January 18, 2024 • 29 mins
As the frost of winter blankets parts of earth, we find ourselves wrapped in the cozy musings of transition and the gentle guidance of nature's rhythm. Based on our recent travels, including to a snow-cloaked Yosemite, we invoke the power of nature's symbolism to inform our reflections on the year gone by. Our conversation meanders through the interplay of presence, intention, and the art of slowing down. We begin with a guided meditation that invites you to feel the essence of change and embrace the unfolding gifts of the coming year.
With each passing story and shared experience, we unearth the profound influence of humility on our journey, mirroring the unassuming strength of Yosemite's ancient sequoias and the steadfast violet. This episode is a tapestry woven with threads of gratitude, intentionality, and the practice of 'Wu Wei'—effortless action that trusts life's currents. As we look forward to a musical tribute to humility with Ariel Loh, we invite you to lend an ear to the harmonies of "Tiger Lily," a melody that cradles the spirit of open-hearted receptivity. Join us for an exploration of how to stand strong yet supple amidst life's ebb and flow, and welcome the new with grace and poise.
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Create an intentional practice with your own Gratitude Blooming card deck, notecards, candle and much much more at our shop at www.gratitudeblooming.com.
Learn more about our co-hosts and special guest for Season 4:
Co-host Belinda Liu | Hestia Retreat Centers
Co-host Omar Brownson | Trickster's Guide to Immortality on Substack
Special Guest Dr. Paul Wang | The Dao Center
If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to leave us a 5-star rating and review. Your feedback is valuable to us and helps us grow.
Share your thoughts and comments by emailing us at hello@gratitudeblooming.com. We love hearing from our listeners!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Hello Belinda.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, omar, it's so nice to have Arlene with us in
studio for our Januarycelebration of a new year.
How is everyone doing?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I believe 2024 is here.
No kind of mistake that timepasses.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, it's kind of interesting timing, also because
we follow this Western calendar.
That marks this as a newbeginning and when I look around
the land we very much are stillin our winter slumber, getting
more and more quiet and dormant.
So I've been appreciatingreconnecting with my heritage
(01:01):
around the lunar cycles, thelunar calendar, the lunar new
year, that is more towards theend of Jan, early Feb, and it
does feel like spring is kind ofa new beginning and winter is
still the same season, even ifit's December or January.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, it was.
We were just in Yosemite withour family my wife, two
daughters, two grandmas andreally just getting to explore
Yosemite, which is 1200 acres ofjust incredible from El Capitan
to Half Dome, iconic nationalparks, and the first few days,
(01:43):
blue skies.
And then the last night itsnowed, and so we woke up to
just a blanket of white snoweverywhere, six, seven inches,
and it was just beautiful and agreat reminder to slow down that
even though we're in a new year, we are still in winter.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Arlene, what about you and San Francisco?
What is nature telling you fromyour part of the world?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
We were just talking about how, in the Bay Area, we
really don't experience theseasons other than the change of
the length of the day.
So it's been generally sunnyand warm, and the same
hummingbirds are flying up back,and so it really doesn't feel
that different, other than thedays are shorter.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And I like that question, belinda, of like what
is nature showing you?
And might drive down.
After the beautiful sort ofwinter wonderland view, we
caught at least three doublerainbows and many more rainbows,
and then, when we pulled intothe driveway at home, this hawk
(02:50):
flew overhead here in the middleof LA, and a hawk symbolizes a
need to start looking forwardand visioning your path ahead
and perhaps even preparing for agreater role in life.
And so, just, I love thesesymbols that nature gives us,
you know, just like the moon,right, this lunar symbol.
I think that's part of whatgratitude blooming is is about
(03:14):
exploring what are the symbolsin our life, right, and
sometimes we need to pause andreally kind of unpack these
things that we can take forgranted, right, and that's what
gratitude is is like recognizingthat when we take things for
granted, oftentimes we don't seethem, and so how do we pause
and really notice what's movingin our lives?
And so I think you're going toinvite us to pause to start this
(03:37):
new calendar year for gratitudeblooming, 2024.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
So I was invited to hold a space for a meditation
this morning that I thought, wow, this would be kind of cool for
our listeners and for the teamas we're exploring these big
questions.
Our last episode we focused onwhat does an artist, a poet and
a land steward have to dotogether with space being held
(04:03):
by gratitude blooming, and feltinspired to kick off this
episode with a guided meditationthat hopefully helps all of us
who are participating to justconnect in tune in, look back,
look forward and feel thattransition.
