tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87717177111808942302024-03-13T12:14:21.884-04:00The Only Gate is Now (Mary Bast)"The only gate is now. The only doorway is your own body and mind. There’s nowhere to go. There’s nothing else to be." Poet Jane Hirshfield in The Buddha, a film by David GrubinMary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-36471356457316954322023-10-08T23:27:00.002-04:002023-10-08T23:33:14.304-04:00I am Thou<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://0.gvt0.com/vi/qFo_gRhW6dQ/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/qFo_gRhW6dQ&fs=1&source=uds" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><embed height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/qFo_gRhW6dQ&fs=1&source=uds" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="320"></embed></object></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">RA MA DA SA, SA SAY SO HUNG</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Recalling several practices of healing self and others that have stayed with me throughout my life, I am so happy to remember </span></span><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">the Siri Gaitri </span></span>healing mantra that calmed my anxiety when recovering from breast cancer surgery in 2011, Now experiencing an autoimmune disease attacking my lungs, I'm calmed again by this beautiful mantra: "Ra Ma Da Sa, Sa Say So Hung."</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">The first four sounds of the mantra ascend and expand into the Infinite; the second part of the mantra pivots those qualities of the highest and brings them back down, to interweave Earth with Infinity: </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">RA is the Sun -- its energy strong, bright, hot, and purifying</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">MA is the Moon -- a quality of receptivity, coolness, and nurturing</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">DA is the Earth -- its energy is secure, personal, and the ground of action </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">SA is Infinity -- the impersonal cosmos in all its open dimensions and totality </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">SA -- this repetition is the turning point</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">SAY -- awareness of a sacred "Thou"</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">SO (the personal sense of merger and identity) and </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">HUNG (the Infinite, vibrating and real) -- "I am Thou"</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br />
</span></span></div>
<div align="LEFT">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br />
</span></span></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-15786084602825331762023-04-06T21:50:00.001-04:002023-10-08T23:26:34.027-04:00The True Picture of Reality?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--4r0MUEflOw/VBSMbkpDF1I/AAAAAAAAH-Q/2moNmuDW3GU/s1600/StephenHawking.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/--4r0MUEflOw/VBSMbkpDF1I/AAAAAAAAH-Q/2moNmuDW3GU/s1600/StephenHawking.jpg" width="144" /></a></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif">British physicist <a href="http://www.hawking.org.uk/" target="_blank">Stephen Hawking</a> pursued what physicists call a Grand
Unified Theory, or a "Theory of Everything." As Hawking put it, "My goal
is simple. It is complete understanding of the universe." </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif">His most important work in
physics explored the nature of "singularities," anomalies in the space-time
continuum commonly known as "black holes." In 1988 he published
<i>A Brief
History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes</i>, a book that brought his work to a
general audience. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif">
</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif">Since publication of his memoir <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345535286/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0345535286&linkCode=as2&tag=stephenhaw042-20" target="_blank"><i>My Brief History</i></a> and release of the movie "The Theory of Everything," those new to Hawking's story have celebrated the simple fact that he lived so long after being diagnosed with
motor neuron disease in his early twenties and given two years to live. Instead, he lived to be 76 years old.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif">When asked </span>many years later about living with the disease, he told an interviewer he
was "happier now . . . Before, I was very bored with
life. I drank a fair bit, I guess; I didn't do any work . . . When one's expectations are
reduced to zero, one really appreciates everything that one does have."</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif">My favorite of Hawking's quotes is this one: ". . . the city council of Monza, Italy, barred pet owners from keeping goldfish in curved bowls . . . saying it is cruel to keep a fish in a bowl with curved sides because, gazing out, the fish would have a distorted view of reality. But how do we know we have the true, undistorted picture of reality?"</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif"><br /></span></div>
<div class="copy-paste-block" style="text-align: left;">
<span face=""Trebuchet MS",sans-serif"><span class="bqQuoteLink"><br /></span></span></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-14313587905928359982022-08-18T16:53:00.014-04:002023-05-23T23:25:11.576-04:00The Tibetans Call It a Bardo<div align="left">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wlmzvuU0PlQ/VdvLmHy6t4I/AAAAAAAAI-A/vQc9EHjLcD0/s1600/bardo.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wlmzvuU0PlQ/VdvLmHy6t4I/AAAAAAAAI-A/vQc9EHjLcD0/s200/bardo.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">In my early thirties, I attended a
Silva Mind Control
course to stop smoking. Others
were there for weight control, memory training, and self-healing techniques. Over
several weeks we were taught relaxation and visualization techniques, including the
development of a <i style="font-style: normal;">mental laboratory</i> complete with desk, calendar, files, visual
screen, and healing medications. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">We were also told we'd have
an experience of extrasensory perception on the last day of the training, which I found
intriguing but presumed impossible for me. For that last session we were instructed to bring in three slips of paper, each showing only the
name and city of an individual we privately knew to have
an illness or physical problem.</span></span>
<br />
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><br />To start the morning of the last day, we practiced by placing the body of a friend
on our mental screen and <i style="font-style: normal;">scanning</i> for problems of any sort. Following instructions, suddenly I <i style="font-style: normal;">saw</i> and heard a motorcycle hit by a car. The motorcyclist's face wasn't visible, but because the man I was scanning
owned a motorcycle, I expressed my alarm to the instructor, who suggested I find the date of the accident and send healing light to
my friend. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">I closed my eyes, went to "<a href="https://thesilvamethod.co.nz/the-alpha-dimension" target="_blank">alpha level</a>" as instructed, </span></span>visualized the calendar in my mental laboratory, and was astonished
to <i style="font-style: normal;">see</i> the pages turning rapidly until they stopped at a date in June. I assumed
this to be in the future, as the session took place in February, so I did as the
instructor suggested and pictured my friend bathed in white light.<br /><br />After a break we were assigned partners, and the first one, whom I'd never met and
didn't know in advance would be my partner, handed me a piece of paper with a man's name and
the city of Seattle written on it. In alpha level, I visualized
<i style="font-style: normal;">a</i>
<i style="font-style: normal;">man</i> on
my mental screen, and saw his
whole left side was darker than his right. I didn't know what it meant. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">Using a technique we'd been taught, I imagined putting on this person's head,
and was immediately torn by depression, sorrow, and resentment. I could
<i style="font-style: normal;">feel</i> my left side was crippled; I had no hearing in my left ear and no sight in my left
eye. I <i style="font-style: normal;">knew</i> hearing was
intact in my right ear, but vision in my right eye was
limited in some way, though I couldn't describe exactly how. </span></span>
<br />
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><br />Afterwards, my partner said this was the son of a dear friend; 21
years old and bitter because he'd been crippled on his left side in a motorcycle
accident at an intersection where a car had ignored a stop sign. He had no hearing in his left
ear and no sight in his left eye; hearing was normal in his right ear, but he had
tunnel vision in his right eye. His recovery was slow, and he was despondent.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">As I almost feared when asking her the accident's date, she named the same day in June I'd
<i style="font-style: normal;">seen</i>
on my mental calendar. The motorcycle crash I'd pictured earlier that morning, before being
assigned to this partner, had occurred the <i>previous</i> June!</span></span><br />
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><br />Interactions with my next two partners were less clear but equally mind-blowing. With one, I pictured her subject with a brain like a walnut, the right side shriveled, then found she'd given me the name of a friend with brain cancer in the right hemisphere. With the other I kept <i>seeing</i> The Cowardly Lion from The Wizard of Oz, focusing especially on the size of his nose. She admitted she didn't know anyone with a critical injury or illness, so had given me the name of a friend with chronic sinusitis. </span></span><br />
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><br />I was disoriented for several weeks. The world as I perceived it had
changed. In <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tibetan-Book-Living-Dying-International/dp/0062508342/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1440512429&sr=8-1&keywords=tibetan+book+of+living+dying" target="_blank"><i>The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying</i></a>, Sogyal Rinpoche refers to a
<i>bardo</i>
as a juncture "when the possibility of liberation, or enlightenment, is
heightened." My
experience of this unexpected, new reality opened my mind and heart.<br /><br />Since then, I've had many instances of knowing something that either
had not
happened yet, or had happened at a distance, without my direct
knowledge, and was
later confirmed. At first, I was frustrated by the lack of
specificity, but over the years
I've learned to relax into what I now believe is a universal
flow. </span></span></span></div>
<div align="left">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><br />
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">As a coach this manifested as psychic intuitions. I learned to slip into a meditative state and
seek information beyond the obvious.
