During our Solstice weekend at Penny’s in June, I found myself revisiting aspects of surrender, of allowing my inner body wisdom to flow through me. Emilie used to say, preparation is so important, and that is so as how I prepare determines so much of the nature of the surrender/dissolve. Then I get out of my own way and just receive, a humongous undertaking! This poem by Rainer Maria Rilke expresses this so poignantly and beautifully.

I believe in all that has never yet been spoken,
I want to free what waits within me
so that what no one has dared to wish for

streaming through widening channels
into the open sea.

Since Emilie’s passing, there is much shifting, reflecting and sorting occurring as to how the future of Continuum will unfold. It is a time of transition which in so many ways can feel chaotic. We play with the bio-cosmic orbit, in which form (the gel state) begins to dissolve and slowly through the dissolve (sol) state, new forms emerge. The tide moves in and the tide moves out as with our breath – on the inhale we take in form and on the exhale, we dissolve the form and another new breath comes. 10,000 times a day, with our breath, we reenact this profound biological mystery. Continuum in its essence will prevail, exactly how no one knows as we continue to access the primary source of our being, moving, innovating and being present to it all.

A group of Continuum teachers gathered on Vashon Island at the beginning of August at Robert Litman’s new and incredibly beautiful 17 ½ acre property, Tesoro de Luz. As a community, we reflected together, moved together, cooked and sang together. This place will be a wonderful adjunct for us as Continuum workshops will be happening there and it is nearby! The first workshop offered there is “Words and Waves,” with Rebecca Mark and Linda Chrisman. (Details below & on my website.) Rebecca and Emilie taught together for many years and Linda will be partnering with Rebecca to bring together the creative processes of Continuum and the movement of words. Robert also taught with Emilie for many years and is offering a series of Sundays in Seattle (details also below & on my website).

In closing, I wish to share these lines from a song by Rita MacNeil (who also passed 2 years ago), They keep running through my head and I find them so meaningful:

Have you even felt like a wick in a candle
Part of the question and part of the answer
Part of the mystery far greater than me or you?

May you enter into the mystery of your life with questing and compassion,

With love & blessings, Doris

August 19, 2014

Offerings for this season:

CONTINUUM MOVING MEDICINE classes begin with a free introductory session on Friday, September 26th, from 11am – 2pm @ Yoga on 7th, 156 E 7th. Please register for this class with Doris either by phone 604-254-0147 or email: doris@dorismaranda.com.

Ongoing series follows for 10 weeks from October 3rd – December 5th. Investment $300, early discount by September 19th & underemployed $250. Send $50 deposit to Doris @ 115-2033 Triumph St., Vancouver V5L 4X3 or by email transfer.

Drop ins $30 (no drop ins after the first class on October 3rd unless you have Continuum experience.)

DEEPENING INTO CONTINUUM weekend – Saturday, November 1st, 6:30pm-9:30pm & Sunday November 2nd, 10am-5pm @ Inner Evolution Healing Centre, 3263 Heather St., between W 16 & 17. Investment: $150, $125 underemployed & early discount by October 17th.
(Continuum experience is required.)

We will come together Saturday evening, develop a format and later move into our individual silent play, maintain the silence when leaving and re-entering in the morning and then emerging from the silent time in the afternoon. The silence is always part of the Continuum depth retreats and referred to as the “all-nighters.” It truly is amazing how much this format with the silence can assist in the slowing down and dropping down which is so necessary to connect to the worlds beneath the world.

RETREAT DAY – DESCENT INTO SOUL – Sunday December 14th – 12-5PM
@ Inner Evolution Healing Centre, 3263 Heather St. Investment: $80, underemployed & early discount by November 30th, $65.

In these difficult and dark times in our world (which we see reflected in many personal lives), our souls are calling us to gather and to deepen into ourselves.. “If you’re falling fast, the only way to react is to dive down deeper.” The soul brings the healing, the reconnecting to the eternal world, the world behind the world, touching once again into the mystery.

In this workshop, we will explore slowing down and descending into our inner darkness through the tools and processes of Continuum, ritual and expressive arts, to create an incubating chamber for new connections and possibilities to emerge.

BREATHING WAVES: A CONTINUUM SERIES with Robert Litman, in Seattle. Saturdays, 10am-1pm, September 27, October 25 & November 22. Questions: Robert : 206-567-4029 or robert@thebreathablebody.com. Registration: Karen Clay, 206-329-7046 or mailto:karenclaysoma@gmail.com.
(Details: www.dorismaranda.com/workshops.)