More than think through thetransition, feel through the
(04:26):
transition.
So just invite us all to relaxand get comfortable in our
bodies, regardless of what timeof day this is.
Just really bring someawareness to our bodies.
And, as we inhale, justimagining that you're kind of
(04:47):
sipping in that breath fromnature, that vitality from
nature, just really receive it,like you're drinking a warm,
healing drink, just breathing inenergy from the trees, the air,
the earth and the sky.
And, as you exhale, just reallysavoring that, letting go that
(05:17):
we get to do every moment withour breath, letting go of stress
, tension, worry, any emotionthat you want to take a break
from in this moment, justgetting more and more present in
(05:41):
this moment as you breathe,letting yourself soften, sending
some of that breath to parts ofyour body that might need a
little more love and care.
In this moment and for thisnext round of breath, I invite
(06:13):
you to send this energy to yourheart and, if it's helpful or
feels good, just put a gentlehand to your heart, like a sweet
hug to your heart, and take anourishing breath here, just
(06:37):
feeling the rise and fall ofyour breath as you drop into
your heart.
In this moment, I invite you tojourney back to last year.
We just made this transition oftime and invite your heart to
(06:58):
feel what was the feeling of theyear behind us?
That feeling can come from asensation in your body, in your
heart, maybe even a color or animagination of a vision or a
(07:26):
word, just letting yourselfremember what that feeling of
last year was like, what was thegift of the lesson of that past
(07:50):
.
Taking a few more nourishingbreaths here to just be with
that and if it's still feelingvery still in this moment, just
(08:20):
trust that that is also amessage.
And for this next round ofbreath we're gonna slowly now
transition to the present momentof this new beginning, new year
(08:44):
ahead, the possibilities ofwhat's to come and what is
becoming Now.
Checking in with your heart asyou breathe, inhaling to receive
, exhaling to let go.
(09:09):
What is the feeling that ismost nourishing, life-giving and
fulfilling for you, openingyourself up to receive what
wants to come to you.
What is the gift of 2024 thatyou would like to receive?
(09:39):
Taking a few more breaths here,really taking your time sipping
(10:01):
in the air from the earth,letting your body relax with
your exhale.
One more breath to transitionback to the present moment and,
(10:38):
if it's helpful, you can pausethis podcast to write this down
or draw it out, just capturingthe moment, or come back to this
place anytime.
You need to remember how youwant to feel at this time of new
beginnings and we're gonnapractice, live with you all,
(11:03):
with our team, just processingwhat is our heart telling us.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Thank you, blinda, for the beautiful meditation and
just opportunity to transcendtime for a moment.
I think 2023 for me was one oftravel, just movement, but at
the same time, an appreciationfor stillness.
I remember I was at the commonwheel, fall gathering and being
(11:34):
led through what felt like aguided meditation, but it was
actually a talk about the earthbreathing, and I remember the
feeling of breathing with thetrees and being breathed by the
trees, and so that was, for me,just a key moment in memory for
2023, is just to remember, justas much as we are breathing,
(11:58):
everything else around us isbreathing too right the trees
and realizing that give and takethat is constantly happening.
And I think, looking out to 2024, I've been focusing on this
Taoist principle called Wu Wei,which is effortless action, and
(12:18):
the feeling that I wanteffortless action to have, which
I love that you invited thatand you're always so good at
bringing us back to that feeling, which is joy.
And so then I think about therainbow that I saw yesterday as
this arching in the sky, or thehawk that I saw flying in the
sky, and just that feeling ofjoy, overcoming gravity right,
whether it's a bird, or thisprism of light, where light and
(12:43):
rain all come together in thismagical way.
And so, yeah, those are thefeelings that I want to bring
into 2024.
How about you, arlene?
How are you feeling after thismeditation?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
It's reminding me that 2023 for me was really a
year of grief and I hadn'treally stopped and thought about
it like that.
But I remember actually inJanuary was when we lost Brian,
right, I mean last it was lastJanuary.
I hadn't really thought aboutit, but somehow that the
(13:19):
meditation brought me back tothis year of grief.
It really started right afterthe new year.
Last year was so hard, I thinkI'm still grieving in a lot of
ways.
I lost my dad and at the end ofMarch, and so it really has
been a year of grief.
And then what happens after thegrief?
Right, there's been some of thegifts that came, or like a new
(13:42):
relationship with my mom, right,I mean, it's just changed so.
So that's been, that's been agift.
