from West to East, "literally"

Today I am enjoying my last day in Colorado for a while. Tomorrow I will fly back to Boston where my trusty VW waits. I received confirmation today for the next leg of my journey. I will go from Boston to Barnet, VT on Tuesday and join the community of people at Karme Choling (http://www.karmecholing.org/) for a short-term stint as a gardener. Please, hold your laughter and raised eyebrows -- I can garden. It's vegetables not rocket science.

The offer came out of the blue and I'm very pleased. I have wanted more garden time and experience for years but relegated my curiosity behind my passion for becoming a good therapist. As well, I am looking for more structure and support for my mindfulness and sitting practice. I imagine that living in a small community of people (eating, working, sitting, sleeping) for a length of time will bring me up against some exciting (read "yucky") places in myself -- I'm a person who is attached to solitude as part of my dialing for balance and happiness. Indeed, I will meet new facets of me when I see myself in the faces of those from whom I cannot escape.

I said this in my last entry -- how much I enjoy the minutes and hours of being a therapist practitioner. It is such an honour to bear witness to the human process of unfolding. I lightened up this week on my use of knowledge and techniques and focused more of my attention on staying unconditionally present for and loving towards a human in process. Indeed, I was amazed and humbled in seeing that the most fundamental aspect of healing is presence -- I moved into more trust that if I did not interfere too much, my client's own system would go where necessary at a rhythm inherently wise.

This is my intention as I move into this Buddhist community for the next 2 to 3 months: to learn from the plants how to show up and be most supportive and least interfering. Like humans, plants have everything they need programmed into their seed structure for growth and wholeness. My journey/work as a gardener, as a therapist, as a human being is to approach with reverence and faith and to listen for the invitations that come for me to become a part of the process of unfolding. Inevitably, I will be altered through the relationship.

A note about the images: the sunset was from Carbondale, Colorado where I spent some time working this week. Yesterday Kirsten, the dogs, and I went up to Nederland, CO for a hike. We moved through the incredible changing colours and smells of autumn approaching and got saturated by a rain which turned to huge snow flakes.

Once again I think, less story – more life.