My clients often commented, "I was just thinking that, but wasn't sure
I was ready to
talk about it," or "How did you know that? I've never told anyone."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">My
<i>bardo</i> experience left me with
a lifelong sense of awe, triggered by the recognition, "If this is possible, then anything is possible."</span></span></span></div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-31628473580092396452022-08-01T18:29:00.008-04:002023-09-11T13:59:20.238-04:00Cave Drawings<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">(Published in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Enneagram-Death-Helpful-insights-people/dp/0985786108/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357049848&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Enneagram+of+Death" target="_blank">The Enneagram of Death: Helpful Insights by the 9 Types of People on Grief, Fear, and Dyling</a></i>, by Elizabeth Wagele.)</span></span><br />
</span><blockquote>
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><i>Research suggests that trauma survivors can head off long-lasting symptoms by letting friends know what they're going through. Susan Lien Whigham, </i>"<a href="http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/articles/291/1/Role-of-Metaphor-in-Recovery-from-Trauma/Page1.html" target="_blank">The Role of Metaphor in Recovery From Trauma</a>"</span></span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I had not thought of my 2010 breast cancer diagnosis and surgery as <i>trauma</i> until I read the transcript of <i><a href="http://www.nicabm.com/nicabmblog/?p=881" target="_blank">How the Brain Helps Us to Survive Trauma</a></i> and understood that any life-threatening event can be traumatizing -- war, a terrible car accident, <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2011/05/19/f-psychology-trauma.html" target="_blank">a natural disaster</a>, a heart attack, cancer.</span></span><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">And the measure of how well or quickly we recover, compared to <a href="http://www.nicabm.com/nicabmblog/?p=1983" target="_blank">those who might develop post-traumatic stress disorder</a>, is whether or not we can discharge the energy created by the shock. Some of our response to stress is determined by our own emotional resiliency, but much of it depends on whether our caregivers, family, and friends contribute to our feeling helpless or support our gaining a sense of control. We can begin to take charge of our fate when we're able to talk about our feelings, absorb the reality of our circumstances, and move into action. </span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">My strongest urge while convalescing from surgery was simply to be listened to. And yet, I didn't really have the words to express what I was experiencing. Some of my friends interpreted my early quasi-silence as a desire to have my spirit lifted and entertained me with stories. I loved them for this, but I didn't want to hear stories, I wanted to be invited to express what was going on inside of me, needed them to be patient while I searched to find words for what I was experiencing.</span></span><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">So, I was relieved to read how listening for metaphors can help recovery from trauma. I remembered an earlier blog entry where I had tried to express my reaction to others' view of my "bravery": </span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote>
<div>
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">It's like driving in a heavy rainstorm late at night. You'd rather be home by a cozy fire, but you're on full alert, every sense attuned to what's happening in your immediate environment. You don't have time to be afraid. </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">I didn't feel brave; I felt swept up in a tide of experience. During the two weeks of diagnosis, biopsy, and surgery I was in a kind of trance, floating, as if rocked on the waves of a deep ocean. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Notice the quality of water in these metaphors -- <i>rainstorm</i>, <i>tide</i>, <i>waves</i>, <i> ocean</i>. And notice also how these water metaphors are hard to pin down (another metaphor); how fruitless it would be to try to capture water with a "pin" of any sort. And yet, these watery images helped me embrace a shock too big to encompass with left-brain language.</span></span><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Breast cancer brought death into my house. Paradoxically, the mastectomy brought a change to my body that meant I could stave off death, probably for many years, so I denied the surgery as trauma. It took almost six months for me to acknowledge that I saw the loss of my breasts as a <i>disfigurement</i>, to notice how I'd been dressing to hide it from the world, how quickly I covered myself after a shower--when I used to be so happily naked. </span></span><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RJx3z7sAn2E/TeaVEGLB1VI/AAAAAAAADXw/9jbPaY5Tebo/s1600/CavePaintings.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RJx3z7sAn2E/TeaVEGLB1VI/AAAAAAAADXw/9jbPaY5Tebo/s200/CavePaintings.jpg" width="200" /></a>I finally let in the loss by following my metaphors, diving in to the ocean, being swept by the tide to a barren shore, finding a flat terrain with strange plants and unknown dangers, dark caves filled with ancient drawings, wondering </span></span></span><i><span style="font-size: medium;">Who are these others who have been here before me? How can I survive this? </span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">And I knew I had to find my way through this metaphorical territory, go into the dark caves, experience the fear, learn from the ancient drawings, find guidance from others who had been there for a while. The spirits of these women encircled me as I wept for the loss of my breasts, they chanted with me as I celebrated life's changing seasons and embraced more enduring symbols of womanhood. </span></span><br />
<br />
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"> * * *</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Seven years later, on April 15, 2017 I faced another loss, the <a href="http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/gainesville/obituary.aspx?pid=185369312" target="_blank">death of my mother</a>. Yes, she lived a long and healthy 104 years, and yes, I was exhausted during the final years of caring for her. But each process of grief has its own territory. As the months passed, </span></span><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I looked at the image above of women in community, and wept as they encircled me once more, reminding me of lifelong love from my </span></span><a href="http://windingsheets.blogspot.com/2018/04/your-soul-to-keep.html" target="_blank">Mom, who was also my best girlfriend</a>. </span></span></span></div>
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-75615183491431051252022-07-31T18:28:00.000-04:002022-08-18T18:28:55.779-04:00Awakening Heart Energy<div align="center">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FDbR_s17Glk/Vi2D81SQe2I/AAAAAAAAJB4/Ws77hR96mRY/s1600/dolphin.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FDbR_s17Glk/Vi2D81SQe2I/AAAAAAAAJB4/Ws77hR96mRY/s320/dolphin.jpg" width="211" /> </a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FDbR_s17Glk/Vi2D81SQe2I/AAAAAAAAJB4/Ws77hR96mRY/s1600/dolphin.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"> </a><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"></span></div>
<div align="left">
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif">Starting a new business many years ago required taking risks, and my emotions were running wild. I needed a positive symbol of awakening heart energy and chose a tattoo of a dolphin swimming around my heart. When I told my mother, I was devastated by her response: "Why would you want to disfigure yourself?"</span><br />
<br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif">You've had similar experiences, I know.
People who take
risks to define themselves according to their own needs and dreams often have to overcome
the almost insurmountable authority of social conditioning.</span><br />
<br />
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif">Many of us had the childhood experience of being told what we
<i>can't</i> do:
what's not normal
or polite, what's dangerous or beyond our abilities. We were left with a
sense of powerlessness to predict what will make us secure. Even as
adults, these early messages haunt us: <i>Who will criticize me for trying
something new? Who will laugh at me for this idea I have? What will
I do if this doesn't work out? </i></span></div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif">Sometimes we overcome our
insecurity
by whistling in the dark. (<i>I'm not afraid! I'm not afraid</i>!)
But when faced with a tough decision, we may also endure an internal
debate: <i>What do I do now? Which of these paths do I take? Can I trust
my
own judgment? Will I give myself permission to go for what I want?</i></span></div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif">This
is the paradox: when we act as if we're powerless, in that very act we give our
power away. Until I found my own personal power, until I could stay clear about what
I wanted to do and why, I fell into the victim role, pointing my finger outward.
Initially, I was angry at how my mother, in spite of her
generally loving support, could undermine my attempts to break the mold. I felt
hurt because I wanted her approval. </span></div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif">When I could finally come from my center and let go of my attachment to her opinion, I </span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">was f</span>reed from
reacting to Mom's response and touched by her own fear of change.</span></div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif">How
many times have you stopped yourself from doing something you were
excited about because
someone else put on the brakes? My mother was uncomfortable with
the unfamiliar, just as your friends and family may be when you take a
risk. My tattoo was right for me. And I revamped my business because it
drew
me to work that was richer and more meaningful, even though there were
lean years. </span></div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div align="left">
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif">In the process, I learned an important lesson. Sometimes we begin to doubt
ourselves when others criticize, worry, or question our urges to live our lives more
fully. We need to remember they're actually questioning themselves, unable to imagine doing what we've found the courage and vision to do.</span></div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div align="left">
<span face="Verdana,sans-serif">Years later my life was saved from breast cancer by a bilateral mastectomy. I was not afraid of losing my femininity, but I <i>was</i> concerned about damage to my dolphin. My surgeon was able to keep it almost completely intact, and the tattoo's symbolism has carried me through surgery, recovery, and more than a decade since then with an open heart. </span></div>
<div align="left">
<br /></div>
</div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-868494263847224352022-04-25T12:22:00.007-04:002022-08-18T18:32:22.995-04:00Liebeslied<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aSlTJadBXCY/T0pWbEGzn_I/AAAAAAAADyQ/RMC42xvTZhA/s1600/cemetery3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aSlTJadBXCY/T0pWbEGzn_I/AAAAAAAADyQ/RMC42xvTZhA/s200/cemetery3.jpg" width="200" /></a></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">In a reframing of the <a href="https://www.buddhistinquiry.org/article/shining-the-light-of-death-on-life-maranasati-meditation-part-i/" target="_blank">Buddhist meditation on death</a>, I have often immersed myself in visual and written arts reflecting the inevitable. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">This practice has taken many turns, one of which was deciding to have a natural burial at <a href="http://conservationburialinc.org/" target="_blank">Prairie Creek Conservation Cemetery</a>. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Now in my 84th year--though no threat looms with immediacy--it's no longer possible to ignore the eventuality of my own death. And I love the idea of going back to earth in the woods, with a natural marker.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Without the barrier of a coffin between me and the earth, my molecules can easily mix with those who've preceded me, and in the moment of dying I anticipate imagining the company I'll join. My growing list of those who've preceded me includes dear family, friends, pets--and also poets, writers, artists, spiritual teachers, psychologists, scientists, and musicians who have brought beauty and inspiration to my long life.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">This practice of drawing others' spirits to me is a reminder to simply rejoice in what flows from intuition. Often, I've experienced the emotions of my son, a friend, or a client prior to contact -- not always realizing the mood's source until later. A friend I told about this said, "They're playing the strings of your<i> </i>guitar." I so resonate with that image, which echoes my lifelong favorite among Rainer Maria Rilke's poems, "Lovesong" (the original </span></span><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">"Liebeslied"</span></span> follows the translation by M.D. Herter Norton):</span></span></span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">How shall I withhold my soul so that</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">it does not touch on yours? How shall I</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">uplift it over you to other things? </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Ah willingly would I by some</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">lost thing in the dark give it harbor</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">in an unfamiliar silent place</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">that does not vibrate on when your depths vibrate.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Yet everything that touches us, you and me,</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">takes us together as a bow's stroke does,</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">that out of two strings draws a single voice.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Upon what instrument are we two spanned?</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">And what player has us in his hand?</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">O sweet song.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><i>Wie soll ich meine Seele halten, dass</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><i>sie nicht an deine r<span class="st">ü</span>hrt? Wie soll ich sie</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><i>hinheben <span class="st">ü</span>ber dich zu andern Dingen?</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><i>Ach gerne möcht ich sie bei irgendetwas</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><i>Verlorenem im Dunkel unterbringen</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><i>an einer fremden stillen Stelle, die</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><i>nicht weiterschwingt, wenn deine Tiefen schwingen.</i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><i>Doch alles, was uns anr<span class="st">ührt, dich und mich,</span></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i><span class="st" style="font-size: medium;">nimmt uns zusammen wie ein Bogenstrich,</span></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i><span class="st" style="font-size: medium;">der aus zwei Saiten eine Stimme zieht.</span></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i><span class="st" style="font-size: medium;">Auf welches Instrument sind wir gespannt?</span></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i><span class="st" style="font-size: medium;">Und welcher Spieler hat uns in der Hand?</span></i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><i><span class="st">O s</span><span class="st">ü</span><span class="st">sses Lied.</span></i></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Everything that touches us takes us together as does a bow's stroke that draws a single voice from two strings.</span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">-----</span></span>Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-69937874867128287392022-04-25T12:08:00.003-04:002022-08-18T18:34:57.768-04:00The Symbol of the Wave<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jJWOdm3veJ8/Vc4XhV_PphI/AAAAAAAAI1k/g7ylWFTCD8E/s1600/Wave.gif" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jJWOdm3veJ8/Vc4XhV_PphI/AAAAAAAAI1k/g7ylWFTCD8E/s200/Wave.gif" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "tw cen mt"; font-size: large;"><b> </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: medium;"><b style="font-weight: 400;"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Philosopher </span></span></b>Alan Watts' essay on Zen </span></span></b><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">