It's reminding me of just how,how precious life is.
So, and the fact that grieftakes a while Like if you had
asked me whether or not I feltgrief like before we did this
meditation, I probably wouldhave said no, but I think it's a
(14:04):
very slow thing that lives inyou and I wonder how many other
people are feeling that too.
In the meditation, when I lookforward, I really felt like 2024
for me is it's a year ofcreating.
I feel like that was anothergift of being in.
This year of grief is I'm.
(14:25):
I just made a lot of things Ilearned to.
I started knitting, I startedI'm learning to sew, and there's
nothing like knitting to reallymake you feel like you're
making something.
And so I don't know what 2024looks like, like, what the new
creations will be, but I feelthis like creator force in me,
(14:46):
like really wanting to comethrough.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I appreciate you invoking Brian's memory.
He actually came up to in mymeditation as well and and I
didn't realize that it's been ayear, so I appreciate you
marking that time and I thinkone of the things that he was
always so good at was justremembering the magic of sound
(15:13):
and so just as we were sort ofbeing present for your
meditation, belinda, and justwhat is that magic of sound and
that sort of sense ofpossibility, and he just he kept
that present for us as ouraudio producer and really it's
really telling a story that wewouldn't have the Graduate
(15:34):
Boomin podcast by for him.
So thank you, arlene.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I think that sometimes there's so much
pressure this time of year towrite things down and make
things very concrete, and I knowwe've talked about this as a
team how sometimes, when youwant to hold space for emergence
, it's it may be actually likeit may be actually limiting to
make things into very tangiblegoals.
Even last episode we talkedabout that pressure of modern
(16:00):
culture of having to makeeverything very visible and
measurable, and so I'm curiouswhen you were connecting with
your heart and sensing into thepast and the present and the
future, in what form did thatsensation come to you?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
That's why the meditation was so beautiful, and
it was the invitation to pauseallows you to notice, like, the
feelings and the memories andthe things that are there, that
are maybe just under the surface.
When you're invited to pauseand notice what's in your heart,
there's like a moment where youcan reconnect with the intent
(16:42):
of your life, right, like whatis it?
And some of us are moreintentional than others, right?
So I feel like that was, thatwas what came up for me, was I
had this feeling of the intentin my life, and I think I am a
creator, right, I as an artist,and so, for me, that is what was
(17:03):
coming up.
That's, that's the way Iexperienced the feeling in my
heart.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
We're so in sync, Arlene.
I was literally had the wordsintention in my head as you were
saying it.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
There's little clues everywhere.
I mean, I think, the reasonI've been thinking about it.
I have a tea bag and the teabag thing on the back of the tea
bag said something like intentcreates reality and I'm like,
yes, yes, like everything, likeeverything here right Is here
because of some intent, rightthat we created.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, I so appreciate this moment of just being able
to connect to you all and ourlisteners from afar in this
moment of pause together.
It does help me drop more intomy heart as well and I would say
, looking back, looking forward,2023 felt like fast and furious
(17:56):
, like I'm like where did it go?
What happened?
I mean, I can't rememberanything.
Almost I had to look back on myphotos to try to recall it,
because it felt like it was justgoing, like whether or not I
was on the train or not, it wasgoing to go and I think it,
towards the end, it led to a lotof unexpected possibilities and
(18:19):
ideas.
Fall, I'm realizing, is myseason of like, really getting a
lot of inspiration for the nextseason and year, and I think it
was a practice of being reallyhyper present in the moment and
seeing what is available in thatmoment to step into or not, and
(18:40):
really letting go of form like,of the form that something
needs to take to feel like I'mmoving forward.
I really feel like I surrenderedeven more in that way of like
OK, I don't know, and I thinkwe've talked about it a lot as
our team Like, we don't know, wewant to try to know what we
have to fight the flow of thathaving to know thing.
(19:04):
And and it was interestingbecause we did a little vision
boarding ceremony a couple daysago and I'm not a vision border,
but it's really interestingbecause it's held by one of our
community members and she reallybrought us into our hearts
first, before we went into theexperience of creating the
(19:26):
collage of the year, and and thegift that I received actually
happened in the year when I waswatching who was in the year
doing this activity and it was acommunity member who actually
followed us on our retreatcenter on Instagram and randomly
moved from Big Island, hawaii,to Mount Shasta, was helping out
(19:47):
a neighbor up the road and thengot introduced to us through
another friend to help us on ourland.
So that was a person holdingthe space.
