Doris Maranda

Spring is in the air which is warming more each day. The light is enhancing the budding on the trees, the shoots of the bulbs emerging with their delicate heads from the earth and the birds are joining in the chorus of sounds drowning out the city noises (at least in my auditory sense). Such a renewal and affirmation of life! Time to tune into the seasonal rhythms & what has been buried & hibernating through the dark times in us is beginning to emerge from the “composting” within – new possibilities building on the “what was,” reseeding and bringing new aliveness to explore and express in various ways in our lives.

In this vein, I offer to you my Spring Schedule of classes & workshops.

With love & Blessings, Doris

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN VANCOUVER

FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS – Friday morning, January 30th, 9:45am – 12 noon @Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th

ONGOING – Friday mornings @ Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th (between Main & Quebec – enter @ side off alley). 9:45am-12noon. April 24, May 8, 15, 29 & June 5 – 5 classes – $140 – $50 deposit

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN NORTH VANCOUVER

9:45 am – 12 noon @ Alchemy Centre, #3-431 Mountain Hwy, N.Van. (exit off Hwy #1 @ Main St. & right onto Mountain Hwy). Series – April 20th, 27th, May 11th, June 1st & 8th, 5 classes $140. Optional class on May 18th $28 (Monday of Victoria weekend.) To register for classes @ Alchemy, contact Anna Kemble, anna@annakemble.com, 604-781-6040. $50 deposit required to hold your space.

DROP-INS – $30 – no drop-ins after the first class of the series unless you have Continuum experience.

DISCOUNTS: Students & underemployed: 20% off
$25 off if you bring someone new to Continuum.

WEEKEND MINI-WORKSHOPS IN VANCOUVER

Saturday, April 18th – 1-4pm @ Source Point Studio
Saturday, May 16th – 1-4pm @ Source Point Studio
Investment – $42 each or $75 for two.

DEEPENING INTO CONTINUUM MOVEMENT
Weekend of March 21st & 22nd ,2009 – Saturday & Sunday – 12-5pm @ Source Point, 3263 Heather St. Investment fee – $110-$150. $50 deposit required to hold your space.
An opportunity to explore Continuum for an extended period of time.

MOVING MEDICINE – with EMILIE CONRAD in SEATTLE, WA –
MAY 1-4. FOR REGISTRATION, CONTACT DORIS MOSLER, (not Doris Maranda) – 206-782-0120, dhmosler@aol.com. Canadian rates.

AWAKENING THE BODY OF CREATIVITY – CONTINUUM & ART with BARBARA MINDELL – We welcome Barbara back to Vancouver for another amazing weekend workshop with her unique blend of the processes of Continuum & the creation of the play of colour & form in Art.
Dates – June 12th -14th, 2009 (Friday evening, Saturday & Sunday) @ Source Point Studio, 3263 Heather.

NEWSLETTER – WINTER/SPRING 2009

Solstice greetings to All!!! Looks like someone dreamed up a white Christmas for us this year. I returned from sunny, warm California to a chilly -5 C. Mostly, I am appreciating the beauty and softness of the white blanket world as it enfolds us in its mysteriousness and its quietude. It feels like a continuation of the journey I have been on in the “Welcoming Dark” Continuum Intensive which I just returned from on Monday night.

As I entered the amazing cave/womb created at the Continuum studio for our 48 hour allnighter, I experienced a powerful shift in my sensing and how I was locating my body & myself in space. Finding myself pausing at the doorway, then crawling into the room until I adjusted to this new environment, I felt this in a reverse way that it must be for us as infants, emerging from the wet womb/cave in which we hibernated and grew for nine months. With this change in context, there came a different sense of myself, or rather a questioning of who I am or what I am or even the disappearing of identity and form. Somehow that did not even matter.

In my twentieth year of Continuum, I continue to learn new insights into how I have been operating both in Continuum and in my life. For the past few years, with the onset of the deterioration of my hip cartilage and the ensuing hip replacement operations, I who was a doer and a giver have been learning to ask and to receive from my family and friends. It truly has been a gift (even though I didn’t see it that way all the time). In the retreat I realized that in some ways, I have been “doing” Continuum and that it is extremely important that I open up receptivity on the biological level as well. Otherwise, if the tissue is not receptive, no new information and consequently, no new growth or evolving is possible. Learning to receive at deeper and deeper levels allows the penetration and sourcing to take place.

