Knowing When and How to Let Go

Change comes from putting aside old or outdated perceptions, memories, or beliefs and learning a new way to live with life experiences. It often takes giving something up. This is a universal principle and the reason for ceremonies and rituals. They help us to bridge the gap between the physical world which demands our attention and the spiritual one that quietly influences the material one.

My neighbor’s 80 year old father died on Friday evening. They called a family member with a car and carried the father’s body to the funeral home. They bought a coffin. Afterwards the members of the family washed and dressed the body and placed it in the coffin to be returned home. In this beach community of Honduras, it is the custom for the casket to sit open for viewing in the living room of the family home. This allows neighbors and friends to visit and say their final farewells.

The family prepared food, along with that donated by neighbors, for the guests. Everyone pulled together to help the family process through this transition. In the meanwhile, adult male members of the family went out to the cemetery to dig the grave and build a concrete crypt. All this effort of preparation is actually quite healing and offers neighbors and friends an opportunity to assist the deceased person one last time. When it is time to go to the cemetery the community walks behind a van or pickup that carries the coffin to its final home. 

The family rode with the body of their father. The coffin was placed on a prepared stand at the entrance of the cemetery for words and song. This were the family says its farewell. As they all gathered around the coffin with tear-filled eyes and bowed heads, the oldest daughter pushed forward with cries of anguish, throwing herself across the coffin. From deep within her chest came sobbing words of goodbye for her papa. I had heard of dramatic displays at funerals but this was the first time I had witnessed one. Her wailing, tears, and hanging to the coffin continued until the box was gently lowered into the ground. 

Her 3 children, faces wet and tear stained, were standing next to her. They all watched the closing of the crypt just before sunset. The woman wiped her eyes and the faces of her children. She told them that it was time to return to the house, take a shower and change their clothes. They needed to take care of grandmother. That was it. The woman knew she had done the best she knew how to do. She turned her back on the cemetery and walked with her children back to their home. It was time to look to the future.

hamster photo courtesy of New Yorker digital

cemetery photo from my personal collection

  

THE new year CHASM

Am I the only one who feels that they are floating within a chasm? It’s as though ending the old Gregorian calendar  year and the birth of a new year under the Chinese calendar  has created a cradle or fertile furrow to birth new purposes and ideas. Having a full moon and its energy influence overseeing this period adds confirmation that this is a time to set new sites and take first steps toward seeing desires happen.

Since developing a 4^th dimensional approach to healing and the negative influences that affect health, I have started viewing most everything from an energy perspective. Overtime (and practice) a greater sensitivity and understanding to what might be labeled as Feng Shui, intuition or Shamanism has occurred which is a bit like peeking through stage curtains before a performance. Energy is what it is all about.

As for this calendar thing, part of the influence we’re feeling comes from (the energy) having a major part of the world population accepting and following a calendar based on the sun (which is changing) and trade. It is almost the 100^th monkey situation; enough people thinking (applying energy) about the same thing makes it true. However, in following the Gregorian calendar, we live just one beat out of step with nature . We are so used to the miss-beat that we ignore the sensation. 

On the other hand, there are a great number that have been placing their faith (energy) on the Chinese system of time marking for thousands of years. It is a calendar that follows lunar AND solar (lunisolar). This system follows natural movements untouched by the influence of commerce…and yet following its energy flow can have a positive influence on prosperity.  Each month follows one cycle of the moon.  Over history it has become common knowledge the moon influences the oceans and other bodies of water such as our physical form and brain.

Setting direction  for my new year as I float  in the energies of this chasm, have me wondering,  how might it  enhance my  health and future designs if I were to follow the current trend of most of East Asia? That is to use the Gregorian calender (called the Yin calendar), for day-to-day activities (business, birthdays, etc.) but the Chinese (or  Yang) calendar for season changes and other important aspects of life.  I believe it would benefit my efforts (energy) similarly to how the old Poor Richard’s Almanacs helped farmers in the past.

January 23^rd begins the Chinese year of the dragon. As a person born under the “Rat” sign, I’m looking forward to a very auspicious year.