And then there was a woman whohad was our first ever
sabbatical guest when welaunched that program and she
connected me to Dr Paul Wong,who was a guest on our podcast
(20:07):
and someone that I hold theequinox retreats with, who Omar
knows as well, and one of Paulstudents came back for the new
year gathering, and so these arepeople that if I tried my best
to try to attract them or meetthem in real life it would never
have happened.
(20:28):
It made me realize that 2024 isthe year I want to stay open to
miracles, the unexpected giftsthat want to come to all of us,
and like, not block that and nottry to plan too much that I
lose the expansiveness of thepossibilities.
(20:50):
So that was really unexpectedto realize that, oh, that's my
intention, that's how I want tofeel.
Oh right, like so much ofwhat's happened in my life has
not been through my effort.
It's been through synchronicityand and saying yes to the to be
at the right place at the righttime to receive the gift.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I feel like that is.
So I'm pointing with Wu Weiright.
It's like effortless action,right, and part of it was.
I was reading this article andit said that the world we occupy
is already in harmony, but thisequilibrium is disturbed by our
endless desires and wants.
In order to restore thisbalance, we are to navigate the
world according to how italready is, instead of
(21:33):
attempting to bend it to ourwill.
So, therefore, we're invited toswim with the current of the
river to see where it takes us,rather than fighting against it
to go to a destination wealready have in mind.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Well, I can't wait to see how it all unfolds and
we're making it public everybody.
This is what we're standing for.
So, yeah, let's see whathappens.
Does it feel like at the righttime now to pick a card and see
what gratitude blooming has totell us, now that we've voiced
our how we want to feel in thisyear?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, I feel like there's something around
creativity meets effortlessaction.
What?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
does that?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
look like, or maybe the sort of it's about intention
, really being clear about ourintentions and how do we want to
move or not move, or be movedby the world?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
All right, do we feel like a certain place?
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Well, I feel like it's two, four twenty four
twenty four Cool Second row,fourth column.
Does that work, all right?
Card number 17 violetsrepresenting the theme of
humility.
Humility is a quiet, powerfulgift.
How can you share this giftwith others?
(22:52):
And the art is two violets withtwo leaves kind of joined
together, almost like in a Vshape, which I love, the idea of
victory through humilityViolets.
So how's?
How does this card show up foryou relative to the are inquiry
(23:15):
around intentions.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I sort of remember, like the story of the drawing
this card about this.
It was kind of the paradox ofsometimes you, the smaller you
are, the bigger you are in adifferent sense.
So like I always, when I when Isee this card, I always
remember that feeling.
(23:38):
When I wrote the word humilityon the card is, I had that
feeling of here are these twosmall violets and yet they just
seem like more powerful thananything in the world, right,
like I really had that thatsense and I can't really put my
(24:00):
finger on on how they do that.
But I feel like that's thepower of this virtue of humility
is that you're much bigger andmore powerful the smaller you
are sometimes.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Like the violence.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Violets aren't out there, like being.
Look at me, look at me, they're, they're just there, and to me
that's, that's like an essence,the essence of humility.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I go back to the word humility comes from humus or
soil, or of the earth, and I'mjust imagining in Yosemite these
giant thousand year old sequoiais like coming up out of the
earth and and then at the top ofwe climb vernal falls, which is
(24:56):
like this 400 foot elevation inlike less than a mile and a
half, and so it's the steepclimb up and then you get the
top of the falls and there's allthese like vine trees coming
out of like the boulders, andthey look like bonsai trees in
some ways because the roots areso like gnarled, because it's
(25:17):
like there's no dirt and there'sno soil.
They're like literally had tocome out of like cracks in the
boulder and then over time theygrew and so I just I don't know,
I think about like there's sucha will to live Right thousand
year old trees.
I feel like humility as we gointo the year with all these
(25:39):
intentions of like how do westay grounded?
How do we Create quiet like?
How do we receive these thingsas gifts, not just sort of like
problems or challenges to besolved or conquered or whatever
that will power orientedApproach that is so prevalent?
How do we sort of really justTrust the will of life itself.
(26:04):
Right like that, these treesare going to grow, because
that's what a pine seed does, isit finds Places to grow its
roots and let everything else dowhat it does.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Feels very comforting and effortless.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Love it.