What I also learned in the next few days of the retreat is how strong the habits and the old defensive mechanisms still operate even after this profound insight. It is almost like there is a recoil into the habitual defensive patterns which once served me but now limit me. Peter Levine once stated that we let go of old patterns and holdings when we are resourced enough. I truly feel blessed in the resources in my life, in my community, in the natural world around me and in my inner world. I have never liked myself as well as I do now; it took 71 years but here I am!

As I return to my home and my life here in Vancouver, I realize upon reflecting and sharing with friends, that what I discovered in the retreat is all part of a process. What has been occurring in my life over the past while, especially with my six month sabbatical, personal retreat from January to June, has resulted in my opening up to trusting, trusting that I’m not alone, that I have a community not just of the wonderful people in my life, but also the universe. Increasingly, I have been experiencing that when I attend and participate as fully as I can, I can then trust that the universe will provide and assist me, maybe not in a way that I anticipated but for my and the greater good. Even through the difficult global times we are experiencing, we need to build that inner heartfelt trust that we are part of it all and that it was all meant to be. It is not so much the events we encounter in our lives, but our response to them that we realize our potential both in ourselves and in our world.

With love and blessings for now and for the coming season,

December 18, 2008 Doris

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN VANCOUVER

FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS – Friday morning, January 30th, 9:45am – 12 noon @Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th (between Main & Quebec – enter @ side off alley).

ONGOING – Friday mornings @ Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th (see above) – 9:45am-12noon. Series – February 6th – April 3rd (no class March 13th – 8 classes – Investment $225.

CONTINUUM CLASSES IN NORTH VANCOUVER

FREE INTRODUCTORY CLASS – Monday morning, January 26th, 9:45 am – 12 noon @ Alchemy Centre, #3-431 Mountain Hwy, N.Van. Series – February 2nd – April 6th (no class Feb 23rd & March 16th) – 8 classes – Investment $225. To register for classes @ Alchemy, contact Anna Kemble, anna@annakemble.com, 604-781-6040.

DROP-INS – $30 – no drop-ins after the first class of the series unless you have Continuum experience.

WEEKEND MINI-WORKSHOPS IN VANCOUVER
Saturday, February 14th – 1-4pm @ Source Point Studio – 3263 Heather (between W16 & 17 Ave)
Sunday, March 8th – 2-5pm @ Yoga on 7th – 156 E 7th
Saturday, April 18th – 1-4pm @ Source Point Studio
Saturday, May 16th – 1-4pm @ Source Point Studio
Investment – $42 each or $150 for the series

DISCOUNTS: Students & underemployed: 20% off
$25 off if you bring someone new to Continuum.

DEEPENING INTO CONTINUUM MOVEMENT
Weekend of March 21st & 22nd ,2009 – Saturday & Sunday – 12-5pm
@ Source Point, 3263 Heather St. Investment fee – $110-$150.
An opportunity to explore Continuum for an extended period of time.

AWAKENING THE BODY OF CREATIVITY – CONTINUUM & ART with BARBARA MINDELL – We welcome Barbara back to Vancouver for another amazing weekend workshop with her unique blend of the processes of Continuum & Art.
Dates – June 12th -14th, 2009 (Friday evening, Saturday & Sunday) @ Source Point Studio, 3263 Heather St. (Flyer will be sent later.)

DORIS MARANDA, www.dorismaranda.com, an explorer, mentor, elder and counsellor for many years, enters into her 20th year of Continuum practice and teaching. Following a six month sabbatical & personal retreat, she brings renewed energy to her living of Continuum as her spiritual, mindfulness practice and passion to her teaching, as guide and sharing the journey in community of others.

PRIVATE COUNSELLING & SOMATIC MOVEMENT SESSIONS
WITH DORIS BY APPOINTMENT
604-254-0147 or doris@dorismaranda.com

GREETINGS! The dark is settling in along with the rain, the trees are becoming bare with the last glimpses of brilliant colour beginning to fade & yet there are days like yesterday when the sun shines through. All is good! I so appreciate the changability of the outer as well as the inner world and more and more am able to greet each day with whatever it brings.

There are two events I wanted to bring to your attention:

Due to the efforts of Anna Kemble of Alchemy Centre (www.alchemycentre.ca; anna@annakemble.com), I will be teaching a Continuum Movement class at Alchemy Centre, #3-431 Mountain Hwy., North Vancouver) starting next Monday for 2 Mondays – November 17 & 24 from 9:45-11:45am. To register, please contact me or Anna. We hope to continue this class in 2009.