used the metaphor of a wave ~ </b></span></span><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">
while each wave appears </b></span></span><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">
separate and distinct </b></span></span><br /> <span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">all waves are part </b></span></span><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">
of the ocean they share. </b></span></span><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">
Likewise, there seem to be </b></span></span><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;"><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">nine </b></span></span>patterns of <a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">personality fixations</a></b></span></span><br />
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">
yet each is whole in spirituality's ocean</b></span></span><span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">.</b></span></span></span><br />
<br />
<br /></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-27984023192807314982021-11-03T09:53:00.001-04:002023-11-17T21:22:20.109-05:00The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth<div align="left">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gOAgj1zX_l8/V3lIW_iAKaI/AAAAAAAAJSE/IVUzvq7_xVYedPPrsuS-EiEd30ISQm1-QCLcB/s1600/Manure.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gOAgj1zX_l8/V3lIW_iAKaI/AAAAAAAAJSE/IVUzvq7_xVYedPPrsuS-EiEd30ISQm1-QCLcB/s200/Manure.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b style="font-weight: 400;">One of my favorite
stories about C.G. Jung is a reported dream where he was drowning in a
vat of human waste
and calling "Help me out!" to his therapist, who stood on the rim of
the vat. Instead of taking his outstretched hand the therapist pushed
Jung's head down into the liquid, saying, "Through, not out."</b></span></span><br />
<br />
That's often what it feels like when I commit to greater self-awareness and then
see
what I've gotten myself into: "Get me out of this!" No
matter how innovative my efforts, there's a quality of struggling in, yes,
a vat of shit. </div>
<div align="left">
<br />
In an episode of "<a href="http://www.hbo.com/john-adams" target="_blank">John Adams</a>," he teaches one of his sons about the virtues of manure, insisting that the young man mash it around with his hands. <a href="http://arnoldia.arboretum.harvard.edu/pdf/articles/2002-61-4-john-adams-farmer-and-gardener.pdf" target="_blank">Adams' recipe</a> for compost would delight today's organic gardeners -- seaweed, marsh mud, dead ashes, rock weed, livestock waste, kitchen scraps.</div>
<br />
My own <i>dung</i> has a similar variety -- scraps of history; ashes I thought were dead; a deep sea of muddy droppings from unconscious creature selves; weeds I'd imagined pulled forever; the waste of years spent serving an ego-image.<br />
<br />
I keep in mind this quote from William Bryant Logan's <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Ecstatic-William-Bryant-Logan/dp/039332947X" target="_blank"><i>Dirt: The Ecstatic Skin of the Earth</i></a>: "Not only the grain in the mealbag, but the full-blown rose are, in one sense, the gift of turds." <br />
<br />Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-32794455639032550452021-06-16T12:12:00.153-04:002023-11-17T21:22:33.178-05:00What "The Big Picture" May Miss<div class="_5pbx userContent _3576" data-ft="{"tn":"K"}" data-testid="post_message" id="js_2r"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisafkyuLcmbzzQP4Ja3Ipsf6JfiHq_GRBFjazJTYLcSmgW-sUaUaSgAV4nrfuSAYUY7GT-9cfHjoNFpq7h3bzqLhLj_GIr2D3nE2fb59bOZBAk2N3M_rRMrUDZElnopmYTaa4DUaWsn-kX/s540/SensingIntuition.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="540" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisafkyuLcmbzzQP4Ja3Ipsf6JfiHq_GRBFjazJTYLcSmgW-sUaUaSgAV4nrfuSAYUY7GT-9cfHjoNFpq7h3bzqLhLj_GIr2D3nE2fb59bOZBAk2N3M_rRMrUDZElnopmYTaa4DUaWsn-kX/w346-h192/SensingIntuition.png" width="346" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, drawn from Jungian psychology, groups people by
cognitive function, and the starkest contrast lies in <a href="https://personalitymax.com/personality-types/preferences/sensing-intuition" target="_blank">two broad ways of gathering information</a>: Sensing and Intuition. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sensors―interested in facts―are good observers,
focusing on the present, on facts, on what can be processed through the five senses; concrete, literal thinkers who value realism, common sense, and ideas with practical applications.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Intuitives--</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">interested in frameworks--</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">are introspective, looking for </span></span>possibilities, patterns, impressions, imagination, reading between the lines. I test as high as possible on Intuition.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Neither is better than the other; however, the stronger the
difference in cognitive style, the greater the tendency to disparage such a
different way of seeing the world. I grew up in a family where both my parents and my older brother had a Sensing preference, so in spite of my good grades in school and college, I thought I had something missing until I was in graduate school in my thirties, where big picture thinking was a great asset and I learned about these cognitive differences. What a relief!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">My deficit in the cognitive pathways of Sensors, however, continues to haunt me, most recently in a poetry workshop where we're learning to model our poems after <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=36723" target="_blank">Sharon Olds</a>, <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/146040/bird-5a8c38e16dd20" target="_blank">Dorianne Laux</a>, the teacher, and former students--all writing "accessible, detail oriented, image-driven poetry," of course following poetic principles, but focused in tight on a moment that can be visualized. </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As excited as I've been to be involved again with a critique group, I was really struggling until I found an article about the Sensing/Intuition difference in creative writing. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Writers and
poets tend to be drawn toward <a href="https://writingcycle.com/the-writing-process/mbti-personality-type-affects-creative-writers " target="_blank">creative work that matches their cognitive preferences</a> and, of course, their own writing reflects their way of perceiving
the world. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sensing Poets<span>: </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span><span> </span>Intuitive Poets:<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></p><p></p><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
<o:RelyOnVML/>
<o:AllowPNG/>
</o:OfficeDocumentSettings>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:TrackMoves/>
<w:TrackFormatting/>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:DoNotPromoteQF/>
<w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther>
<w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian>
<w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
<w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/>
<w:EnableOpenTypeKerning/>
<w:DontFlipMirrorIndents/>
<w:OverrideTableStyleHps/>
</w:Compatibility>
<m:mathPr>
<m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/>
<m:brkBin m:val="before"/>
<m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/>
<m:smallFrac m:val="off"/>
<m:dispDef/>
<m:lMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:rMargin m:val="0"/>
<m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/>
<m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/>
<m:intLim m:val="subSup"/>
<m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/>
</m:mathPr></w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="false"
DefSemiHidden="false" DefQFormat="false" DefPriority="99"
LatentStyleCount="376">
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="0" QFormat="true" Name="Normal"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" QFormat="true" Name="heading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="9" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="heading 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="toc 9"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footer"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="index heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="35" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="caption"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of figures"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="envelope return"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="footnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="line number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="page number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="endnote text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="table of authorities"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="macro"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="toa heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Bullet 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Number 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="10" QFormat="true" Name="Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Closing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Default Paragraph Font"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="List Continue 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Message Header"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="11" QFormat="true" Name="Subtitle"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Salutation"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Date"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text First Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Note Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Body Text Indent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Block Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="FollowedHyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="22" QFormat="true" Name="Strong"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="20" QFormat="true" Name="Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Document Map"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Plain Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="E-mail Signature"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Top of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Bottom of Form"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal (Web)"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Acronym"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Address"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Cite"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Code"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Definition"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Keyboard"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Preformatted"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Sample"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Typewriter"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="HTML Variable"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Normal Table"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="annotation subject"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="No List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Outline List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Simple 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Classic 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Colorful 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Columns 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Grid 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 7"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table List 8"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table 3D effects 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Contemporary"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Elegant"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Professional"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Subtle 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Web 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Balloon Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" Name="Table Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Table Theme"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Placeholder Text"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="1" QFormat="true" Name="No Spacing"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" Name="Revision"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="34" QFormat="true"
Name="List Paragraph"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="29" QFormat="true" Name="Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="30" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Quote"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="60" Name="Light Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="61" Name="Light List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="62" Name="Light Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="63" Name="Medium Shading 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="64" Name="Medium Shading 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="65" Name="Medium List 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="66" Name="Medium List 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="67" Name="Medium Grid 1 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="68" Name="Medium Grid 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="69" Name="Medium Grid 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="70" Name="Dark List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="71" Name="Colorful Shading Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="72" Name="Colorful List Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="73" Name="Colorful Grid Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="19" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="21" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Emphasis"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="31" QFormat="true"
Name="Subtle Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="32" QFormat="true"