Well, omar, do we have a songfor humility, as we're kind of
holding space for these virtuesof Gratitude blooming to be
received well, in lieu of thehumility song which will be
forthcoming on our collaborationwith the composer and musician
(26:44):
Ariel low, let's go with thewild card and and Tiger Lily you
(27:21):
, you, you.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I love how much that strumming of the guitar felt
like a lullaby and and in manyways that does feel like the
energy of Humility and what itfeels like to just receive a
gift that wants to be given toyou like that, just come on,
enjoy this song, let it take youto your sleep, like it feels
(29:01):
perfect for that, that feelingof receiving with effortless
action.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I love that as an intention for the artist, poet
and land steward who areCreating with effortless action.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Well, I hope this episode inspires you all to
connect in to your hearts andjust take a pause as we Just
emerge into this new year, justtaking our time to really
receive.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Cheers.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Cheers.
Hello Belinda.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Hey, omar, it's so nice to have Arlene with us in
studio for our Januarycelebration of a new year.
How is everyone doing?
Speaker 1 (00:28):
I believe 2024 is here.
No kind of mistake that timepasses.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, it's kind of interesting timing, also because
we follow this Western calendar.
That marks this as a newbeginning and when I look around
the land we very much are stillin our winter slumber, getting
more and more quiet and dormant.
So I've been appreciatingreconnecting with my heritage
(01:01):
around the lunar cycles, thelunar calendar, the lunar new
year, that is more towards theend of Jan, early Feb, and it
does feel like spring is kind ofa new beginning and winter is
still the same season, even ifit's December or January.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Yeah, it was.
We were just in Yosemite withour family my wife, two
daughters, two grandmas andreally just getting to explore
Yosemite, which is 1200 acres ofjust incredible from El Capitan
to Half Dome, iconic nationalparks, and the first few days,
(01:43):
blue skies.
And then the last night itsnowed, and so we woke up to
just a blanket of white snoweverywhere, six, seven inches,
and it was just beautiful and agreat reminder to slow down that
even though we're in a new year, we are still in winter.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Arlene, what about you and San Francisco?
What is nature telling you fromyour part of the world?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
We were just talking about how, in the Bay Area, we
really don't experience theseasons other than the change of
the length of the day.
So it's been generally sunnyand warm, and the same
hummingbirds are flying up back,and so it really doesn't feel
that different, other than thedays are shorter.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
And I like that question, belinda, of like what
is nature showing you?
And might drive down.
After the beautiful sort ofwinter wonderland view, we
caught at least three doublerainbows and many more rainbows,
and then, when we pulled intothe driveway at home, this hawk
(02:50):
flew overhead here in the middleof LA, and a hawk symbolizes a
need to start looking forwardand visioning your path ahead
and perhaps even preparing for agreater role in life.
And so, just, I love thesesymbols that nature gives us,
you know, just like the moon,right, this lunar symbol.
I think that's part of whatgratitude blooming is is about
(03:14):
exploring what are the symbolsin our life, right, and
sometimes we need to pause andreally kind of unpack these
things that we can take forgranted, right, and that's what
gratitude is is like recognizingthat when we take things for
granted, oftentimes we don't seethem, and so how do we pause
and really notice what's movingin our lives?
And so I think you're going toinvite us to pause to start this
(03:37):
new calendar year for gratitudeblooming, 2024.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
So I was invited to hold a space for a meditation
this morning that I thought, wow, this would be kind of cool for
our listeners and for the teamas we're exploring these big
questions.
Our last episode we focused onwhat does an artist, a poet and
a land steward have to dotogether with space being held
(04:03):
by gratitude blooming, and feltinspired to kick off this
episode with a guided meditationthat hopefully helps all of us
who are participating to justconnect in tune in, look back,
look forward and feel thattransition.
More than think through thetransition, feel through the
(04:26):
transition.
So just invite us all to relaxand get comfortable in our
bodies, regardless of what timeof day this is.
Just really bring someawareness to our bodies.
And, as we inhale, justimagining that you're kind of
(04:47):
sipping in that breath fromnature, that vitality from
nature, just really receive it,like you're drinking a warm,
healing drink, just breathing inenergy from the trees, the air,
the earth and the sky.
And, as you exhale, just reallysavoring that, letting go that
(05:17):
we get to do every moment withour breath, letting go of stress
, tension, worry, any emotionthat you want to take a break
from in this moment, justgetting more and more present in
(05:41):
this moment as you breathe,letting yourself soften, sending
some of that breath to parts ofyour body that might need a
little more love and care.
In this moment and for thisnext round of breath, I invite
(06:13):
you to send this energy to yourheart and, if it's helpful or
feels good, just put a gentlehand to your heart, like a sweet
hug to your heart, and take anourishing breath here, just
(06:37):
feeling the rise and fall ofyour breath as you drop into
your heart.