The other is Susan Harper’s upcoming workshop February 20-23, 2009, once again at the Memorial for Peace Centre @ 16 & Burrard. Penny Allport is organizing this event and will be away until November 20 & to register you can contact her and she will get back to you at that time: 604-893-4607 or pennyallport@gmail.com. In the meantime, if you have any questions about the workshop, you can contact me.

With love & blessings, Doris

Greetings to All:

As summer is nearing its end, the season turns to the coming of fall, back to school days, the diminishing of the light, the anticipation of the shedding of leaves and the hibernating time of winter in the wings. For yours truly, coming from the leisurely expanse of my sabbatical/retreat time from January to June, I am back into planning, teaching, and counselling.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Retreat Day and classes at Source Point this summer and they provided me with a wonderful sliding into the “back to work” mode. I find the challenge of staying with my practice of “following impulse,” to be more difficult with the scheduling rather than the actual teaching and sitting with my clients which I find enriching and stimulating. So the challenge continues with paying attention to my somatic & feeling response to planning, scheduling and being “on” as teacher, guide and facilitator. The sabbatical also reinforced how absolutely necessary it is to continue to make time for myself, in my own practice, my study and my rest time. When we get busy it is so easy to slide into ways of rewarding oneself that are not particularly nuturing.

From an amazing evening with the incredibly human & knowledgeable Daniel Siegel on June 18, I was struck by how many practices promote mindfulness, which Continuum certainly does. So much of my practice for myself in January was in this vein – following impulse, paying attention to my somatic responses with curiosity, love & compassion & without judgment. As one does this with oneself, it then extends outward to others. Seigel himself came to this awareness through his psychiatric work with families.

Seigel spoke to the importance of relationships in mindfulness – to the interpersonal attuned mind. The social circuit of the brain is the regulatory circuit and social circuits are thicker in mindfulness practitioners. Practice generates a state of mindful attention in the present moment and promotes the integrative, transformative growth of the brain, those functions being primarily in the pre-frontal lobe of the brain. In addition, there is evidence of healing of a variety of clinical conditions with mindfulness practice as well as increasing the immune system and the neuroplasticity of the organism, the ability to shift & respond to changing context.

I leave on Saturday to join the amazing “Miss Em” for her “Moving Medicine” workshop at Hollyhock. I plan on extending my time on Cortes Island for another week of dipping into the retreat & playtime space at our cabin on Gorge Harbour.

Come and join me for a free introductory (or refresher) session on Friday morning, September 19 @ Yoga on 7th followed by an ongoing class series. I am also offering a Retreat Day on Sunday, September 28th, another approach to my popular theme of “Relationships Through Heart Wisdom.” Although the theme is repeating, we will explore in different ways. AND for something new, I am offering an opportunity to spend an extended time deepening into the Continuum process the weekend of November 8th & 9th.

With love & blessings, Doris

Continuum is a powerful and subtle inquiry that enables us to shift the context of our awareness so that we see ourselves as fluid movement. To inhabit ourselves in this way wakes us up and enhances the dissolving of habitual patterns, opening to new possibilities through enhanced neural connections. This occurs at the physical level as well as psychically and spiritually. In biological movement, there is no separation. “We do not move. We are movement.” (Emilie Conrad)

As well as delighting in the journey into our more expanded selves, Continuuum offers us unusual pathways into healing and creativity.

We use the mindfulness practice of sensation awareness tracking, the zen of breath and sound, as well as intrinsic micro-movements, wave motion and more dynamic movements.

DORIS MARANDA, www.dorismaranda.com, an explorer, mentor, elder and counsellor for many years, enters into her 20th year of Continuum practice and teaching. Following a six month sabbatical & personal retreat, she brings renewed energy to her living of Continuum as her spiritual, mindfulness practice and passion to her teaching, as guide and sharing the journey in community of others.

PRIVATE COUNSELLING & SOMATIC MOVEMENT SESSIONS
WITH DORIS BY APPOINTMENT
604-254-0147 or doris@dorismaranda.com

Greetings for the summer season, slowly but surely approaching! As the warm breezes become more prevalent, warming us up inside as well as outside, we think of summer plans as well as the lazy, hazy days, non-planning and non-doing that this season generates in us.