Name="Intense Reference"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="33" QFormat="true" Name="Book Title"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="37" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" Name="Bibliography"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="39" SemiHidden="true"
UnhideWhenUsed="true" QFormat="true" Name="TOC Heading"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="41" Name="Plain Table 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="42" Name="Plain Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="43" Name="Plain Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="44" Name="Plain Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="45" Name="Plain Table 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="40" Name="Grid Table Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="Grid Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="Grid Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="Grid Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="Grid Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="Grid Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="Grid Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="Grid Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="Grid Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46" Name="List Table 1 Light"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51" Name="List Table 6 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52" Name="List Table 7 Colorful"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 1"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 2"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 3"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 4"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 5"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="46"
Name="List Table 1 Light Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="47" Name="List Table 2 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="48" Name="List Table 3 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="49" Name="List Table 4 Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="50" Name="List Table 5 Dark Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="51"
Name="List Table 6 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" Priority="52"
Name="List Table 7 Colorful Accent 6"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Mention"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Smart Hyperlink"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Hashtag"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Unresolved Mention"/>
<w:LsdException Locked="false" SemiHidden="true" UnhideWhenUsed="true"
Name="Smart Link"/>
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0in;
mso-para-margin-right:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:8.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0in;
line-height:107%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
table.MsoTableGrid
{mso-style-name:"Table Grid";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-priority:39;
mso-style-unhide:no;
border:solid windowtext 1.0pt;
mso-border-alt:solid windowtext .5pt;
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-border-insideh:.5pt solid windowtext;
mso-border-insidev:.5pt solid windowtext;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 215.75pt;" valign="top" width="288">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are detailed, empirical, and concrete</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 251.75pt;" valign="top" width="336">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are abstract, symbolic, and figurative</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 215.75pt;" valign="top" width="288">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">prefer plot-driven themes</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 251.75pt;" valign="top" width="336">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">prefer concept-driven themes</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 215.75pt;" valign="top" width="288">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">employ similes</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 251.75pt;" valign="top" width="336">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">employ metaphors</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 215.75pt;" valign="top" width="288">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">like to stay on-topic</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 251.75pt;" valign="top" width="336">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are comfortable with fracture</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 215.75pt;" valign="top" width="288">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tend to be explicit</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 251.75pt;" valign="top" width="336">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tend to be implicit</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 215.75pt;" valign="top" width="288">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">tend to be linear and chronological</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 251.75pt;" valign="top" width="336">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">are comfortable with split timelines</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 215.75pt;" valign="top" width="288">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">prefer scenes to summary exposition</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 251.75pt;" valign="top" width="336">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">use scenes as a jumping-off point to explore
larger themes</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 215.75pt;" valign="top" width="288">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">point to what’s present to the eye</span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 251.75pt;" valign="top" width="336">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">bring to mind what’s absent from view</span></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 215.75pt;" valign="top" width="288">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They
ask: </span><em><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What happened? Were police
cars light or dark blue in Wichita in 1970? Does this stanza progress
logically line-to-line?</span></em><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"> They may
be wary of speculative leaps and abstractions in a poem.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 251.75pt;" valign="top" width="336">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">They
ask:<i> What larger question about the human experience does this poem
explore? Which opposing forces create tension? </i> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;">They may look for hidden patterns between the lines
of a poem.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-transform: uppercase;"></span></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table> <br />I can't change the wiring of my brain, but I can develop new neural pathways with practice, and because I want so much to learn this way of writing poems, I'm determined to give it my best effort. <br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></b></p><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></b><p></p></div>Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-55953675580735000182021-06-03T09:08:00.001-04:002022-08-18T22:50:55.035-04:00Grace and Grit<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote>
<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Grace-Grit-Spirituality-Healing-Killam/dp/1570627428" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.amazon.com/Grace-Grit-Spirituality-Healing-Killam/dp/1570627428" border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kjeayEfm6dc/Vcl_XBUsT-I/AAAAAAAAIyc/LKP52esb_1k/s320/GraceAndGrit.jpg" width="221" /></a></div>
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">"Friends and family often wondered, is she being unrealistic—shouldn't she be worrying? fretting? unhappy? But the fact is, by living in the present, by refusing to live in the future, she began <i>exactly</i> to live consciously with death.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div>
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">Think about it: death, if anything, is the condition of <i>having no future.</i> By living in the present, as if she had no future, she was not ignoring death, she was living it. And I was trying to do the same." Ken Wilber, <i>Grace and Grit</i>. </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">After I finished reading <i>Grace and Grit</i> I couldn't sleep, not sure what was going on, but when I told someone about the book I started weeping. Then I knew what was going on.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><span class="st">Treya Killam Wilber</span> fought so hard and died anyway within five years. I had a good prognosis and knew I could easily live another twenty years after my December 2010 surgery. Or not. The Buddhists tell us to live our death. This doesn't mean worrying all the time. It means living NOW, whether you have twenty minutes or twenty years left. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">I try to do the same.</span></span><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-872733252826279592019-11-19T19:35:00.003-05:002023-05-10T00:43:36.993-04:00I Know What Endarkenment Is<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GVHE0d5-Bw8/VNJDz3_84RI/AAAAAAAAIIA/MMDDJMivrBQ/s1600/DarkNight.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GVHE0d5-Bw8/VNJDz3_84RI/AAAAAAAAIIA/MMDDJMivrBQ/s200/DarkNight.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span><div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="font-size: large;">I don’t know what enlightenment is,
but I know what "endarkenment" is… a way to get endarkened really well is
to be narrow, to only see things one way</i><span style="font-size: large;"> (Charles Tart,
</span><i style="font-size: large;">Enneagram Monthly</i><span style="font-size: large;">, March, 1999). </span></div></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>So many people I talk to describe
their own transformation process in terms of shifts in awareness, a sense of stepping
outside a frame of reference they'd always held. And it does feel like </span><span>moving from</span><span>
the dark into the light.</span></div>
<span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>"The most profound
moments in my life," said an
Enneagram style <a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/2016/01/enneagram-style-eight-patterns.html" target="_blank">Eight</a>, "were actual events where I came
out on the other side." </span><b><span style="font-weight: 400;">She's</span></b><span> strong,
responsible</span><span> and had tended to </span><span>avoid signs of weakness or
feelings of vulnerability. So you know the enormity
of th</span><span>e</span><span> shift </span><span>when she said, "I</span><span>t scared the f------ shit out
of me!"</span></div>
<span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Completely transforming one's awareness is a scary place, and it </span><span>helps to know where the process is
leading</span><span>:</span></div>
</span><blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><b style="font-weight: 400;">At the first level (of development) people
simply realize… how much of the time they spend on automatic pilot.</b></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><b style="font-weight: 400;">The second level
of insights are… psychodynamic or personality revelations. People begin to see more
clearly patterns to their motivations and behavior…</b></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><b style="font-weight: 400;">There can arise a clear vision
of the dissolution of self from moment to moment, and this often leads to a realm of fear
and terror… </b></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;">L<b style="font-weight: 400;">ater there arises… a spontaneous process of letting go of
personal motivation, and… a vision of the true connection between all of us...</b></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: medium;"><b style="font-weight: 400;">
<b>~ </b>Jack
Kornfield, "The Seven Factors of Enlightenment", pp. 56-59 in <i>Paths
Beyond Ego</i></b><b style="font-weight: 400;"> </b></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Understanding your Enneagram
style
can be enormously helpful as a road map for</span><span> </span><span>your patterns of motivation and behavior</span><span>. One
psychological pattern I discovered in myself as an Enneagram style
<a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/2016/01/enneagram-style-nine-patterns.html" target="_blank">Nine</a>,
for example, was how I'd made myself passive-aggressive by setting myself up to feel
discounted. This usually happened when I’d failed to state my needs clearly. Then, when someone failed to
read my mind and act on my needs, I became passive-aggressive and the other person
felt I'd set up a trap. And of course, I had. </span></div>
<span><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>So I k</span><span>now what<i> endarkenment</i> is<b>.</b> </span><span>You know, too, when you see how you</span><span><b> </b>set up and feed into</span><span> the stories that r</span><span>einforce </span><span>old,</span><span><b> </b>narrow views. </span></div>
</span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-60208570957078913342018-10-06T14:05:00.004-04:002022-08-18T18:45:27.877-04:00How Society Grooms Women<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Journalist Connie Chung penned an open letter supporting Christine Blasey Ford, while for the first time publicly sharing her own experience with sexual assault</i>. Rachel Yang, <i>Variety</i>.</blockquote>
Shortly after it was published, I read Connie Chung's account of being sexually assaulted by her trusted family physician when she was an innocent young woman seeking birth control. Someone will no doubt have asked, "Why didn't she stop him?" when he brought her to orgasm with his fingers. Such a question would come from someone who has no idea of the strength of social conditioning on females to trust doctors and others in authority positions.<br />
<br />
Feeling sick to my stomach, I remembered a similar experience when I went to a gynecologist before my first marriage. Though not as naive as Connie Chung had been, I wasn't sure about the physiology of sexual intercourse, and the doctor was a woman. So, when she explained that she was slowly stretching my hymen tissue so I wouldn't feel any pain on intercourse, I didn't stop her, even though I felt its inappropriateness, especially because I'd told her about being raped at age 16. Nonetheless, I did exactly what Chung did, kept quiet and afterwards dashed out of there as quickly as I could, embarrassed and ashamed.<br /><br />
We tend to think of sexual grooming as specific to <a href="https://www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents/articles/what-is-sexual-grooming" target="_blank">child sexual abuse</a>, but the elements are the <a href="https://metro.co.uk/2017/10/19/sexual-predators-dont-just-groom-their-victims-they-groom-everyone-around-them-7011773" target="_blank">same in any form of abuse</a> -- the appeal of a relationship with someone who gives you special attention, the underlying assertion of power not evident until trust is established, and the sense of secrecy based on the expectation of not being believed, or chastised if believed. Those negative judgments can be overt or covert.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U6lgA8BASEo/W7jtpxlbgCI/AAAAAAAAJ9A/FNWHHKjVtCcLwLiJJh0yY-3rqhrPAS21wCLcBGAs/s1600/ScotlandBeach.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="755" data-original-width="1056" height="142" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U6lgA8BASEo/W7jtpxlbgCI/AAAAAAAAJ9A/FNWHHKjVtCcLwLiJJh0yY-3rqhrPAS21wCLcBGAs/s200/ScotlandBeach.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