In this moment, I invite you tojourney back to last year.
We just made this transition oftime and invite your heart to
(06:58):
feel what was the feeling of theyear behind us?
That feeling can come from asensation in your body, in your
heart, maybe even a color or animagination of a vision or a
(07:26):
word, just letting yourselfremember what that feeling of
last year was like, what was thegift of the lesson of that past
(07:50):
.
Taking a few more nourishingbreaths here to just be with
that and if it's still feelingvery still in this moment, just
(08:20):
trust that that is also amessage.
And for this next round ofbreath we're gonna slowly now
transition to the present momentof this new beginning, new year
(08:44):
ahead, the possibilities ofwhat's to come and what is
becoming Now.
Checking in with your heart asyou breathe, inhaling to receive
, exhaling to let go.
(09:09):
What is the feeling that ismost nourishing, life-giving and
fulfilling for you, openingyourself up to receive what
wants to come to you.
What is the gift of 2024 thatyou would like to receive?
(09:39):
Taking a few more breaths here,really taking your time sipping
(10:01):
in the air from the earth,letting your body relax with
your exhale.
One more breath to transitionback to the present moment and,
(10:38):
if it's helpful, you can pausethis podcast to write this down
or draw it out, just capturingthe moment, or come back to this
place anytime.
You need to remember how youwant to feel at this time of new
beginnings and we're gonnapractice, live with you all,
(11:03):
with our team, just processingwhat is our heart telling us.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Thank you, blinda, for the beautiful meditation and
just opportunity to transcendtime for a moment.
I think 2023 for me was one oftravel, just movement, but at
the same time, an appreciationfor stillness.
I remember I was at the commonwheel, fall gathering and being
(11:34):
led through what felt like aguided meditation, but it was
actually a talk about the earthbreathing, and I remember the
feeling of breathing with thetrees and being breathed by the
trees, and so that was, for me,just a key moment in memory for
2023, is just to remember, justas much as we are breathing,
(11:58):
everything else around us isbreathing too right the trees
and realizing that give and takethat is constantly happening.
And I think, looking out to 2024, I've been focusing on this
Taoist principle called Wu Wei,which is effortless action, and
(12:18):
the feeling that I wanteffortless action to have, which
I love that you invited thatand you're always so good at
bringing us back to that feeling, which is joy.
And so then I think about therainbow that I saw yesterday as
this arching in the sky, or thehawk that I saw flying in the
sky, and just that feeling ofjoy, overcoming gravity right,
whether it's a bird, or thisprism of light, where light and
(12:43):
rain all come together in thismagical way.
And so, yeah, those are thefeelings that I want to bring
into 2024.
How about you, arlene?
How are you feeling after thismeditation?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
It's reminding me that 2023 for me was really a
year of grief and I hadn'treally stopped and thought about
it like that.
But I remember actually inJanuary was when we lost Brian,
right, I mean last it was lastJanuary.
I hadn't really thought aboutit, but somehow that the
(13:19):
meditation brought me back tothis year of grief.
It really started right afterthe new year.
Last year was so hard, I thinkI'm still grieving in a lot of
ways.
I lost my dad and at the end ofMarch, and so it really has
been a year of grief.
And then what happens after thegrief?
Right, there's been some of thegifts that came, or like a new
(13:42):
relationship with my mom, right,I mean, it's just changed so.
So that's been, that's been agift.
It's reminding me of just how,how precious life is.
So, and the fact that grieftakes a while Like if you had
asked me whether or not I feltgrief like before we did this
meditation, I probably wouldhave said no, but I think it's a
(14:04):
very slow thing that lives inyou and I wonder how many other
people are feeling that too.
In the meditation, when I lookforward, I really felt like 2024
for me is it's a year ofcreating.
I feel like that was anothergift of being in.
This year of grief is I'm.
(14:25):
I just made a lot of things Ilearned to.
I started knitting, I startedI'm learning to sew, and there's
nothing like knitting to reallymake you feel like you're
making something.
And so I don't know what 2024looks like, like, what the new
creations will be, but I feelthis like creator force in me,
(14:46):
like really wanting to comethrough.
Speaker 1 (14:48):
I appreciate you invoking Brian's memory.