Coming out of my 6 months sabbitical, I offer to you the following schedule for the summer. As well, in July I will be resuming my counselling practice and will be making appointments in June.

RETREAT DAY @ SOURCE POINT – SUNDAY JULY 13TH, 12 – 5 PM.
Source Point Studio is located @ 3263 Heather between W 16th & 17th. Investment: Sliding scale: $60-$80.

MOVING FROM DEPRIVATION TO ABUNDANCE – Summer is a time of fullness, an expansion of the composting time of winter which has moved into the seeding, the budding of new visions and beginnings of the spring. In this retreat day we will ask what helps to lead you to a fuller sense of yourself in your life and what stops you from coming to a realization and expression of your true essence.

Through Continuum’s intricate sound sequences accompanied by movement explorations, we connect to our inner, dynamic fluid selves. We inculcate environments designed to elicit new creative responses, like a “movement tour,” expanding our range of interaction and encourage new “plays” within our bodies and with the environment. We will interweave this creative sourcing into the play of our dreams and dreamtime images, ritual and expressive arts.

CONTINUUM MOVEMENT CLASS SERIES – 4 Thursdays 9:30-11:30AM – July 24-August 14
@ Source Point Studio. Investment for series: $110. Drop in $30 (with Continuum experience).
I have never held classes in the summer but am eager to resume my teaching again & pass on some of the latest innovations from Emilie Conrad & Susan Harper, as well as some of the elements I have been exploring in this sabbitical/retreat time. I am hoping you will join me and we shall see what emerges from our individual expressions and the field we create together.

REMINDER – Moving Medicine with Emilie Conrad @ Hollyhock, August 24-29.
Contact: registration@hollyhock.ca or 1-800-933-6339.

With love & blessings, Doris

Today is Mother’s Day – May 11, 2008, an auspicious time to be sending out this newsletter. Since returning from Emilie Conrad’s wonderful 4 day Continuum workshop, “Moving Medicine” in Seattle, I have been immersed in house hunting, a daunting task and quite a challenge to retain some of the incredible dropped down and aware state I reached through the time with Emilie and my two weeks in April at Cortes. So much of what I’m learning is how to modulate and balance the “doings” that a busy active life in Vancouver demands, with the processes that drop me in that rich inner life which we all long for.

Since embarking on my six month sabbatical, I have wanted to write an update and let you all know how my experiment was progressing. However I haven’t felt the impulse. Then towards the end of my two week stay at our cabin on Cortes, it came upon me and I wrote and wrote. Following is what emerged. I will be returning to my counseling practice at the beginning of July and also sending out another message with my Summer Continuum schedule.

Cortes Cabin, Cortes Island —- April 24, 2008 —– LET IT BE

Running through so many of my thoughts and those of the authors I have been reading, comes the theme of being fully in the present moment. Think back to Ram Das’ first book in the “60’s, “Be Here Now” and of course, Eckhardt Tolle’s “The Power of Now” (made famous by the power of Oprah Winfrey). I’m sure each of you could think of many who speak to this. Then why is it so difficult? Deepak Choprah states that 97% of our thoughts are in the past (even thoughts of the future anticipate what will happen based on the past).

When we are fully in the present moment, it’s amazingly rich and peaceful. I have been reading Oriah Mountain Dreamer’s, “The Call” and she points out that the difficulty lies in our resistance to the reality of impermanence. Everything is always moving and changing – the basic tenant of Continuum being “We do not move, we are movement.”

So to be in the fluid, present moment, we look at the nature of water – always moving, shape shifting and changing depending upon the context – from solid, to fluid to vapour. As I watch the view from the windows of our cabin, I note that while everything I see is changing, it is the water in the ocean that changes and moves rapidly from moment to moment, combined with the air and the wind. I look away and back – it’s different. The other elements – the trees, the rocks, the earth are also changing but albeit so slowly, we can’t capture it with the eye. The creatures I see – the birds, the ducks and the squirrels, are also in constant motion. They fly in, swim in, run into my view and then they’re gone. They, like us, are composed mainly of water – dynamic, alive & moving.

In Continuum, we speak of the influence of our breath on the waters inside of us. Why do we resist these organic, biological rhythms and movements of change and cling so tenaciously to what is familiar, even if it is something we hate, are bored with, or cause us incredible pain??

