Opening Words

Welcome to the first Zen Yoga Elf blog entry, the following is a letter to everyone back in Australia. I will be updating this site in future with Musings on Spiritual practices including, Zen Yoga, ayurveda, the natural world, plant and animal spirit healing, shamanism, pagan traditions and all aspects of Life that are not concerned with the superficial, material world.

Deepest and warm greetings mitakuye oyasin,

The new year of the White Tiger is upon us. The Tiger will bring a lot of dramatic upheavals and dynamic changes in 2010, if you cannot see this already occurring, I bid you pay attention. May you all have peace in the days to come.

Here in Vermont Winter is still upon us and here sit I all cozy at my desk while the temperature outside is 14 below zero (Celsius), pretty mild actually. I have been challenged and tempered by this unforgiving and seemingly endless season, times uncounted I have longed for my homeland Australia. I miss Australian birds, we have birds here of course but their songs pale in comparison to my beloved kookaburras, rosellas, currawongs and bower birds. Most all birds leave these parts in Winter except for the crow and little chickadee without whose soft little chirp all else is SILENT. Then a wonderful thing happened, I was drawn outside on an uncommonly sunny day when out of nowhere a great flurry of huge white snowflakes came swirling up and over the snow fields before me and I was caught in the centre of their dance. I was laughing and spinning with my arms out stretched as hundreds of sparkling, soft flakes caressed my face, twirled around me and moved on. I knew I had received a special blessing, which I am calling Winter's Kiss. I realised then that here, is exactly where I need to be. I am like a caterpillar entering it's cocoon stage, I have an extraordinary opportunity to go inside, hibernate and activate my own personal transformation. Winter is the perfect time to do this and ever since I had this realisation, I have experienced a respectful appreciation of Winter in all it's white wonderment and deeply metamorphic stillness. Even the frigid temperature seems more bearable when I venture out to look for animal tracks and pay homage to the sleeping trees.

Backtracking now to Spring 2009, which is when some of you last heard from me. As you are aware, Aaron, who by now you all probably know I call Zin were married at our beachfront apartment on April 7th back in Australia. Then we had another ceremony in our meditation garden here in June before his closest family. Presiding over this ceremony was our dear friend and brother Michael (shaman of the Lakota tradition), the honour of giving me away went to our brother George (Earth spirit walker), who also honoured us with songs of the First Nation's people. It was a beautiful and memorable ceremony that truly reflected our Beings and our Love.                             

Soon after, I had my encounter with Mama black bear in the woods on the weekend of our opening Lakota sweatlodge (you all heard about that right?) and another transformation began, of a different kind. I was becoming a Vermonter. Aaron and I were busy digging the earth, planting and preparing for our Summer Zen Yoga Retreat, which by the way was a very delightful and successful weekend. The glory of Spring with all her apple blossoms and wild strawberries turned into Summer, it was not like the Summers on the Gold Coast however, when it wasn't raining, I was usually wearing a cardi or long pants. But I have since been informed that the Summers in Vermont can be every bit as sultry as my homeland. I did get to experience a few days where we could swim in our pond and dry off lying in hammocks.

Summer was all green splendour with days spent blackberry picking, baking bread and eating fresh corn on the cob. Aaron and I spent a lot of time training outdoors while he also became very proficient at Fire Spinning. Fall (Autumn) came quickly, everybody was telling me how magnificent Fall was and that it was going to take my breath away. The change was slow and there was an unprecedented and supposedly unremarkable Fall. Not in MY opinion however. I absolutely fell in love with Fall, everywhere I looked I saw a land clothed in unspeakable beauty. We had our first snow early in October, the pristine white snow was dazzling against a backdrop of red, pink, orange and gold. But change came again, the leaves began to fall and we spent our days, harvesting crops, covering garden beds with hay, cutting, splitting and stacking fire wood. Renovations on what was once a lofted barn and which is now our dojo/yoga/sacred space/therapy room and sleeping quarters called the Zen Room began in September also.

At this point I feel I should mention that we share our idyllic lifestyle and 200 year old farmhouse with Aaron's parents Kay and David. They accepted me into their home so freely when I arrived here in early May of last year and we have been enjoying each others company ever since. They are easy, affectionate, intelligent people who share a love of nature and enjoy a good joke. I feel blessed to have them as part of my family. Each year they move to Florida for the Winter and the family home in Vermont gets shut down completely. Not this year, Aaron and I decided to stay here over Winter and experience this season in it's entirety. Comfortably surviving Winter in this house the way it is currently set up is dependent on a number of factors, primarily, insulation and having enough wood to burn, not to mention money for the furnace! The furnace doesn't keep us warm but it keeps the pipes from freezing and the cost of the oil is ridiculously high. We have made many discoveries and know what we need to do to make habitation more viable in future.

We said good bye to Kay and David in early November and nestled into our “cornered off” living environment where we will continue to live until we share the house again with Aaron's parents in 2 months time. The Zen Room is still under construction with the help of our dear friend Tom, without which, the Zen Room would still be a barn. We met Tom and his wife Kathleen at our opening sweatlodge and we have all been close friends ever since. They run a studio in a town called Springfield over an hours drive South of here and we have been teaching regular Zen Yoga classes and Qi Gong workshops there since last November.

An Extraordinary Being came into our lives in the shape of a cat the night before Thanksgiving. His name is Zen Master Katana, his wisdom and talents are to many to list here, there is talk of creating a blog especially for him, more about Katana later.

For Christmas we took Katana on a road trip where we were reunited with Aaron's parents at his sister's family home in Maine. Where we were overdosed by his two young nephew's constant need for stimulation and Wii video game. We socialised, observed and had a great day out in Portland before making our way back to our peaceful abode in Vermont.

January was a quiet month of reflection, honouring the sacred and shifts in perception. I was also invited to join a local group of women who meet regularly to honour the lunar phases in traditional Celtic pagan/wiccan ritual and I am happy to have made a few good friends there, one of the women operates a permaculture farm and centre for Essential Arts only 5 minutes away and supplies us with fresh cows milk, Mmmm. I have made a good friend who lives on our street and another who operates the local riding school and there is Kathleen, who I mentioned earlier, she is taking part in our instructor program with her husband Tom. I am learning and practicing the ways of Ayurveda and continuing to study and practice Shamanism, especially animal spirit healing which has been my main devotion for the last 3 years. Aaron continues my warrior training with karate, sword and stick. I lead the Zen Yoga online course for spiritual deepening, which involves a one on one dialogue which each student, facilitating a deeper understanding of the course's content. The course has grown quite popular of late.

February has almost passed and I am inflamed to set in motion the many ventures and projects that have been manifesting these past few months. We have plans to produce another Zen Yoga DVD, publish a new book and completely transform the Zen Yoga website on Ostara (Spring Equinox).

Until we meet again, Blessed Be

Elfeya