He actually came up to in mymeditation as well and and I
didn't realize that it's been ayear, so I appreciate you
marking that time and I thinkone of the things that he was
always so good at was justremembering the magic of sound
(15:13):
and so just as we were sort ofbeing present for your
meditation, belinda, and justwhat is that magic of sound and
that sort of sense ofpossibility, and he just he kept
that present for us as ouraudio producer and really it's
really telling a story that wewouldn't have the Graduate
(15:34):
Boomin podcast by for him.
So thank you, arlene.
Speaker 2 (15:38):
I think that sometimes there's so much
pressure this time of year towrite things down and make
things very concrete, and I knowwe've talked about this as a
team how sometimes, when youwant to hold space for emergence
, it's it may be actually likeit may be actually limiting to
make things into very tangiblegoals.
Even last episode we talkedabout that pressure of modern
(16:00):
culture of having to makeeverything very visible and
measurable, and so I'm curiouswhen you were connecting with
your heart and sensing into thepast and the present and the
future, in what form did thatsensation come to you?
Speaker 3 (16:15):
That's why the meditation was so beautiful, and
it was the invitation to pauseallows you to notice, like, the
feelings and the memories andthe things that are there, that
are maybe just under the surface.
When you're invited to pauseand notice what's in your heart,
there's like a moment where youcan reconnect with the intent
(16:42):
of your life, right, like whatis it?
And some of us are moreintentional than others, right?
So I feel like that was, thatwas what came up for me, was I
had this feeling of the intentin my life, and I think I am a
creator, right, I as an artist,and so, for me, that is what was
(17:03):
coming up.
That's, that's the way Iexperienced the feeling in my
heart.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
We're so in sync, Arlene.
I was literally had the wordsintention in my head as you were
saying it.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
There's little clues everywhere.
I mean, I think, the reasonI've been thinking about it.
I have a tea bag and the teabag thing on the back of the tea
bag said something like intentcreates reality and I'm like,
yes, yes, like everything, likeeverything here right Is here
because of some intent, rightthat we created.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Well, I so appreciate this moment of just being able
to connect to you all and ourlisteners from afar in this
moment of pause together.
It does help me drop more intomy heart as well and I would say
, looking back, looking forward,2023 felt like fast and furious
(17:56):
, like I'm like where did it go?
What happened?
I mean, I can't rememberanything.
Almost I had to look back on myphotos to try to recall it,
because it felt like it was justgoing, like whether or not I
was on the train or not, it wasgoing to go and I think it,
towards the end, it led to a lotof unexpected possibilities and
(18:19):
ideas.
Fall, I'm realizing, is myseason of like, really getting a
lot of inspiration for the nextseason and year, and I think it
was a practice of being reallyhyper present in the moment and
seeing what is available in thatmoment to step into or not, and
(18:40):
really letting go of form like,of the form that something
needs to take to feel like I'mmoving forward.
I really feel like I surrenderedeven more in that way of like
OK, I don't know, and I thinkwe've talked about it a lot as
our team Like, we don't know, wewant to try to know what we
have to fight the flow of thathaving to know thing.
(19:04):
And and it was interestingbecause we did a little vision
boarding ceremony a couple daysago and I'm not a vision border,
but it's really interestingbecause it's held by one of our
community members and she reallybrought us into our hearts
first, before we went into theexperience of creating the
(19:26):
collage of the year, and and thegift that I received actually
happened in the year when I waswatching who was in the year
doing this activity and it was acommunity member who actually
followed us on our retreatcenter on Instagram and randomly
moved from Big Island, hawaii,to Mount Shasta, was helping out
(19:47):
a neighbor up the road and thengot introduced to us through
another friend to help us on ourland.
So that was a person holdingthe space.
And then there was a woman whohad was our first ever
sabbatical guest when welaunched that program and she
connected me to Dr Paul Wong,who was a guest on our podcast
(20:07):
and someone that I hold theequinox retreats with, who Omar
knows as well, and one of Paulstudents came back for the new
year gathering, and so these arepeople that if I tried my best
to try to attract them or meetthem in real life it would never
have happened.
(20:28):
It made me realize that 2024 isthe year I want to stay open to
miracles, the unexpected giftsthat want to come to all of us,
and like, not block that and nottry to plan too much that I
lose the expansiveness of thepossibilities.
(20:50):
So that was really unexpectedto realize that, oh, that's my
intention, that's how I want tofeel.
Oh right, like so much ofwhat's happened in my life has
not been through my effort.
It's been through synchronicityand and saying yes to the to be
at the right place at the righttime to receive the gift.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I feel like that is.