When I first came to our island cabin for two weeks in April, I realized quite soon that my experience this time was quite different from the month I spent here in January. For one obvious reason, I had a whole month compared to two weeks. For another, there were many “to-dos” at the cabin this time – carpenter ants to be dealt with, hydro poles needing replacement, details to be attended to with the subdivision we are planning and so on and so forth it goes.

And Yes, it is spring and January was in winter, in the composting, hibernating time, while spring is beginnings, what was hibernating coming awake, alive and needing to be tended to.

The difference – in January, I became more immersed in and attentive to the spiritual and creative parts of myself, culminating in the deep, dropped down, slowed down and aware state, where, for example, my compulsive eating habits disappeared. I was aware of being hungry, enjoying what I ate and then completely stopping because I was full, no matter what was left on my plate. I even could have a half of a square of chocolate and put the rest back because I didn’t want it. For someone who’s been a compulsive eater since 13 years of age, this was an amazing, freeing and empowering example of how I was in touch with my needs.

During the month of January, I rested a lot, I read a lot, I meditated through Continuum & sitting for 20 minutes a day, I watched my beautiful ocean view with the diving winter ducks on the water, I had periods of days Continuum silence, I exercised every day, went for short walks, I played with painting & collage & photograph and some writing. I attended to the fire (a constant in January) and so on. But mainly, I practiced following impulse and watching my response both physically and emotionally without judgment but with love and compassion and curiosity. I practiced a loving, curious attentiveness towards myself and the situation I was in.

The overall result was totally amazing! I have never felt so peaceful, so rested, so alive, so connected to myself and other. The difference was obvious to myself as well as to others. A side benefit was that I also began to feel stronger physically and more energized.

Returning home in February after a horrendous snow storm where my neighbour had to tow my car out of the driveway, I realized that the intensity of this period would diminish but not disappear as I reentered my life (but not my work) in the city. I needed to put into practice (and still do) all the things I’ve learned over the years of exploration and to trust what I know. I am so grateful for the gifts and the resources that I have accumulated from various teachers and processes and to my community of friends, family and colleagues who support me and I them.

Even though I was alone most of the time in January, I never felt alone. When we drop down and surrender deeply into silent awareness, under the emptiness, we find the fullness of being connected to self (body, soul and spirit), to our community and to our planet and universe. So I feel at all times (well, mostly) that my loved ones are with me, like microtubules supporting the skeleton of my being.

These are the main practices that I carry with me:
(1)the loving & curious attentiveness while following impulse. It is important to learn to be still enough to really feel the impulse and to move & follow it while staying attentive to self and other (context), rather than moving from habit. However, if it is a habitual impulse to move (so much is) it is important to still follow it with loving, curious attention. Soon, you will begin to learn the difference from your response, physically, energetically and emotionally.

(2)to trust myself and practice what I know now, rather than searching the next “goodie” – method, book, workshop, job, relationship, etc.

(3)to never feel alone (I never am anyway – I am intrinsically interconnected and held by my larger “Self”) and to make use of my community of friends and family—to reach out when I’m needy (having the health problems I’ve had in the last few years, especially during my surgeries has helped me to learn the benefits of receiving as well as giving).

So here I am, in a good place at the end of these two weeks of retreat and reflection, and in a different place from the end of my retreat in January. “It’s all good.” And so it is much about knowing when and for how long one needs to withdraw from our busy lives, to tap into those inner resources, to that rich inner life that we have denied ourselves so much of our life. It’s taken me over 70 years to find the place I’m in now and then to keep finding it anew in each moment which involves letting go, making space for another possibility to come in. Combining this with holding myself as part of the greater whole, the community of beings —-

More letting go – I have sold my condo and will be moving at the end of June. I finally made the decision after many back & forths, finding it difficult to let go of my home that I love. However, once I was able to say, if it is meant to be, it will sell, and if I’m not meant to move it won’t, it sold to the first person who came to see it – we didn’t even have an open house!

So too with my beloved companion of seven years, my cat Emily, I went back and forth with finding a loving home for her, and finally again surrendered – if it was meant to be, it will be. Then a wonderful couple answered my ad on Cortes. They have a lovely 5 acre waterfront property, next to a park – sort of cat heaven! She’s most happy and settled in quickly. “Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be.”

We do what we can to invoke, invite the inner wisdom, then let go of expectations and be open to whatever, give it over to the Greater Being, to the Mystery.

