First, the fish needs to say,
“Something ain’t with this camel ride,
and I’m feeling so damn thirsty.”
-Hafez
A note from Carl
Greetings friends,
Thank you for opening this email. I am writing this missive from a picnic spot in one of our favorite local canyons in Salt Lake City, Millcreek Canyon. It is the day after my 53rd birthday, and I am basking in the sound of the creek and the smells of the fallen leaves and the incredible presence and beauty of these magnificent tree beings that surround me. Erin and I each have fall birthdays, and one of our beloved birthday traditions is to each get some solo time in the natural world with a journal, divination materials, a drum, offerings, and take some time to reflect on, and digest this threshold of another year on this beautiful Earth.
I was wanting to write a newsletter this week, so I thought I would bring you up here to join me at this lovely picnic table via my laptop.
Please, have a seat. Welcome. Shall we take a breath together and feel the support of the living earth underneath us?
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On my birthday, I began the day before sunrise with a circle of men, singing and moving together by candlelight on the last morning of the Minnesota Men’s Conference. After a long day of ritual, farewells, and travel, my day ended by the fire next to my beloved, Erin, back in Salt Lake City. What a deeply satisfying day.
In this email, I want to share some reflections around the men’s gathering, along with an invitation to a few upcoming offerings: A Council For Grief-Tenders, this Thursday, Coming Home to Your Animal Body, an online course with me that begins Nov 3rd, and Grounded and Spacious, an online retreat that Erin and I are teaching on November 22nd.
I had wanted to go to the Minnesota Men’s gathering for many years. This was the 41st annual gathering, and some of the men there had attended all 41! Our friend and mentor, Francis Weller, was going to be teaching at the retreat this year, and he invited me to come along and offer some Circlesongs and vocal exploration to the group. It was a sacred pilgrimage for me, as so many teachers and poets and storytellers that Erin and I hold dear, and are part of our soul lineages have gathered in these halls. Francis, Michael Meade, James Hillman, Robert Bly, Malidoma Some, Martin Prechtel, Martin Shaw, William Stafford…It was beautiful to feel the presence of all these luminaries in the fire-lit hall where we gathered.
I find it so helpful to remember, with the deluge of outrage and violence and polarization that we ingest daily in the headlines, that there are also countless ceremonies, gatherings, rituals of healing and repair that are happening every day. There are oceans of ordinary moments of beauty and care and reverence, and tending to ruptures that exist in this world. We will not see these on our newsfeed, but they exist, and there is such a strong underground current of soul activism, and ordinary people like you and me imagining and feeding a different world we know is possible. I am so honored to have been a part of 100 men singing together, beginning each day with the thanksgiving address, grieving together, reflecting together, listening deeply to each other, and supporting each other in how we each are being called in response to these mythic times in which we live.
As Carl Jung said, we are all makeweights, and we never know what could tip the scales, what could be the tipping point where a culture, where the world could turn like a mumuration of starlings toward a world that honors and feeds life in all its forms.
May we each, in our own ways, embody the world in which we would like to live. May we embody the qualities of the world that we would wish for future generations to inhabit.
We have some beautiful gatherings coming up this month.
On Thursday, we have our online Council of Grief Tenders that we are hosting with our beloved friends and colleagues, Alexandre Jodun and Alyona Kobevka.
Here is a response that Erin gave to someone inquiring about the gathering that pretty much sums it up:
You’re most welcome to attend.
Some people who are attending are currently doing some grief ritual work. Some took our online training but have not done any yet. Some are grief counselors or death doulas or therapists or ordinary folk who want to grow into offering grief rituals.
How the offering is structured is that we do a little drop-in and grounding (as I always love to do) and set the context. Then we’ll invite people into small groups to be able to meet and converse with a few other people who are doing or aspiring to do grief work. We’re imagining 3-4 people per group for 20-25 minutes. Then we’ll return to the large group for an hour plus of conversation. I think there’s a lot of inpsiration just in listening to various ways people are carrying grief work, what questions people have, what inspiration or issues arise… This is less focused on working with one particular form of ritual and more intended as a resource for people who are working with grief and perhaps with ritual – or those who want to incorporate ritual into counseling/therapy/teaching/retreats – so we can learn from each other, inspire each other, and cross-pollinate. We intend for it to be convivial, non-competitive, with no “one-right-way” bullshit, and hope it feels like a resource of non-local folks cheering each other on, however we’re carrying this work (or aspiring to) in these times.
We are honored to hold this space where we can support one another in holding space for the sacred medicine of grief.
I am so excited to be offering Coming Home to Your Animal Body- An online course in Movement, Attention and Naturalness.
In this series, we will be exploring the qualities of strength, mobility, grace, softness, sensitivity and rhythm in how we move through the world.
One of the things I love about teaching movement for the last 30 years, is the recognition that wherever we are, whatever our age, or mobility, or body type, or injuries, we can always learn to move with more grace, more kindness, more sensitivity, more pleasure.
Movement is life. When we change how we move, nothing remains unchanged.
Lastly, on Saturday, November 22nd, Erin and I will be offering an online retreat, Grounded and Spacious: A Retreat in Movement and Stillness. This is one of our favorite topics to teach, dropping into the rich terrain where somatics, movement and meditation meet.
We have taught for many years at the Zen Sesshins of Two Arrows Zen with our friends, Michael Zimmerman Roshi and Diane Hamilton Roshi. Each time, participants share how much the movement lessons and somatic meditations bring so much more ease, comfort, and embodied presence to their sitting practice.
We invite you to join us in exploring how much more comfortable sitting practice can be, and how these qualities of groundedness and spaciousness can integrate into how we move through our day to day lives.
Thank you so much for reading, and wishing your day be filled with satisfaction and connection.
With big love,
Carl
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