Knackered

Spiraling inwards after many day of too many clients.

Oy.

Vey.

Cherry Madness, Pt. II

People were out in force yesterday, stirring the spring energy, mitigating its upwards rising effects. A client told me that it took her 35 minutes to get out of the Smithsonian Metro station around 1:00 p.m. Trains kept arriving full of people there to see the cherries at full bloom. The platform couldn't clear fast enough. A mob scene of Cherry Madness at the Smithsonian Metro station! Oh yeah. It happens every year - we put up with it, though, because the cherries reflected in the Tidal Basin are truly irresistible. I'm not kidding. When the cherries bloom, all of DC buzzes with a light pink intoxication. The high lasts only a few days (probably that's for the best.)

While the cherries bloom, people get crazy, and I'm not just talking about tourists at the Tidal Basin. Friday night around 11:30 I caught myself dancing to Madonna with friends in an apartment in the now groovy block of 14th Street between P and Q. Out at a party? Having fun, drinking sangria? Dancing to Madonna? It has to be spring fever!

Don't you think?

Cherry Madness

Think pink! Who can help it? Pink is all around! The trees on Capitol Hill as well as at the Tidal Basin are now at maximum poof and foof. The landscape is gorgeous, and, well, kind of silly looking. In a few days the blossoms will begin to flutter down like so much pink snow, but today? Pink. Really, really PINK.

It's a busy weekend in and around Capitol Hill. I'm referring not only to the Cherry Blossom Festival, featuring hordes of Cherry Tourists and their many many many many many many tour buses, but also to the opening game at the new Nats stadium tomorrow, the Smithsonian Kite Festival today, and at least two marathons.

All the activity: cherry madness, kites, people with numbers hanging around their necks running through the streets, baseball bats flying around while crowds cheer, etc. is thematically perfect. This busy weekend is a shamanic dance of alignment with the bursting energy of spring. All the gathering together, running, games, beer drinking, kite flying, buses and movement of people in and around the street level clouds of ethereal pink helps distribute the surge of upwards moving springtime energy. If we didn't run around frantically this weekend, I think the whole city would go up in a puff of pink smoke. There's so much energy available during spring! So, it's all good.

Overwhelming, though, for quiet types such as myself. It's a really good day to get out of the neighborhood, go hang out with friends in Columbia Heights where the vibe will no doubt be more peaceful. Carry on, ye shamanic dancers of Capitol Hill and Tidal Basin. Go forth and fly kites, oh great shamans at the National Mall. Shamans of the national game of baseball? Hit some out of the park, OK? Move that springtime energy around for the greater good, please!

As for myself, I'm outta here. Oh yeah!

The Deep and Open Ocean

Beyond the beaches, coral reefs and fertile shallow waters of the narrow continental shelves lies the deep and open ocean, covering more than sixty percent of the planet's surface. It regulates our climate, conditions our atmosphere and contains some of the least known and most extraordinary animals on Earth. --"Planet Earth, As You've Never Seen It Before."

It's one crazy realm down there. Not only are the animals truly alien looking, but the environment itself is unlike anything at the surface. There is no light down there, not ever, not even after Daylight Savings Time goes into effect. Though currents must vary in temperature somewhat, truth is, seasons as we think of them have absolutely no meaning at the bottom of the big water. It's like another planet! And it covers sixty percent of the Earth. Wow.

I like thinking about deep ocean volcanic vents, super hot, spewing lava right and left. The bacteria and viruses who live on and in these vents are happy as clams to be uber boiled. It's HOT.

I love trying to imagine the subduction trenches, where the edges of gigantic tectonic plates sink little by little back down into the mantle, melting and churning, only to come back to the surface every time there's an eruption somewhere. I'll never see any of this with my own eyes, no. We humans have yet to build a "space" ship sturdy enough to go all the way down. We can fly to Mars, but can not tolerate the environment at the bottom of the ocean. Deep ocean is so unsuitable to our species that any attempt to dive that deep without a ship would mean death by implosion long before we found the subduction zones. Crushed by water. Imagine how much water. Crazy.

Planet Earth is alive in so many ways. I salute you Mama Gaia! L'Chaim!!

