the ideal place for us to be on this day. 
     After coffee, it was time to head home. En route, we stopped in Squamish to purchase some bike accessories, and as I was leaving that particular aisle, I thought about our friends who live there, a couple we haven't seen for a few months due to his out-of-province work commitments. I fleetingly wondered what the chances were of running into them here in this big box store but promptly dismissed the notion since it was late Sunday afternoon and thought that if they had needed any items here, they would probably have done so earlier in the day. Then seconds later, as I turned the corner, there they were, smack dab in the middle of the store, and they ended up inviting us up to their place for a short visit. They too happen to live with the loss of a twenty-five year old son. Perfect timing.
     An astounding run of closely timed, out-of-the-blue experiences ... the Universe certainly does know how to make a great impression!
www.diaryofanintuitive.com
Photo credit: www.whistler.com