THIS SEASON INVITES ME, DEEPER

• NEW on the podcast: “Unconventional Marriage, Part 1,” with guest Melissa Bloxham (with a guided meditation at the end, inspired by Melissa’s words) https://is.gd/FoxqEX

• Today's suggested practice: Day 24 of this month's practice... (see below)

• My playlist while writing today's meditation: Paginini, Cantabile in D https://music.apple.com/ca/album/cantabile-in-d-op-17/3332686?i=3332683

• My morning practice: 3:30am for 75 minutes of physical, yogic, and Meditation for Authentic Self-Expression (day 32/40)

• My vulnerability practice: So much heart-sensitivity! Ever since yesterday’s conversation with Melissa… Holding myself. Holding this tenderness, trusting it…

Hans Peter Meyer

TODAY'S MEDITATION

I was told that this eclipse “wants to help heal the deepest and oldest wounds.” That I should ask for help at this moment of changing…

…

Yesterday was a powerful day. At the end of it, I felt walloped. The walloping started, more or less, with the conversation about “unconventional marriage,” with Melissa Bloxham. At the end, she suggested a short and beautiful “be a man” practice. With her permission, I ended the podcast with a guided meditation based on her words. And, watching her tears flow, and feeling my own heart breaking open… I suppose I was ready for the day ahead…

…

Today, I’m sitting at the window overlooking the garden. The fire is burning. My dogs are sleeping beside me. And I am thinking of one of today’s inspirations, words about seeds and manure, and the husbandry of my soul, the husbandry of this unconventional relationship.

…

This garden. This soil. This tending…

It’s really Fall now. Not that extended & pretty never-ending summer we enjoyed this year. No. Now it’s wet. The garden is bedraggled and coming apart at the seams and is slouching towards winter’s rest.

To remember that even in this drab, uninspiring moment, that She still lives, thrives, but in that more hidden way that will be Her way throughout the next seasons. And that, likewise, love persists. Not in the bright flowers of the annuals that delight for a season or two. They are, in their way, the “real thing” too. But there is something more real about this thing that is rooted deep into the dry earth now becoming muck. A real thing that, tended to, given full and unconditional attention, enters into another stage, must be trusted in this withdrawal from colour and light and flourish. Flowers faded, falling. Still very much alive.

…

Who, I wonder, has ever loved a woman who has been loved “correctly?”

Of the women I’ve loved, none. I am sorry to say that I was not the one to tend to their sorrow with the patience they needed. Except, perhaps, this one. This beloved. The knowledge of how to love her has come late. Not in that springtime when she burst with colour and warmth, nor even in the summertime of our love.

Now, in this Fall, now I am learning my art as the husbandman. A patient tending, even through my impatience and my discomfort. A deepening of an art that I know, am knowing better in this wet, this cold, this foreshadowing of winter and even deeper silence.

…

We talked about “unconventional marriage.” To tend to the feminine, to hold the space She needs to flourish and become fully Herself in your arms, this takes practice. We aren’t, in this culture, understanding of how deep this practice must be. And so I ask, of all the men reading here, How are you preparing your nervous system for when the one you love invites you beyond the conventions of your comfort?

This thing, to step beyond the contracts and conventions of life to experience would love, this takes practice. And a powerful nervous system. How are you preparing?

TODAY’S INSPIRATIONS

🌀There are parts of your brain that can be trained to either become hurt and hopeless or understanding and inspired. Make the choice; when you find yourself in the grasp of the common sensations of feeling hurt, toxic, and without a future, look at the sequences you are practicing...look at how you've interpreted your moments.

Consciously and methodically rearrange the sequences of your experiences -- shift your interpretations -- prepare the future by planting your seeds in the manure that is dumped on you. (Guru Singh & Guruperkarma Kaur)

🌀A man of depth can hold both the joy and the pain of life at the same time. (GS Youngblood)

🌀The Conscious Warrior is committed to developing strength of the mind, physical body, and nervous system through dedicated physical, yogic, and meditative practice. (John Wineland, Precept 6)

🌀I’m always impressed by you. (My beloved, my Oracle & my Siren)

TODAY'S SUGGESTED PRACTICE

Day 24 of this month's practice, take 11 minutes today to sit and listen to, or chant, the Mangala Charn mantra... This meditation (Aad Guray Nameh, Jugad Guray Nameh, Sat Guray Nameh, Siri Guru Devay Nameh) is a prayer for protection and projection from the heart. We extend our heart without fear. We draw into our heart, without fear.

Please read through first, then ...

• Today, sit (or stand) in stillness as you listen and chant, or simply listen to this mantra, let this question stir within you…. Did something change for you yesterday? The day before? Did a deep feeling visit you? Where in your body might you have felt that, if this happened to you? And if not, Would you even be aware of the subtle shifts that come with this season, this changing light, the moon cycles of your own body or the body of the woman nearest you?

• 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 11 minutes or listen to the mantra sung by Snatam Kaur 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.✨