In the case of my being raped as a teenager, I was on a family trip to Scotland, my parents knew I was walking on the beach near the hotel where we were staying, and they looked for me when I was not back after dark. Yet when I finally stumbled in, the police they called insisted on a medical exam to make sure I was telling the truth.<br />
<br />
And then MY PARENTS <u>NEVER</u> MENTIONED THE SITUATION AGAIN! No one asked if I wanted to talk about it, no one assured me that stopping to chat with the man did not make the rape my fault, no one commented on my sudden need to have a light on in my room at night.<br />
<br />
The Scottish man who raped me used an abbreviated form of sexual grooming--approaching me when there was still daylight with a casual question about my being American and some conversation about the golf tournament I mentioned my Dad was there to attend, treating me like an adult without ever being openly seductive, then offering to walk me back to the hotel, as it was getting dark. A very nice local man being thoughtful to a tourist. I was flattered and trusting, only half-way back to the hotel realizing--while deep in conversation--he'd walked me to an area away from the lights where sand dunes blocked a clear view from the road. When we saw the headlights of a car--which I knew was my father because one of the lights was out--the rapist clapped a hand over my mouth and said, "If you make a sound, I will kill you."<br />
<br />
Why am I posting this in "The Only Gate is Now?" Because this blog is where I've written about surviving another kind of death threat -- breast cancer -- and reminds me that no matter what life brings, "there's nowhere to go, there's nothing else to be." Staying present for me means not numbing out, not dissociating from the emotions that flashbacks arouse. I dealt with my anger at the rapist of the past, but not until forty years after the event, awakening terrified from a nightmare and writing it down so I wouldn't numb out again, emotions that eventually found a home in my poem, "<a href="http://windingsheets.blogspot.com/2018/10/union.html" target="_blank">Union</a>."<br />
<br />I had to allow the anger to move through me again when aroused by Brett Kavanaugh's appointment in spite of <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/christine-blasey-ford-testimony-brett-kavanaugh_n_5bacef9ae4b0425e3c21044c" target="_blank">Christine Blasey Ford's testimony</a> and his obvious lack of integrity, and beyond these specific events to the larger world we live in, characterized by the ascent of greed and <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/men-dominate-every-sector-gender-equality-fawcett-society-a8317346.html" target="_blank">dominance of wealthy white males</a>, to the exclusion and--often--terror of anyone not part of that club.<br />
<br />Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-23138733974257693822018-01-25T12:09:00.001-05:002022-08-18T18:47:24.755-04:00I Choose Authenticity<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">(Published in <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Enneagram-Death-Helpful-insights-people/dp/0985786108/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357049848&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Enneagram+of+Death" target="_blank">The Enneagram of Death: Helpful Insights by the 9 Types of People on Grief, Fear, and Dyling</a></i>, 2012)</span></span><br />
<blockquote>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><i>Authenticity is a daily practice. Choosing authenticity means cultivating the COURAGE to be imperfect, to set boundaries, and to allow ourselves to be vulnerable; exercising the COMPASSION that comes from knowing we are all made of strength and struggle and connected to each other through a loving and resilient human spirit; nurturing the CONNECTION and sense of belonging that can only happen when we let go of what we are supposed to be and embrace who we are.</i> <a href="http://www.ordinarycourage.com/" target="_blank">Brené Brown, Ph.D.</a></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Many people who've had cancer report significant changes in their lives and a gratitude that might seem strange to those who haven't been there. Having had breast cancer, I realize how difficult it is to put into words the gratitude I felt. Of course I'm grateful to be alive, grateful to all the helping professionals, friends, and acquaintances who were part of my healing, grateful to my body that the cancer didn't spread through the lymph nodes, grateful that I didn't have to have chemo. But my gratitude spread beyond those happy aspects -- I was grateful to the cancer because it brought me into greater presence than I'd ever experienced.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The important question became, "Now that I am present to my impermanence, how do I live every moment going forward?" The answer to this question was not a conscious decision. It bloomed in me as a consequence of opening myself, of having <i>yielded</i> and <i>embraced</i> breast cancer. The biggest lesson I learned was how I'd contributed to the burden of caretaking I'd felt -- in my life and in my work -- by keeping the focus completely on other people and not asking for what I needed. I was giving, but not allowing myself to receive. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Caretaking fed my ego and also exhausted me. Having cancer required that I learn how to ask for help and be clear to those around me what kind of help I needed: to be listened to, encouraged to talk about myself. Instead, my gift of focusing on the positive had taken charge, and left no room for feeling tired, disoriented, lonely, or that dreaded state -- NEEDY. Everyone was rejoicing in how brave and amazing I was, while some newly acknowledged part of me simply wanted to curl up and be held. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Exactly as Dr. Brené Brown's research on authenticity suggests, I'm more connected now because I learned a new kind of courage -- to be imperfect (needy), to set boundaries (ask for what I want and don't want), to allow myself to be vulnerable (admitting these needs without shame), and along with this came true compassion (giving is no longer a one-way street). Thus, I'm grateful to Dr. Brown for having put into words the lesson I most needed to learn.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Once my energy and mental balance returned, instead of feeling I was "back to my old self," I found myself "going forward into a new self," one that has a <i>squishy</i> part I didn't have before. <i>Vulnerability</i> can be interpreted as <i>feeling defenseless, exposed, insecure</i>. My new squishy part has none of those negative connotations. It has made me <i>softer, more yielding, tender, sensitive, open, and accessible</i>.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"></span></span></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-58396770119756308132017-01-12T21:31:00.003-05:002023-11-17T21:22:46.445-05:00The Enneagram: A Compelling VisionSusan Olesek's TED talk on behalf of the Enneagram Prison Project (EPP), <a href="http://myemail.constantcontact.com/EPP-s-Susan-Olesek-s-TEDx-In-New-York----Video-is-Now-Online-.html?soid=1103615757657&aid=9KGBGY8yS1E" target="_blank">Both Sides of the Bars</a>, is the most compelling Enneagram presentation
I've ever seen, for her own transparency, for her clarity and vision,
for her compelling examples, for her intelligent presentation, and most
of all for the power of her presence. This is the finest example of how
life-changing the Enneagram can be in the hands of someone on an
authentic spiritual journey. See also <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rimmaboshernitsan/2018/07/03/meet-the-woman-working-behind-bars-to-uncover-human-potential/#62a71aeb7425" target="_blank">this Forbes article</a> about Olesek's work.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tb8sujMdv24" width="560"></iframe>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-26249827491878864512016-10-15T16:57:00.003-04:002023-11-17T21:23:10.158-05:00The Pattern That Connects<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">"Premonitions
open us up to each other and to the greater world... they show that we
are part of something larger than the individual self, that we are an
element in the great pattern that connects." <a href="http://www.dosseydossey.com/larry/default.html" target="_blank">Dr. Larry Dossey </a></span></span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The opening story of Malcolm Gladwell's <span style="font-style: italic;">Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking</span> should convince even the most skeptical that there are ways of knowing beyond the ability to make logical connections:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">"A
team of experts with state-of-the-art measurement tools took more than
a year to assure the authenticity of a supposedly ancient Greek statue
the Getty Museum of California was going to purchase for $10 million.
Then several art experts looked at the statue and knew instantly it was
a fake. One said he "heard" the word <span style="font-style: italic;">fresh</span>, which seemed odd to him, but on further examination he realized the statue was too "fresh" to be that ancient." (David Brooks, New York Times).</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">We
all have the capability to access these versions of a "sixth sense"
although many shy away from that possibility, especially those who fear
the unfamiliar. Even the word <span style="font-style: italic;">premonition</span> carries an aura of foreboding - that something "bad" is going to happen.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_U5ssIdXN_E/S7YzoLTTudI/AAAAAAAAGig/j0uBKvwaGzA/s1600/iStock_000007203278XSmall.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="144" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_U5ssIdXN_E/S7YzoLTTudI/AAAAAAAAGig/j0uBKvwaGzA/s200/iStock_000007203278XSmall.jpg" width="200" /></a>When
we're fully present, however, the possibilities are neither good nor
bad, we're simply open to a broader context of knowing, a larger "mind" or "field." Whether you experience this <span style="font-style: italic;">knowing</span>
as a feeling in your bones, an image, or a nagging thought, it's
saying to you, in Larry Dossey's words, "Wake up. The evidence for a
larger world is staring you in the face."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-85303165964238628572016-05-02T22:00:00.002-04:002016-07-04T09:29:06.104-04:00Dream Journaling<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For years, I've used </span>Clyde H. Reid's <i>Dreams: Discover<span style="font-family: inherit;">ing Your <span style="font-family: inherit;">Inner <span style="font-family: inherit;">T</span>eacher</span></span></i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> as a straightforward format (based on Jungian dream analysis) to <span style="font-family: inherit;">walk <span style="font-family: inherit;">my</span>self through the key aspects of a dream:</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Date of dream:</span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Title: </span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Motif:</span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The dream in detail:</span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Context: what's happening in my life <span style="font-family: inherit;">at this time</span>? </span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In this <span style="font-family: inherit;">dream, who are the main characters known to me before?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /> Name:</span> </span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>Outstanding characteristics:</span></span></span></span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> <br /><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span>What part of me is this?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> Who are the main characters not known to me?<br /> Same sex figures (shadow)?<br /> Opposite sex figures (<i>anima/animus</i>)?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>What are the outstanding features of this dream (flood, explosion, animal, house, etc)?<br /> What part of me is this feature or image? What is it saying to me?<br /> What important symbols appeared? How are they related to me?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>What archetypes may be manifesting themselves here?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>What feelings did I have during/after the dream?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>What other thoughts, ideas, or memories does this dream trigger in me?</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<big><big></big></big>Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-57404826750344222822016-03-31T10:50:00.004-04:002023-11-17T21:22:59.791-05:00Audacious Ekphrasis<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">In December I accepted the role of Editor-in-Chief for <a href="http://writersalliance.org/bacopa-literary-review" target="_blank"><i>Bacopa Literary Review</i>.</a> <span style="font-family: inherit;">Below is a copy of</span> my first post on our <a href="http://bacopaliteraryreview.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Editors Blog</a>: </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If you want to know more about me, Googling <i>Mary Bast</i> will first evoke echoes of my other life as an <a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Enneagram coach</a> and related books. But I've also written flash memoir and several forms of poetry including <a href="http://foundpoetrycollage.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">found poetry</a> and ekphrasis, an <a href="http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/ekphrasis.htm" target="_blank"><i>audacious poetic form</i></a> that's among many we're encouraging for <i>Bacopa</i> 2016.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">You'll find a long history and many definitions of <i>ekphrasis</i>. I like the most open, contemporary version best:</span></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Ekphrasis: the intersection of verbal and visual arts.</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
I first learned about <a href="http://interestingliterature.com/2013/09/29/guest-blog-10-examples-of-ekphrasis-in-contemporary-literature" target="_blank">ekphrastic poetry</a> in a workshop with <a href="http://www.melaniealmeder.com/poetry" target="_blank">Melanie Almeder</a>, who drew our attention to two famous poems written in response to Pieter Brueghel's painting, The Fall of Icarus: William Carlos Williams' "<a href="http://english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/williams.html" target="_blank">Landscape with the Fall of Icarus</a>" and W.H. Auden's "<a href="http://english.emory.edu/classes/paintings&poems/auden.html" target="_blank">Musee des Beaux Arts</a>." <br />
<br />
Note that Williams' poem to some degree follows the tradition of describing the visual scene (<i>a farmer was ploughing / his field / the whole pageantry / of the year was / awake tingling / with itself</i>), while Auden's interpretation is a bit wider (<i>About
suffering they were never wrong, / the old Masters: how well they
understood / Its human position: how it takes place / While someone else
is eating or opening a window</i>).<br />
<br />
Almeder invited workshop participants to write our own poems in response to the Brueghel painting, encouraging us to range as far as our muses would go. My poem "plummet" (published in
<i>Bacopa </i><i><i>Literary Review</i></i> 2012) imagined Icarus as a woman:
