Late Night Update From Amsterdam

I started off the day today doing a sound healing meditation for Jane and Paul's Course in Miracles group at their home. After that I took a train in to Amsterdam to meet a friend at the Van Gogh Museum. Afterward we saw this guy sitting in the park playing the didgeridoo. He was a good player and it was such a nice grounding sound after the museum experience.

Yesterday Jane and I visited the Royal Delft Museum and factory. It was so wonderful. When I was about 6 years old a friend of my mother's gave me a small blue and white ceramic windmill. I loved it and my mother told me then about Delft and the famous white and blue pottery. I was a potter for many years myself before I became a sound healer so it was somewhere I have always wanted to go. I loved it! Lots of the structure itself is actually made from building ceramics with beautiful earthy glazes of browns and greens. 

Musical Toilets and Synchronicity

If I could have any toilet in the world, this would be the one I would want. Unfortunately it belongs to someone else.

Three years ago, when I went to Holland the first time, my friend Jane Tipping and I decided one day to go to the medieval town of Amersfoort to go shopping. Jane had heard it was great place to shop and she finally had someone to go with!
 
The tall narrow houses in Amsersfoort, which form the perimeter of the town, were built from a fortification wall that surrounded the town in the 1300's. In the 1600's another wall was built around the inner one as the town was growing rapidly and the inner one was used as the foundation for the Muurhuizen, or wall houses.

We hadn't been there but about ten minutes and were walking down the narrow street on the perimeter of the town when we were stopped by an old man who insisted we come into his house and see what the buildings look like from the inside. I think his name was Fritz (or Frans?)...

 We were mildly uneasy about going into a persistent old man's home- but he WAS persistent and we were ready for an adventure so in we went! He had a crazy little place that was FULL of knick knacks- but when I first walked in the house I looked around a corner and found myself looking in the bathroom at the toilet pictured above. I know that usually a toilet is not the first sign that you are in the right place unless you have to pee really badly, but I was there to teach a sound healing workshop. Sound and music were very much my focus, as they tend to be most days and there was this wild musical toilet. I couldn't believe it. I did indeed take it as a sign from the gods that we were in exactly the perfect place!

It turned out, needless to say, that he was a musician- a stand-up bass player- and that his whole family had all been musicians. His father had been a musician- I think maybe his mother had been a singer and his sons were both musicians. He had a picture of his father as a very young man with a group of musicians- maybe an orchestra or something. I don't remember the details but it was all just great, funny and as magical and synchronistic as anything in my life. I had the feeling I had just walked into some crazy, dreamlike, divinely orchestrated scene that I couldn't possibly have dreamed up on my own!

He tried to get us to go up the very narrow stairs to see the upstairs but we managed to escape at that point. The picture below is Jane looking slightly unnerved and clearly ready to leave at this point! I have often wondered whether it was just a weird synchronistic event or if he actually just hangs out outside of his house accosting every obvious tourist and stranger that walks by. Was he lonely or was he just an old man who was totally turned on by the heritage of his town and his family and wanted to share it? Who knows, but I am leaving for Holland on Tuesday and my guess is that very soon Jane and I will be headed for another shopping spree in Amersfoort (we found some great clothes there the last time!) and I am definitely wondering whether we will run into Fritz and his musical toilet again.

Taking the Plunge

A few days ago I made a decision around something I was wavering about. I recommitted to going to Holland even though no one has signed up for my sound healing workshop. I was feeling very nervous about it, basically in regard to spending money with the possibility of not making enough money to make it financially viable. The discussion I had with my friend Paul, who is hosting me along with his partner Jane, was about going out on a limb and the fact that when we do that some of the best stuff happens. As Gabrielle Roth once said (possibly in reference to something else, but it fits), "That's when things get really juicy."



Just now I read Seth Godin's blog post for today. It feels very applicable.

Reckless abandon (is neither)

It's not reckless, because when we leap, when we dive in, when we begin, only begin, we bring our true nature to the project, we make it personal and urgent.
And it's not abandon, not in the sense that we've abandoned our senses or our responsibility. In fact, abandoning the fear of fear that is holding us back is the single best way not to abandon the work, the pure execution of the work.
Later, there's time to backpedal and water down. But right now, reckless please.

Once I made a clear decision I felt relieved and unafraid. I have gone from feeling nervous and anxious to very excited.

Plus, as it turns out spring is late this year in Holland, as it has been here, and apparently the tulips are only just starting to come out- which means I will be there at the peak of tulip season! That in itself will be worth the price of admission.

Photo by An Maria C

Leap of Faith

I have had to do some processing around my trip to Holland as I did not state my needs clearly enough in advance. Meanwhile however I have been acting as if I was going to be going and immersing myself in practice and writing so that I am well prepared for the workshop. Today I talked to my dear friends Paul Goudsmit and Jane Tipping and confirmed that yes, I am going to take the leap of faith even though there is no one confirmed for the workshop. There is definitely interest and if there are not enough people to make my staying the extra week worthwhile than I will simply come home a little sooner than planned.

Diverging Directions (All Roads Lead Home)

My mind is going a few different directions with what to write about tonight and I am also very focused on changing my blogging and sleeping pattern so my plan is to keep it short tonight.

One: Still enjoying the energy of the gathering of sweet friends here last week.


Two: My brother came by my house last night and gave me a beautiful new guitar that plays so sweetly. I feel like we have been friends forever and she is inspiring me to play better and try new things that I have never done before.

Three: Yesterday I wrote up the outline for my weekend workshop in Holland that I will be teaching on May 8-9. The course is Sound Healing for Balance and Joy. The realization for me was the same tools that will first serve by restoring balance are also the tools that will bring you joy- not the tools themselves but the effect of their use.

Sound Healing for Balance and Joy

A Two-Day Workshop utilizing Vocal Expression, Singing Bowls, and Tuning Forks

Sound Healing for Balance

Chakra Tones

Chanting

Body Tuners (C & G Tuning forks)
Brain Tuners

Singing bowls

Sound Healing for Joy

Chakra Tones

Overtone singing

Chanting

Body Tuners/Brain Tuners

Singing Bowls

The same tools that are used to bring balance and harmony to the nervous system and the mind-body-spirit can also elevate us to states of great joy. The first task is to clear away the clutter and excess chatter. Sound has the capacity to sidestep our left-brain linear thought processes and allow us to drop fully into the present without fear, projection or anxiety. Once we have arrived, we are in a place to access the fullness of our being.

This is a fully experiential workshop. We will immerse ourselves in sound, produced from within and without. What you will take from this are simple, accessible, powerful tools that can assist you in managing physical, mental and emotional pain so that you can tap into the true potential of your being.

“The opposite of love is fear, but what is all-encompassing can have no opposite.”

 

Holland- 2012

Revisiting Netherlands

Spent a long time tonight updating events and contact information. should have gone quickly but I added a bunch of pictures to the contact page. Then I had a hard time actually sharing the posts on FB and Twitter so I thought I would write something too!

I always get inspired going through my pictures and revisiting past events, sessions, workshops, pictures of instruments and looking forward to what's coming up. In the end of April I will be going to Holland to teach a workshop. My first trip to Holland was in 2012 and I am so looking forward to going back.

Here are some pics from the last trip to Netherlands.