Strange Sentiments

Is it OK to ask God to bless your truck? I guess so ... even though it would never occur to me that a truck needs a blessing. Maybe that truck doesn't run so well, or needs an oil change. Maybe the tires are bald. Or maybe whoever drives the truck is worried about traffic, road rage or something.

Sights like this always make me wonder.

Growing up I was taught that it's improper (or maybe impolite?) to ask God for anything. We were told to praise God and give thanks for all our good fortunes. Fast forward several decades to when I studied Judaism - who knew that actually it's perfectly OK to ask God for all kinds of things! It was a revelation not only about Judaism but about my family, too. Oh yeah!

Of course, there are ethical rules around prayers of request. For instance, if, as you drive into your neighborhood, you see firetrucks and smoke in the distance, you're not supposed to pray that it's not your house that's on fire. The Rabbi said what's done is done. It's not right to ask that it be undone. Also, this kind of prayer is a way of asking God to make sure it's someone else's house that's going up in smoke. That's not very nice, is it?

It's fine, though, to pray for the people whose house is burning, to ask that they find a way to access the resources, strength and courage they need to deal with whatever is happening. Elegant, I think. It also seems so much more practical, not to mention compassionate, than any "please, not ME" kind of prayer.

Every day these days, I'm using the structure of the daily Amidah prayer, except I'm free-forming the content. It goes like this: stand up (Amidah means "standing"), quietly but audibly ask God to open your eyes so you can see. Then say six prayers of praise, six prayers of request and six prayers of thanksgiving. The Amidah, too, is an elegant structure for prayer.

What I experience, every time I stand and pray, is that there is a receptivity to anything I might want to say or ask of the Almighty Eternal Wisdom and Love that is far more than a sum of its infinite parts. I always sense that this Unimaginably Great Wisdom and Love (I call it God) is ready to listen and respond, lend comfort, guidance and compassion. When God speaks to me, He says, "Go ahead. Say whatever's on your mind. I'll listen, and maybe I can even help. Anytime, my dear." God is such a good guy, really He is.

Given my experience, it probably is perfectly fine to ask God to bless your truck. Why not? But ... to announce it with a decal on the back window? What's that all about?

Springtime makes everything frisky, even an old dog like Jake. Sweet, sweet spring!

Dioscuri

Did you have a good Easter? I did. In fact, I had a doubly wonderful day.

I was at work, of course, putting my hands first on a woman who recently gave birth to beautiful twin boys. They're so gorgeous! It was wonderful to set eyes on them, since I worked with the mom throughout her pregnancy. Little Mac and Oliver are both adorable!

Next on the table was a woman who is currently pregnant - with twin boys! I'll be present when these little guys are born since I'm not only her massage therapist but her doula, too. This is the first time I've worked with women who are pregnant with twins. As seems proper and fitting, instead of coming across one woman pregnant with twins, I'm working with two of them. What fun!

There's something so mythical and magical about the idea of sharing the womb with someone. What would it be like to have a real doppelganger, someone you could switch places with? I love reading stories about the deep connections between twins. Too, I've always loved Geminis. In fact, I married a Gemini. True to type, he had several different personalities, all living within one body. Fascinating, though sometimes confusing.

I even like silly twin movies like "The Parent Trap" (both versions) and of course the ancient TV show The Patty Duke Show. In spite of the lack of substance, it was fun to watch the identical cousins and their wacky adventures.

Who doesn't love the Weasley twins from Harry Potter? What about the Doublemint twins? Even the Greeks and Romans loved twins. Let's face it. Twins are great.

Two salutes to Castor and Pollux! Yeah! Yeah!

So like they were, no mortal
Might one from other know;
White as snow their armor was,
Their steeds were white as snow.
Never on earthly anvil
Did such rare armor gleam,
And never did such gallant steeds
Drink of an earthly stream.
. . . . . . . . .

Back comes the chief in triumph
Who in the hour of fight
Hath seen the great Twin Brethren
In harness on his right.
Safe comes the ship to haven
Through billows and through gales,
If once the great Twin Brethren
Sit shining on the sails.