</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">somewhere<br />there is an Icarus<br />a woman who flies <br /><br />on intricate <br />feathered web <br />of covert <br /><br />sheath <br />shaft <br />veins <br /><br />warm-blooded <br />she breathes faster <br />learns to soar <br /><br />ignores <br />the admonition <i><br />do not fly too high</i> <br /><br />her efforts full <br />of sky <br />of wind <br /><br />her breasts <br />still flecked with honey <br />dripped from wings' wax <br /><br />heavy with her father's <br />architecture <br />heavier than water <br /><br />when she dives <br />no sun's light <br />scuffs the surface</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">
As a visual artist I've explored other ways to interpret "the intersection of verbal and visual arts." For example, in response to Kim Addonizio's poem "Divine" (<i>Oh hell, here's that dark wood again. / You thought you'd gotten through it--</i>), I created my acrylic painting, "Oh hell, here's that dark wood again." Then I reacted to my own painting with the poem "Backdraft" (<i>again the dark wood. / Guardian of the Abyss hovering above / like a gold flame to incinerate what's left of my life</i>). </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />
</span></span>Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-24067583679653855422016-03-18T13:06:00.006-04:002023-11-17T21:23:22.297-05:00Developing Intuition<span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">In <i>The Gift of Fear: Survival Signals</i>, Gavin de Becker<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> describe<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">d</span></span> a childhood where his ability to sniff out his mother's moods quite literally meant survival<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">. As an adult <span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">h</span></span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">e</span> parlayed this keenly developed intuition into a world-renowned business -- serving victims of domestic abuse and stalking, evaluating threats to political and media figures, and proposing new laws to help manage violence. His book could be a manual for healthy intuition:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I have gotten great benefits from taking the voice of skepticism I used to apply to my intuition and applying it instead to the dreaded outcomes I imagined were coming. Worry will almost always buckle under a vigorous interrogation. If you can bring yourself to apply your imagination to finding the possible favorable outcomes of undesired developments, even if only as an exercise, you'll see that it fosters creativity. . . Worry is a choice, and the creative genius we apply to it can be used differently, also by choice. </span></span></i></blockquote>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">We're all trained to be analytical, and consequently to doubt intuition that isn't tied to direct knowing or experience. In her introduction to <i>Inner Knowing</i>, Helen Palmer admit<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">ted that</span> her "anchor in intellectualism made it difficult to accept even profoundly convincing intuition as being meaningful and real." Palmer was referring to several incidents of her own inner knowing, the first of which occurred when she was deeply involved in the East Coast movement of resistance to the Vietnam War: "My imagination became as believable and solid as the furniture in my room." She <i>knew</i>, for example, that a friend must take a route across the Canadian border different from the one planned, and later learned that others who took the original route were stopped and arrested.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Many people describe <i>intuition</i> as <i>a hunch based on experience.</i> In a New York Times review (1/16/05), David Brooks summarized the opening story of Malcolm Gladwell's <i>Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking.</i> The Getty Museum in California had planned to purchase a supposedly ancient Greek statue for almost $10 million. A team of experts with state-of-the-art measurement tools had taken more than a year to assure its authenticity. Then several art experts looked at the statue and knew instantly it was a fake. When asked to explain how they knew, one said he <i>heard</i> the word <i>fresh</i>, which seemed odd to him, but on further examination he realized the statue was too "fresh" to be that ancient. Another felt a wave of intuitive repulsion. The outcome? "The teams of analysts who did 14 months of research turned out to be wrong. The historians who relied on their initial hunches were right."</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">I encourage you to develop trust in your hunches, whether experience-based or seeming to come out of nowhere, the kind of intuition that has served me so well and that led Helen Palmer to found the Center for the Investigation and Training of Intuition. </span></span><span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Maybe you'll only feel a nudge. <i>Something feels right about this, though I'm not sure why</i>. </span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Dr. Michael Ray, author of <i>Creativity in Business</i> and <i>The New Paradigm in Business</i>, offered five truths about intuition.</span></span><br />
<ol>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>Intuition can be developed</b>. You have intuition within you. Accept responsibility to develop your individual style of intuition.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>Intuition and reason are complements</b>. Reason, experience, information and intuition are a powerful combination.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>Intuition is unemotional</b>. It involves paying clear attention to the most appropriate </span></span><span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">alternative that comes from your creative Essence. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>Intuition
thrives on action</b>. Follow-through is important to make use of your
creative ideas, and intuition is strengthened by seeing its manifest
effects. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: normal;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><b>Intuition is mistake-free</b>. Sometimes your intuitions will be on target and sometimes not. The more you develop it, the more often it will be on target. Your intuition will grow when you have faith that it doesn't make mistakes -- it just offers new possibilities. </span></span></li>
</ol>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-32784252841177929012016-03-02T12:00:00.000-05:002016-07-04T09:46:51.400-04:00Mindfulness: Experience the Experience<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="text-align: left;">
</h3>
<div class="post-header" style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Listening to Dr. Ronald Siegel in a <a href="http://www.nicabm.com/mindfulness" target="_blank">Mindfulness</a>
webinar, I was struck by his observation that the common factor
underlying all psychological disorders is "experiential avoidance."</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Notice how you typically handle painful experiences. Do you tell yourself "I can't stand it" or "If I let myself go there I'll never be happy again"? When we retreat from life this way we deny our own healing resources. When we're mindful we allow ourselves to be present to experience.</span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mindfulness is not limited to meditating on a prayer cushion for 20 minutes morning and night. "Many of us are so busy," Dr. Siegel writes, "that the thought of adding one more thing--no matter how potentially beneficial--is just too much. The good news is that mindfulness practice can be taken up in different ways to suit different lifestyles.<span style="font-family: inherit;">"</span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span> </span></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"></span></span></span></span></div>
Here's an excerpt from "Nature Meditation" in his book, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Solution-Everyday-Practices-Problems/dp/1606232940" target="_blank"><i>The Mindfulness Solution: Everyday Practices for Everyday Problems</i></a>:
<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Turn your attention fully to the world around you. If you
can get to a window or go outside, use the natural world as a focus. If
you need to stay in a room and can't go to the window, you can do the
same thing with the walls, floor, and objects in the room. The idea is
to systematically look at everything in your visual field and describe
it. If your mind wanders to thoughts or body sensations, just gently
bring it back to the outside world. As with walking meditation, this can
be used as a formal meditation practice, replacing breath meditation
during particularly anxious times, or as an informal practice as you go
about your day. </span></span></blockquote>
<br />
<br />
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-2267811573612857742016-01-14T11:00:00.001-05:002023-11-17T21:23:34.006-05:00A Strong Drink<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Humor is a good antidote to untested assumptions and a marvelous way to elicit change at a symbolic level. It shakes us loose. For example, in a workshop on personality types I handed out a variety of Slammers — beanie-type toys that make a sound when you throw them down on a hard surface. Participants had great fun with these, sometimes slamming them down on the table to make a point during the discussion. </span></span></span></div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">For <a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/2016/01/enneagram-style-six-patterns.html" target="_blank">Skeptics</a>, who worry about what could go wrong, their Slammer was a puppy dog that shouted, “Oh, no!” </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">For <a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/2016/01/enneagram-style-two-patterns.html" target="_blank">Helpers</a>, who take care of others’ needs and forget their own, their Slammer had a puckered-up mouth and made the sound of a big, smacking kiss. </span></span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">My own <a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/2016/01/enneagram-style-nine-patterns.html" target="_blank">Peacemaker</a> types tend to merge with others' agendas and fail to speak up for ourselves; when we threw our Slammer down… it made no sound at all! </span></span></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">A friend says we Peacemakers are easy to tease and enjoy self-deprecating humor. That may be true. While reading <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/20/specials/murdoch-green.html" target="_blank">Iris Murdoch’s </a></span><i><span style="color: black;"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/12/20/specials/murdoch-green.html" target="_blank">The Green Knight</a>, </span></i><span style="color: black;">I laughed out loud at this passage:</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">“What he saw might have been her pity for him, her sympathy. Or perhaps just her kindness, the way in which, ever after as he watched her, she instinctively made all things better, speaking no evil, disarming hostility, turning ill away, making peace: her gentleness, which made her seem, sometimes, to some people, weak, insipid, dull. ‘She’s not exactly a strong drink!’ someone said.”</span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">Ironic that my favorite cocktail is a </span><a href="http://www.thegodfathertrilogy.com/drinks.shtml" target="_blank"><i><span style="color: black;">Godfather</span></i></a><span style="color: black;">. Hmmm. I might be symbolically drinking strength. Anyway, as <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've matured I've become </span>a <i>stronger drink</i>, stepping up, shouting out; <a href="http://marybast.com/artwork/3900740-Realigning-the-Cosmos-Tribute-to-Fatimah-Asghar.html" target="_blank">my paintings</a> and my <a href="http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/250212" target="_blank">tastes in poetry</a> are becoming less and less rule-bound. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">I LOST MY BOOBS, NOT MY SENSE OF HUMOR </span><span style="color: black;">proudly state<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">d</span> my <span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">post breast cancer</span> t-shirt</span><span style="color: black;"> more than five years ago. So my son Dylan Schwab helped me create a rap about having no breasts (<a href="http://windingsheets.blogspot.com/2012/02/tatas-rap.html" target="_blank">click here</a>). I was inspired by Anne Hathaway, who is Sweetness personified (and I’m sure has very nice breasts), performing her </span><span style="color: black;">paparazzi </span><span style="color: black;">rap:</span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uKvQvWTZFWg" width="640"></iframe></span></span></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-15837853591975749982015-05-03T00:18:00.001-04:002023-11-17T21:23:46.358-05:00Like a Flower...<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0y2Yaq_fivw/VcfQZlOK1xI/AAAAAAAAIxo/e5_xJVxzL6g/s1600/Swirling.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0y2Yaq_fivw/VcfQZlOK1xI/AAAAAAAAIxo/e5_xJVxzL6g/s200/Swirling.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-style: normal;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">T</span></i></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-style: normal;">he
following</i></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-style: normal;"> </i></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-style: normal;">interchange with</i></span></span><b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-style: normal;"> </i></span></span></b><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-style: normal;">a reader who's an Enneagra</i><i><span style="font-style: normal;">m style Five</span></i><i style="font-style: normal;"> tells a story. </i></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i style="font-style: normal;">Read it and </i><i><span style="font-style: normal;">note how she opens </span></i><i style="font-style: normal;">up (and gives permission)....</i><i> </i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Dear Mary: I'm an Enneagram
<a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/2016/01/enneagram-style-five-patterns.html" target="_blank">Five</a>, and lead a pretty full life doing social work,
but I'm 50 and have never been in love with anyone. Looking at myself objectively, it
seems a tiny bit sad, but not enough to do anything concrete about it. I hate the idea of
sifting through many people, and maybe some will be compatible. It wears me out just
thinking about listening to all those people, so I convince myself it's better to be
alone, unless someone compatible just happens to cross my path. </i></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Thank you
for the service you provide to those seeking more knowledge. </i></span></span>Will anyone else see this
note?</i></span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dear Reader: I
understand how satisfying life can be when work is interesting. However, you do imply that
a relationship might be worthwhile ("I <i style="font-style: normal;"><i>convince</i> myself</i> it's better to
be alone"), if you could find someone without "sifting," or perhaps if
listening were not so exhausting for you.You asked, "Will anyone else see this
note?" Not if you don't want them to.I'm reading a fascinating novel by Irvin Yalom,
<i>When Nietzsche Wep<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">t. </span></i>I believe Neitzsche as described by Yalom was an Enneagram Five. Perhaps if you read Yalom's book you might
find something interesting that applies to you.<i> </i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>D</i><i>ear Mary: Thank you for recommending the book; I'll read it...