With love and blessings, Doris

Greetings to All! Wonderful to see the buddings on the trees and plants and the warming temperatures to herald the coming of Spring to our part of the earth/planet: hibernation time opening to new seedings, new visions & dreams!

Wanted to let you know about two opportunities in our area, to work with the amazing “Miss Em” (as she is affectionately known to those of us who love her & revere her visionary teaching) – Emilie Conrad, Continuum’s founder. Please contact Doris Mosler (not me) for further information and registration: dhmosler@aol.com or 206-782-0120.

She will also be at Hollyhock this summer for those of you yearning to attend a residential retreat with Emilie at this very well-run centre on Cortes Island. Dates: August 24-29, 2008, Moving Medicine with Emilie Conrad. For further information & registration: registration@hollyhock.ca or 1-800-933-6339, www.hollyhock.ca.

With love & blessings, Doris

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

NEWSLETTER WINTER/SPRING 2008

Once again, it is the darkest time of the year and we are on the verge of the returning light at Solstice. I sit here with an ever settling feeling in my solar plexus, anticipating and planning for the six months personal retreat I will be beginning on New Year’s Eve as I travel up to our cabin on Cortes Island. I will spend the month of January there hopefully learning to quiet even more the noise in my system and listen to the rhythm and music and dance going on within.

For some time now, especially since my 70th birthday, I have been drawn to making some space for myself with no scheduling – wiping the slate as clear as possible to see what else may emerge. This feels like a hugh experiment, a major letting go of the work that has sustained me. Sharing and collaborating with each soul’s journey with my clients and with the participants in my Continuum classes & workshops has given me much joy and fulfillment over the past years. It is scary to let go of all of that for this period and it is also scary to have no income except for my pension!

What will the outcome be? I have no idea and no expectations. I enter into the mystery of not knowing what will emerge. Maybe nothing, or at least nothing new or earth-shattering. And then again, I may uncover some new piece of how to process my own personal health issues and some shifting in how or what I am focusing on in my work, in what I have to contribute to the world. We shall see.

In this endeavour, I ask for you to keep me in your thoughts & prayers as I will also hold you, the movement community in Vancouver.

When I return to Vancouver, on the second weekend in February, I will be attending, with much appreciation, the workshop of one of my most beloved and revered mentors & colleagues, Susan Harper. I hope to see some of you there.

Some of us in the Continuum community have also talked of perhaps holding a Continuum practice group in Vancouver. Let me know in February if you are interested. I will be out of email contact for the month of January.

Penny Allport, Continuum teacher in Steveston and the Sunshine Coast, will also be teaching during this time. You can check her newsletter @ www.swarainspiritations.ca.

In closing, I want to share with you a poem by Dawna Markova,

“The Gift”
I will not die an unlived life.
I will not live in fear
of falling or catching fire.
I choose to inhabit my days,
to allow my living to open me,
to make me less afraid,
more accessible,
to loosen my heart
until it becomes a wing,
a torch, a promise.
I choose to risk my significance;
to live so that which came to me as seed
goes to the next as blossom,
and that which came to be as blossom,
goes on as fruit.

December 17, 2007 With love & blessings,

Doris

Such a strange juxtaposition! So much of what I am learning is how to be in the present moment with its sensate richness and yet here I am planning and sending out my fall schedule. Such a dance, such a balancing act and both are necessary in order to be in this world.

Spontaneity and spontaneous moments – dropping down, letting go, emptying out, clearing the slate and waiting for the true impulse to arise from deep in the organism, a place that isn’t from an habitual learned mode, that isn’t coerced by a need to please or appease another – that’s the magic.

In the summer retreat day, as people were expressing how beneficial it is to move and be in this way with others, the question arose, “How does one keep this going, how to access this in our world that doesn’t recognize slowing down, organic responses and how to express ourselves from that place. In fact, our world seems to act in so many ways that are opposed to this – speeded up, disconnected from our bodies and from the somatic world. We are influenced by the field and the context in which we live. In fact, we are in relationship, self to other all the time.

In the book I’ve just read by Victor Chan about his journeys with the Dalai Lama, “The Wisdom of Forgiveness,” he speaks to the Dalai Lama’s interpretation of emptiness and in my understanding, it has to do with being in relationship and interconnected, so that there is no “I”, no centre – it’s empty!. This also resonates with Hubert Goddard’s vision. There is no centre, no “Who I am” – there is only “Where I am” – the relationship with other. The polarities, the orientation to ground and space and how we perceive creates and fills in what’s between, again an emptiness, always moving and changing.

