AH… SEPTEMBER’S SONG

• REQUEST: Please consider following my Youtube channel. I’m creating playlists that include many of the teachers who’ve brought me to where I am in this moment, and I think you will find it interesting and, perhaps, useful: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9eCtaCnj-WXkjzqhdYjJcA/playlists

• Today's suggested practice: Day 1 of this month's practice... (see below)

• My playlist while writing today's meditation: Deva Primal, Ganesha Mantra

• My morning practice: 3:30am for 45 minutes of physical, yogic, and meditative practice, including the Creative Capacity for Life meditation

• My vulnerability practice: xx

Hans Peter Meyer

TODAY'S MEDITATION

A man recently said to me, viz a friend of his, “I only seem to have strong, independent women in my life these days. The others just don’t attract me.”

And I though, me too. Or, me too, not so long ago. And what is that about? What does this mean to a man, that a woman seems “strong,” “independent?” I’m suspicious of these words these days. So much of my life has been learned and understood through the filter of a “man’s world.” Today I am finding that “strength” and “independence” are much more complicated than I’d imagined.

In younger years I think I was attracted to women who seemed “independent” because they would not depend on me. I didn’t trust myself to provide, to support, to hold space for anyone. Now —and I tell my tango students this too, because so many of them have been taught to be “in balance,” as if this means in a balance apart from their partner— now I want my beloved, my children, my friends, my mother to know they can lean on me. That together we create balance. Together we create independence.

In my younger years strength had to do with my physical body and my prodigious capacity to lift and carry and work. I was, and am, strong in that way. But I’ve come to know another kind of strength. Let’s call it “nervous system strength.” This is a curious thing, and needs a different kind of conditioning and attention than the physical strength I used to privilege.

And what of the strength I see in women? Sometimes it’s physical, or of the nervous system variety. But often it’s another animal completely. What kind of strength is it to monthly hold space for the surging of hormones and the flow of fluids that go almost unnoticed by us as men, except to complain about “moods” and lack of access to sexual desire, etc. Or the strength to carry and then deliver —and then nurture a child? Or the strength to deny deep feelings for flow and pleasure as they parent single-handedly, or succeed in corporate or other “manly” settings?

I look at this younger man that I was, and not that much younger than I am now, and see a man afraid to carry the water that his tribe requires of him. Yes, I feel regret. And this fuels my desire to do better, to be better. But I also know that I am not alone. My generation of men, the generations after me, the generation of fathers, uncles, grandfathers, and godfathers who failed us before we failed. We’ve been absent, and we’ve been abandoned. And it’s as old as the history we’re aware of.

…

And so it is September and it is the sweetest month. I am thinking about all of the strength and independence that keeps unravelling. I find comfort only in this: I am the husbandman of this garden, this season, and it is sweeter than any I’ve known. I’m learning how to be strong and independent and how to dance this tango in a deeper way, and to teach a few men a few of the things I know. And to watch them as they teach others.

This is part of my September song. Sing me yours, if you have one. And if you don’t have one yet, listen to the silence and taste the sweetness of the late summer air. Your song is there.

TODAY’S INSPIRATIONS

🌀Our prayer is that you light your enthusiasm to be a 'fire-maker' -- never quench it; always look to the light, warm, feed, and serve yourself and everyone around you; discover that you have the innate ability and authority to be this prophet -- don't be shy, and definitely don't be surprised when you're criticized, or even slandered for being so bold and courageous...that's been happening for almost a million years...get comfortable with it. (Guru Singh & Guruperkarma Kaur)

🌀“The male practitioner is directed to contemplate the womb of his partner and realize that this organ has been his passageway to numerous rebirths and now becomes a threshold to enlightenment.” (Miranda Shaw, quoting ancient Tantric Buddhist texts)

🌀When a Goddess enters your life to love you, the universe is levelling you up. If you weren't magical to begin with and powerful in your own right, you never would've had the chance. (wildwomanembodiment community on Instagram)

🌀Love is a by-product of meditation. (Osho)

TODAY'S SUGGESTED PRACTICE

Day 1 of this month's practice, take 8 minutes today to sit and listen to, or chant, the Ganesha Meditation... This meditation (Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha) brings our attention to our foundations, our roots, and invokes the Indian god Ganesha, a curious yet powerful character who removes all obstacles.

Please read through first, then ...

• Today, sit (or stand) in stillness with these questions….

• Setup: your "setup" for this month's daily practice is how you "hold onto yourself" and receive...

• Begin by closing your eyes and aligning your body into its truest, most elegant posture, tucking your chin to lift your heart, tilting your pelvis to straighten your spine. Become still, more still than you've ever been. Your alignment is the physical training for trustworthiness. Bring your hands to your heart, right (masculine) over left (feminine).

• Focus on feeling the vibration. That is all.

• Set your timer for eight minutes or listen to the “Ganesha” mantra by Deva Primal here:

• As the timer signals or the mantra ends allow your eyes to slowly open. Take three, relaxed breath cycles, no pressing, no effort, and feel yourself full, without thoughts, open. Safe to receive. Then, step into your day, letting the mantra echo as a nourishing vibration whenever you become still. You don't need to DO anything. Let the world come to you with its demands, its complaints, and yes, its endless tide of gifts and blessings.✨✨✨