I thought a secretary or helper might respond and only on a public web page. I even tear
up my journals promptly because I can't bear the thought that someone might read my
innermost thoughts, so yes, I'd like my notes to be private. I interact with so many
people each day, my time alone is pretty much a gift. I believe I would interact well
with anyone who knows the Enneagram and is healthy in whatever style they happen to be, but
I don't know a soul who has done more than read one book about it or just glanced at the
subject. Are there any
Enneagram students in my area? Thank you immensely for your time.</i></span></span><br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Dear Reader: I'm sending you information about the closest
chapter of the International Enneagram Association (IEA). There's a page at the
IEA web site with news about regional chapters that may be a source of information
for you. I recommend joining the IEA if you haven't already. Even if you're not a
"joiner" it's a way to gather useful information.
Also, I hope you'll attend the annual Enneagram conference.By the way, I give my time freely, and not totally without self-interest.
Often these inquiries lead to an article, which supports my writing. Even when someone
like you asks that nothing be published, I always learn something from the interaction; so
this interaction is a resource for me, too. For example, in thinking about how to respond to you, and
re-reading <i>When Nietzsche Wept</i> in that light, I noticed Nietzsche as
described by Yalom is very sensitive to weather changes, and very sensitive to touch.This led me to remember a
wonderful book (and tape), Oliver Sacks' <i>An Anthropologist on Mars</i><i>.</i> One of his stories is about Temple Grandin, an adult woman with autism
who created a sling to comfort and carry cattle. She then got the idea to create her own
"squeeze machine" because from
early childhood she longed to be touched but couldn't tolerate it. She lies in her sling
daily, with controls that allow her to create as much or as little pressure as she
wishes. A wonderful metaphor.<i> </i></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><i>Dear Mary: If others can learn from anything I might share, feel free
to go ahead and publish any of my comments. I'm evolving and I know one of the
greatest things we can do is share with one another. I trust you and will
make every effort to attend the conference. Thanks for all your information; know that I
will use it. About the touch issue. I love being held and always longed for that as a
child, but being from a large family, my parents didn't have a lot of individual time for
me, though we each felt completely loved by them and by each other. My relationships seem
to be those in which I give much of myself, but only about three or four people are capable of
giving to me in the manner I prefer to receive. A therapist held me perfectly only
three times over a period of about a year and a half, and that memory sustains me
anytime I need to be reminded of what it might be like if our creator could be here in
person, to allow me to feel his/her love and my connection to what we are other than just
being a part of this world. I'm hugged often by children and friends, but I can never
bring myself to ask anyone to hold me. If there is anything you ever want to ask me,
feel free; and you may use it in any way you deem beneficial. I've seen the benefits of
your sharing. </i></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-3840099346675713422015-04-13T19:46:00.001-04:002023-11-17T21:24:00.113-05:00A Sacred Sorrow<div style="text-align: left;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156">
</w:LatentStyles>
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 10]>
<style>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:"Table Normal";
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-parent:"";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
mso-ansi-language:#0400;
mso-fareast-language:#0400;
mso-bidi-language:#0400;}
</style>
<![endif]-->
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MAanY-f72Vg/VcfQ6vg4vtI/AAAAAAAAIxw/JQXwwT0ypD4/s1600/dd01395_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MAanY-f72Vg/VcfQ6vg4vtI/AAAAAAAAIxw/JQXwwT0ypD4/s200/dd01395_.jpg" width="146" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"Going to pieces or falling apart is not such a bad thing.
Indeed it is as essential to evolutionary and psychic transformation as the
cracking of outgrown shells... <b><span style="font-weight: normal;">What 'disintegrates' in periods of rapid transformation is
not the self, of course, but its defenses and ideas... [opening] us up to new perceptions, new data,
new responses." </span></b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Joanna Macy, Chapter 16, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Sorrows-Transforming-Depression-Consciousness/dp/0874778220" target="_blank"><i>Sacred Sorrows</i></a></span></span></blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;"></span></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My first cracking of the shell, when
it hit, was comparable to what's been depicted by others: a sense of emptiness
when approaching activities that had been fulfilling, disorientation, feeling
separate from others and from myself (I could look in the mirror and not even
recognize my own face). It was also clear I'd walked through a door that had shut
tight behind me. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">That step into a space <i>between the
worlds</i> was taken in the Spring of 1997, when I ended my second Naranjo
workshop with a deep commitment to engage fully with life. For the first
month afterwards I did just that. Then I fell into depression of a kind
different from the familiar and transitory times of feeling dispirited. I finally realized that for me to really <i>engage</i> (the Nine's
spiritual goal) I'd have to go through a wild and scary ride. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've read many books and articles
about depression and about transformation. There are accounts from survivors of
depression and references to spiritual struggles, but few personal stories of
how transformation can occur during these dark times, how people are different
as a consequence of this experience that disconnects them from all that's
familiar. It appears that many who experience the pain of transition <i><span style="font-style: normal;">stop the process</span></i> -- by taking antidepressants, being unwilling to endure the discomfort,
and/or failing to recognize this could be a passage to something new and not
simply a dark and endless tunnel with no light at the end.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Based on my own experience, if you use
the Enneagram beyond playing games to categorize people, you will find yourself
on the path of transformation whether you expected that to happen or
not. I'm not a Catholic, so didn't
originally turn to such resources as Suzanne Zuercher's <i>Enneagram Spirituality</i>:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">"What
does this surrender based on the necessity to admit our truth feel like? It is
the experience of anguish, because anguish is to be aware of, to admit, what we
cannot accept and embrace about ourselves... Such pain gradually lessens as we
become more humble, simply acknowledging what is so."</span></b></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">As much as I admire Zuercher's work,
however, her examples are generic and related to Christian scripture and
beliefs. Riso and Hudson have broadened our perspective in <i>The Wisdom of the Enneagram</i>,
writing that the "great religions of the world have provided a multitude
of practices for personal transformation; so have modern psychology, the self-help
movement, and contemporary spiritual thinkers." They also disclosed some of their own transformation process: </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-weight: normal;">"Part
of our discussion had to do with whether or not we would ever see the
proverbial 'light at the end of the tunnel,' since each of us was constantly
going through a fair amount of pain as we uncovered layers of neurotic habits
and unresolved issues from the past… Even though excavating the various strata
of the psyche meant going through layers of pain and negativity, making
conscious the old accumulated psychic junk that we had not wished to deal with,
it would be worth it." </span></b></span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Over the years I've heard the voices of all nine
styles. I don't think I'm crazy. Quite the opposite. Caroline Myss<b><span style="font-weight: normal;">
(<i>Spiritual Madness: The Journey of the Modern Mystic Through the Dark
Night of the Soul</i>) said </span></b>we invite <i>spiritual madness</i> whenever we say
"I want to see clearly." </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I've come to view the nine points as
representing passions with which we <b><span style="font-weight: normal;">all</span></b> struggle, though a stronger dynamic
exists for the personality fixed at that point. And I've been in and out of <i><span style="font-style: normal;">the abyss</span></i> as if
batted around the Enneagram, experiencing the <i><span style="font-style: normal;">dark night</span></i> of the soul from
the perspective of all nine styles, particularly the Four, the Five, the Seven,
and my own, the Nine. This has given me more empathy for the varieties of
distress each style must encounter. And each point has valuable lessons:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">One of the ways I've experienced a
Four-like anguish is an existential angst, a mourning for all the pain and evil
in the world and an attraction to "doing something about it" (e.g.,
volunteering to take meals to AIDS victims) without actually moving past my
emotions and taking action. My own experience reflects that of one of my
Four friends: when I'm in this place of mourning I avoid meditation/prayer
because of the fear that if I looked for my essential Self "there might be
<i><span style="font-style: normal;">no one </span></i>home."
When I can stay with this fear I remember myself, become more clear about what
I value, and act accordingly. </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">When my sense of desolation takes a
<a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/2016/01/enneagram-style-nine-patterns.html" target="_blank">Nine</a> tone I feel a deep fatigue; avoiding the energy, focus, meditation/prayer
that would be required to discover my true will and purpose. I'm now better
able to observe my fear that if I looked, there might be "<i><span style="font-style: normal;">someone </span></i>home"
and <i><span style="font-style: normal;">that</span></i>
discovery would require action! Now when I notice myself avoiding engagement
(energy, commitment) I stay with the fear, it ceases to control me, and I feel
a sense of contentment and even joy. More and more I find myself committing
with enthusiasm to people/projects that match my own agenda and values. </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">During one whole month I experienced a
<a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/2016/01/enneagram-style-five-patterns.html" target="_blank">Five</a>-like down time, a retreat into intellectual safety, much reading and analysis,
a strong discomfort with sharing my own deep emotions. But I experienced it <i><span style="font-style: normal;">from afar</span></i>,
observing it to exist more strongly than ever before, but at the same time
separate from "me." By the end of that month I easily and generously
connected with family, friends, clients and enjoyed those connections freely:
sitting in the middle of friendship in a way I'd never experienced. I was
not conscious of a plan to work through my feelings, but I did commit myself to
staying centered and enduring the "madness." As Myss pointed out, my
answer didn't come in a letter! It came in the changes I saw in myself after I <i>returned</i>.</span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">My <a href="http://enneagramcoachandmentor.blogspot.com/2016/01/enneagram-style-seven-patterns.html" target="_blank">Seven</a>-ish spiritual madness, when
it shows, is more a manic state of avoiding deep work, a sense of unbearable
pain and fear of confinement -- a fear that if I get down in there I won't like
it and I'll never be able to find my way out. Because it is so dread-full, I
bring myself out of it quickly. But the learning from this <i><span style="font-style: normal;">shadow</span></i> work is
fantastic. This is where I hear the voices of addiction yet being separate from
them. For example, I've become able to hear the ego aspect that says, <i>Wouldn't
it be fun to stop writing and go out for a chocolate sundae; then you'll feel
so much better.</i> Or, <i>Wouldn't it be fun, instead of going home and working
on that project, to stop by this department store and see what's on sale</i>?