Back to our question of how to maintain and access our deeper, inner organic connection to our outer world, I would suggest the following. As one practices and spends time in this realm, it gets more attractive than the habitual, cultural modes, so we begin to prefer it. In this way of being and expressing one is much more connected to and resonating with the organic levels of movement in the field, in the universe. So not only does our world affect us, we affect it!

In the words of Marianne Williamson, from Nelson Mandala’s inaugural speech, “ It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us…You’re playing small does not serve the world….We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us…and as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Except for a few beings, there is no such thing as being enlightened all the time. You lose it, you find it and with practice your ability to find it gets sharper and quicker. It is cumulative and in the resonating we tune into the micro-tubules of others who are moving/sensing in these ways. The field becomes enhanced and richer. As Jesus said, “When two or more are gathered—-“

With love & blessings, Doris

SUMMER GREETINGS! Summertime! When the living is easy!!! This time it really feels like summer. so amazing to feel the heat from the hot sun and the wonderful warm evenings that these hot days bring about, with the still long days of light extending the evening bliss. Sloooowing down even more as people who live in hot climates realize. Moving fast when it’s hot is just not comfortable! Time to spend outdoors, swimming in the ocean, walking the beaches and paths in the woods, taking in the full blooming of the summer plants and trees, sitting in the evening with a good book and a cool drink by your side.

Offering for the summer season: RETREAT DAY @ SOURCE POINT STUDIO, 3263 Heather St., between W16 & W17. SUNDAY JULY 29, 12-5pm. Investment: Sliding scale: $55-$75. Through Continuum’s intricate sound sequences accompanied by movement explorations, we connect to our inner, dynamic fluid selves. We inculcate environments designed to elicit new creative responses, like a “movement tour,” expanding our range of interaction and encouage new “plays” within our bodies and with the environment. We will interweave this creative sourcing into the play of our dreams and dreamtime images, ritual and expressive arts. THEME - Exploring the elements from within and connecting to “other” – how does the eros of water, fire, air and earth interact in the space, in the ordinary space of our lives and in the extraordinary spaces in our dreamtime world and in our creative expressions. Is there a carryover, a leaning and a gleaning from one to the other or do they remain fragmented, separate? We will explore how to bring them together and enrich our souls and our lives.

Emilie Conrad’s book, Life on Land, The Story of Continuum, is here at last! I am almost through my copy and am so moved by Emilie’s heart and gut wrenching telling of her life, her visions and how Continuum Movement came about through all of this. It’s an amazing story. She even has included in one of the Appendices, a Continuum practicuum for those of you who have been hungering for a written exposition of some of the Continuum processes. For more information and reviews: www.continuummovement.com/LifeonLand. Also just released by Bonnie Gintis, DO, Engaging the Movement of Life, Exploring Health and Embodiment Through Osteopathy and Continuum. Both books are being carried by Banyen Books in Vancouver.

With the lack of a weekly class schedule, I intend on luxurating in more free and easy time this summer. However, I am looking forward to attending a week long workshop on basics of “Portals of Perception” in July at Edenvale with Hubert Goddard and Susan Harper and the one-day workshop with Caryn McHose, author of “How Life Moves” and assistant to Hubert in his workshops. We have been exploring some of the exciting sequences from that book in my classes this year. And another state of bliss, in August I have booked our waterfront cabin on Cortes Island for a week. I was there for 5 days in June following my 70th birthday celebration and was once again carried so quickly into the deep peace that that heavenly place engenders in my psyche and soul.

Re fall classes and workshop: I am once again on the hunt for appropriate and reasonable rental spaces especially for evenings and weekends. I would really appreciate your letting me know if you have any ideas of spaces for me to check out.

Closing with excerpts of a birthday poem sent to me by Susan Harper, I extend these prayers to you:

May you work well and nest in the earth’s lap of belonging
May there always be a coin or two in your pocket.
May you dance wildly and know courage in the face of fear.
May you find your root voice and may your unique song
fill the air as clouds stream through the mountains.
May you rest in the vastness of spce and the depths of silence.

…may gentle spring and summer winds ripen what grows in your fields.

With love & blessings, Doris