Reflections on Paradigm Shifting: Consciously Meeting Life and Death as They Emerge
As some of you know, my sister died unexpectedly in early July. Since that time, my world -- and my molecules -- have been re-arranging. The rhythm, content, focus, and meaning of my days (and nights) have changed dramatically. At the same time, at a deeper level, these periods of relating to myself and all beings have emerged with more clarity, dedication, and engagement.
I have been profoundly touched by the spontaneity and depth of authentic, kind, compassionate, and loving responses that have come forward from known and, previously unknown, sources. I have been deeply grateful for the (decades of) personal healing work that I have been blessed with, along with the guidance that I have been receiving from seen and un-seeable sources. All of these gifts have resulted in my initial and continuing response to this circumstance with nothing but an open-hearted river of love for having been in a multi-faceted, multi-dimensional sister-relationship with Sue Ellen (Bingham) Bisgaard. She has been a great blessing in my life, so exquisitely holding the paradox of being delightful companion (the recess) and definitive teacher (the classroom). Our relationship has been a lifetime practice of navigating the ease and struggle of living in conscious relationship -- embodying remembrance of kinship, especially when it’s hard, uncomfortable, and inconvenient (a.k.a., the edge, which is, in fact, where relationship, authenticity, healing, and consciousness can deepen).
I continue to be amazed by the generosity of guidance and synchronicity that arises from, seemingly, out-of-nowhere. At the time of Sue Ellen’s transitioning, I was reading 2 books: The Smell of Rain on Dust: Grief and Praise, by Martin Prechtel and The Seventh Shrine: From the Middle Passage to the Mountaintop, by Orland Bishop. The former is an eloquent dive into the role and reverence that grief holds in the Mayan culture; the latter is a spiritual exploration of healing generational trauma. I am grateful to be receiving inspiration and guidance from these and an array of other sources, as well as from the experiences of learning, processing, healing, and growing that are all part of Life and Living / Death and Dying.
As Universe would have it, the MBMS courses of August (the birthday month of both Sue Ellen and myself), provide perspective and practice of being in relationship with meeting Life and Death as essential aspects of living a consciously intentional Life. This month’s offerings scan the spectrum of developing capacity to sit-in-the-grit of uncertainty and change in Eye of the Hurricane, Part 1, to experiencing the expansiveness of Contemplative Cosmology: Star-Bathing & Meteor-Showering, to sensing oneself and all beings as the power, complexity, and connectivity of embodied Cosmos in Experiencing the YOU-niverse: Connecting Your Daily Living with the Cosmos.
I send you wishes of wellness, well-being, and stamina (to have onboard when needed). I hope to see and be with you soon through the online community and/or in a course or gathering.
Shifting with the Paradigms,
Marianne