When I can sit with the feelings and ask myself, <i>What do I really want?</i>
the answer is always some version of a journey to the Soul. </span></span></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">I still sometimes fall deep into sorrow. But as <a href="http://www.enneagramcentral.com/" target="_blank">Clarence Thomson</a>
said to me, "I'm amazed at the intuitive intelligence of some of my Nine
friends. Our culture doesn't always support this kind of intelligence, even
when, and especially when, it's hard to put into words." Well, I have
learned to trust the sorrow is sacred and my intuitive intelligence, my gut
sense, my Essential Self will guide me in the process of
self-remembering, my spiritual unfolding. </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-35945465854560868092015-02-25T11:05:00.002-05:002022-08-18T22:58:34.157-04:00A Gathering of Flowers<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">In the
foreword to <i>Healers
on Healing</i>, Dr. W. Brugh Joy tells us the word <i>anthology </i>means "a gathering of flowers." </span></span></blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-702K7gGd7vQ/VO30gHlbA7I/AAAAAAAAIJ4/AtpH4cc--Sk/s1600/Bouquet.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="125" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-702K7gGd7vQ/VO30gHlbA7I/AAAAAAAAIJ4/AtpH4cc--Sk/s1600/Bouquet.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">Editors Richard Carlson and Benjamin Shield gathered these essays to
affirm alternative approaches to healing, asking teachers from various perspectives to help define the golden thread that unites all healing methods.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">Below are some representative insights: </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><a href="http://www.rachelremen.com/" target="_blank"><b>Rachel Naomi Remen</b></a>
created <i>The Healer's Art</i>, an innovative curriculum for medical
students on reintegrating the heart and soul into contemporary medicine and
restoring its integrity as a calling and a work of healing. She's a model of the
Wounded Healer archetype, describing the two people in a healing relationship as <i>peers</i>,
both wounded and both with healing capacity. "I don't believe one person
heals another. I believe we invite the other person into a healing
relationship. You may feel lost, frightened, trapped. My woundedness allows me
to find you and be with you in a way that's nonjudgmental."</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><a href="http://richardmoss.com/" target="_blank"><b>Richard Moss</b></a> has taught about conscious relationship for more than thirty years. "When
I was a traditional physician," he wrote, "I was content to
regard healing as the restoration of health. But today I know
healing is far more than a return to a former condition. True
healing means drawing the circle of our being larger and
becoming more inclusive, more capable of loving. In this sense,
healing is not for the sick alone, but for all humankind."
Describing healing as "a mystery," he continues: "In the end,
healing must be a ceaseless process of relationship and
rediscovery, moment by moment. The more we 'know' about healing,
the more we are simultaneously carried toward something
unknowable. For this reason all healing is in essence
spiritual."</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><br /><a href="http://www.joanborysenko.com/" target="_blank"><b>Joan Borysenko</b></a>,
psychologist and Harvard Medical School trained cell biologist, says
healing is the rediscovery of who we are and who we've always been. "The
message that underlies healing is simple yet radical: We are already
whole... Underneath our fears and worries, unaffected by the many
layers of our conditioning and actions, is a peaceful core.
The work of healing is peeling away the barriers of fear that keep
us unaware of our true
nature of love, peace, and rich interconnection with the web of
life." <b> </b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><b>Jack Schwartz</b><b style="font-weight: 400;">, </b>a
pioneer in holistic health research and education, saw
disease as a stagnant state where we hold back energy that can be
released when we align ourselves with the process of transformation. The
<i>disease</i> label creates "an attitude that constricts
our life energy's flow, as if an enemy is attacking us from outside." He asked that
healers be mapmakers or guides who walk alongside clients,
showing them how to overcome the fear of change and release their own power. <b> </b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><b>Elisabeth Kübler-Ross</b>,
noted worldwide for her work in death, dying, and transition, believed
people who are ill are often blocked by guilt, shame, or
ambivalence. Once we learn to love and trust ourselves the spiritual dimension begins to
open up and we're ready for healing. She also believed healing
occurs at more than an
individual level because each of us is "connected through a vast
network of
relationships to innumerable other people and creatures on the
planet." </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><br /><b>Hugh Prather</b>,
crisis
therapist, columnist, and minister, believed it's a mistaken
assumption that healing necessarily means a physical
improvement, and it's not up to us to prejudge the form of healing
for a given person. Nor is it helpful to judge ourselves or others for
being ill. "The pronouncement that cancer is caused by an inability to
love, or that colds are
signs of lack of joy, or that AIDS is the manifestation of
sinful-mindedness would not be
made in the first place if we had not already judged illness as
wrong."</span></span></blockquote><p> </p>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<w:WordDocument>
<w:View>Normal</w:View>
<w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom>
<w:PunctuationKerning/>
<w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/>
<w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>
<w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent>
<w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>
<w:Compatibility>
<w:BreakWrappedTables/>
<w:SnapToGridInCell/>
<w:WrapTextWithPunct/>
<w:UseAsianBreakRules/>
<w:DontGrowAutofit/>
</w:Compatibility>
<w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel>
</w:WordDocument>
</xml><![endif]--></span></span></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-87311082521430565732015-02-07T17:25:00.003-05:002022-08-18T19:07:51.434-04:00An Interpretation of the Meaning of "Crisis"<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oOG4oMrBAoE/VNaQF-p7SdI/AAAAAAAAIIM/nDUopD7mxRE/s1600/crisisideogram.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oOG4oMrBAoE/VNaQF-p7SdI/AAAAAAAAIIM/nDUopD7mxRE/s1600/crisisideogram.jpg" width="106" /></a>Years ago my
tai chi teacher said t</b><b style="font-weight: 400;">hese
Chinese characters represent <i>Crisis</i>, the top
character a symbol for <i>Danger,</i> the bottom character
a
symbol for <i>Opportunity</i>. </b></span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">Countering this interpretation </b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-weight: 400;">as</span><b style="font-weight: 400;"><b> </b>"inaccurate pseudo-profundity" </b></span></span>is <span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;"><a href="http://www.pinyin.info/chinese/crisis.html" target="_blank"><b></b>Victor H. Mair</a>,
Professor of Chinese Language and Literature at the University
of Pennsylvania. Adhering to </b></span></span></b><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-weight: 400;">what he describes as a <i>realistic</i> </span></span></span></span><b style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;">approach, </b></span></span></b><b><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Mair</span></span></span></span></b><b style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;"> </b></span></span></b><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-weight: 400;">is concerned that</span></span></span></span><b style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><b style="font-weight: 400;"> </b></span></span></b><b style="font-weight: 400;">"</b></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">Adopting a feel-good attitude toward adversity... </span></span>"</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">lulls people into welcoming crises as unstable situations
from which they can benefit." </span></span> </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">But
Mair's rational approach is only one part of the
human equation. Growing emotionally
and spiritually from crisis is not the same as a "feel-good
attitude" and certainly doesn't mean we should welcome traumatic circumstances. But difficult or life-threatening situations do<b style="font-weight: 400;"> provide an opening for growth</b><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">
</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face="Verdana,sans-serif">Many people I coached, who had undergone bankruptcy, cancer, or divorce, said that those events--though temporarily debilitating and fraught with fear and pain--stopped the
treadmill they'd been on and forced them to look at what really
matters in a relatively short lifetime.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8771717711180894230.post-42685149618440831752015-02-04T09:57:00.004-05:002022-08-18T18:54:18.471-04:00The Dark Night of the Soul<div style="text-align: left;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;">
</div>
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GVHE0d5-Bw8/VNJDz3_84RI/AAAAAAAAIH8/AGer-5w_E10/s1600/DarkNight.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">From </span></span>Linda Schierse Leonard, "The Dark Night of the Soul," Chapter 7 in <i>Sacred Sorrows</i>, pp. 51-52</div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">"The Abyss was the place of transformation for
the mystics. In its depths shone the illumination of the 'divine dark,' where
divinity revealed itself. Dionysius the Areopagite even speaks of God as the 'Divine
Darkness' and sees darkness as the secret dwelling place of God . . . </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vFOcI2sSZAY/Vcl8K063GYI/AAAAAAAAIyI/i17d4Y_tgao/s1600/DarkNightOfTheSoul_opt.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-vFOcI2sSZAY/Vcl8K063GYI/AAAAAAAAIyI/i17d4Y_tgao/s320/DarkNightOfTheSoul_opt.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My painting, "Dark Night of the Soul"</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">"Another of the great mystics, St. John of the Cross, speaks of the 'secret stair' by which
one descends in the dark night to meet the Beloved <span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">—</span> the way the soul journeys into union
with God. But prior to that union of ecstatic rapture with the Beloved comes the Dark
Night of the Soul, that painful period of privation when one feels imprisoned in The Abyss . . . </span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">"Evelyn Underhill, in her classic study of mysticism, describes this as follows:</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<blockquote>
<div>
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">Psychologically, then, the 'Dark Night of the Soul'
is due to the double fact of the exhaustion of an old state, and the growth toward a new
state of consciousness. It is a 'growing pain' in the organic process of the self's
attainment of the Absolute. The great mystics, creative geniuses in the realm of
character, have known instinctively how to turn these psychic disturbances to spiritual
profit...</span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<div>
<i><span style="font-size: small;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">For the great mystics, such periods of chaos and
misery often lasted months or even years before the new and higher state of spirituality
is reached; often the dark side is experienced before the possibility of the new is
apprehended... Heroism is required to endure and not succumb to the danger and the pain.
The mystical journey is neither rational nor linear."</span></span></i></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>
Mary Basthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10209877324040917076noreply@blogger.com