So I'm pointing with Wu Weiright.
It's like effortless action,right, and part of it was.
I was reading this article andit said that the world we occupy
is already in harmony, but thisequilibrium is disturbed by our
endless desires and wants.
In order to restore thisbalance, we are to navigate the
world according to how italready is, instead of
(21:33):
attempting to bend it to ourwill.
So, therefore, we're invited toswim with the current of the
river to see where it takes us,rather than fighting against it
to go to a destination wealready have in mind.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
Well, I can't wait to see how it all unfolds and
we're making it public everybody.
This is what we're standing for.
So, yeah, let's see whathappens.
Does it feel like at the righttime now to pick a card and see
what gratitude blooming has totell us, now that we've voiced
our how we want to feel in thisyear?
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Yeah, I feel like there's something around
creativity meets effortlessaction.
What?
Speaker 2 (22:10):
does that?
Speaker 1 (22:10):
look like, or maybe the sort of it's about intention
, really being clear about ourintentions and how do we want to
move or not move, or be movedby the world?
Speaker 2 (22:26):
All right, do we feel like a certain place?
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Well, I feel like it's two, four twenty four
twenty four Cool Second row,fourth column.
Does that work, all right?
Card number 17 violetsrepresenting the theme of
humility.
Humility is a quiet, powerfulgift.
How can you share this giftwith others?
(22:52):
And the art is two violets withtwo leaves kind of joined
together, almost like in a Vshape, which I love, the idea of
victory through humilityViolets.
So how's?
How does this card show up foryou relative to the are inquiry
(23:15):
around intentions.
Speaker 3 (23:17):
I sort of remember, like the story of the drawing
this card about this.
It was kind of the paradox ofsometimes you, the smaller you
are, the bigger you are in adifferent sense.
So like I always, when I when Isee this card, I always
remember that feeling.
(23:38):
When I wrote the word humilityon the card is, I had that
feeling of here are these twosmall violets and yet they just
seem like more powerful thananything in the world, right,
like I really had that thatsense and I can't really put my
(24:00):
finger on on how they do that.
But I feel like that's thepower of this virtue of humility
is that you're much bigger andmore powerful the smaller you
are sometimes.
Speaker 1 (24:16):
Like the violence.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Violets aren't out there, like being.
Look at me, look at me, they're, they're just there, and to me
that's, that's like an essence,the essence of humility.
Speaker 1 (24:34):
I go back to the word humility comes from humus or
soil, or of the earth, and I'mjust imagining in Yosemite these
giant thousand year old sequoiais like coming up out of the
earth and and then at the top ofwe climb vernal falls, which is
(24:56):
like this 400 foot elevation inlike less than a mile and a
half, and so it's the steepclimb up and then you get the
top of the falls and there's allthese like vine trees coming
out of like the boulders, andthey look like bonsai trees in
some ways because the roots areso like gnarled, because it's
(25:17):
like there's no dirt and there'sno soil.
They're like literally had tocome out of like cracks in the
boulder and then over time theygrew and so I just I don't know,
I think about like there's sucha will to live Right thousand
year old trees.
I feel like humility as we gointo the year with all these
(25:39):
intentions of like how do westay grounded?
How do we Create quiet like?
How do we receive these thingsas gifts, not just sort of like
problems or challenges to besolved or conquered or whatever
that will power orientedApproach that is so prevalent?
How do we sort of really justTrust the will of life itself.
(26:04):
Right like that, these treesare going to grow, because
that's what a pine seed does, isit finds Places to grow its
roots and let everything else dowhat it does.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
Feels very comforting and effortless.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
Love it.
Well, omar, do we have a songfor humility, as we're kind of
holding space for these virtuesof Gratitude blooming to be
received well, in lieu of thehumility song which will be
forthcoming on our collaborationwith the composer and musician
(26:44):
Ariel low, let's go with thewild card and and Tiger Lily you
(27:21):
, you, you.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
I love how much that strumming of the guitar felt
like a lullaby and and in manyways that does feel like the
energy of Humility and what itfeels like to just receive a
gift that wants to be given toyou like that, just come on,
enjoy this song, let it take youto your sleep, like it feels
(29:01):
perfect for that, that feelingof receiving with effortless
action.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
I love that as an intention for the artist, poet
and land steward who areCreating with effortless action.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
Well, I hope this episode inspires you all to
connect in to your hearts andjust take a pause as we Just
emerge into this new year, justtaking our time to really
receive.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Cheers.
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Cheers.
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