WORDS and WAVES: a Continuum based workshop with Rebecca Mark and Linda Chrisman. (Continuum experience required.) November 7-9, Vashon Island, WA.
To register: contact Linda Shrisman 510-507-2903, linda@somatic wisdom.com.
(Details: www.dorismaranda.com/workshops)

Warm fluid summer greetings!

(Please note event on August 31st – see below)

Since Emilie’s passing on April 14 of this year, I have been so aware of how many beings who have been influential in my life, have passed from our earth planet in the past year: Maya Angelou on May 23 of this year, Rita MacNeil in April 2013, and Susan Harper’s Mother, Mary Jane, in May. It feels like a potent time to reflect on what dying, leaving our earthly body means to me. It also brings to mind what exit I personally may be heading towards as I celebrated my 77th birthday this June. In every moment, there is the interplay between beginnings and endings but I sense an increasing turning inward with the passing years as the exit looms.

June has been a full month, with Sam Berne’s workshop on Visual Alchemy at the beginning of June, tending to the interplay of how we really see, how our eyes reflect everything that’s going on in our bodies, and how our beliefs and attitudes come into play. With so much enthusiasm, Sam will be back next June. Then a weekend on Galiano with my women’s movement group, followed last weekend by the retreat, Deepening into Light, immersing ourselves into Continuum and the creative process with a long period of silence on the Sunshine Coast. This week I go to my heavenly retreat at our waterfront cabin on Cortes Island for a time to integrate and digest all of the above, or at least to continue on with that process.

Another event is planned to honour Emilie Conrad and the legacy she has bequeathed to us. Before she died, she requested that there be a world-wide dive on August 31, September 1st and 2nd. On August 31st, there will be an afternoon gathering from 1pm to 6pm at the Full Circle Studio, 1183 Odlum Dr., in Vancouver (E of Clark Dr and S of Venables). We will have a 2 hour Continuum dive at the beginning, followed by a film that was made a few years ago, called “Em Moves.” The film was made by her long term friend and videographer, Hanna Hetting, and is beautifully done with vignettes showing Emilie moving, teaching, performing, and walking around the streets of Brooklyn with Hanna where she grew up. There will not be a formal event here on September 1 & 2, although I would encougage you to mark that time on you r own in some way. Teas will be available and admission will be by donation. Please RSVP as space is limited.

My fall schedule has been posted on my website and a Fall Newsletter will be coming out at the end of the summer with further details.

Hoping to see you soon and bathe with you in the healing Moving Medicine waters of Continuum,

With love and blessings, Doris

June 25, 2014

You are invited to a Celebration of Emilie Conrad’s Life

Emilie and I at Haven 1993

Emilie Conrad, founder of Continuum Movement, and my beloved teacher, mentor and friend, transitioned out of this earthly plane, on 04/14/14. An auspicious time, a time of a lunar eclipse, for a beautiful and incredibly inspiring visionary and healer, to pass on, continuing her journey to wherever her soul is taking her. She leaves behind a legacy of truly immense dimensions which will be carried on by the Continuum community of teachers and practitioners of this process which she began 45 years ago. Her spirit lives on in us, inspiring us to seek beyond the ordinary, habitual modes which we have learned through our enculturation and personal histories, to reach for the unreachable, unknowable, awesome mystery, to become more of who we really are but do not yet know. She brought shamanic wisdom in teaching us to delve into self discovery, self referencing and self sustainability through trusting in the body’s innate wisdom and ability to connect to the bio-intelligence of the universe, thus enabling us to expand and grow.

Delving into the sensual, the erotic, the esthetic and the stillness with Emilie, has brought me to levels of pleasure, joy, peace and acceptance that I have never before realized in my life. I am full of gratitude for how much I have received from Emilie and Continuum (to me they are synonymous) in the past 25 years, and also of sadness that I no longer can pick up the phone to call her or be with her physically. She was always available to whoever reached out to her and gave so unstintingly of her loving presence and her gifts.

I will dearly miss her dramatic and arresting presence, her constant devotion to innovating and exploring new dimensions in the human unfolding, her wit and wisdom in connecting with what was in the news and current to our world, her stories and the way she could articulate and make everything come to life and make so much sense and her ability with those piercing eyes to see into one’s soul and embodied psyche.

Dear Emilie, I grieve for our loss in your passing and I applaud how much you have given to the world throughout your life. I love you so much and I send you on your way with my heart’s blessing and tears of sadness. Words cannot express how intensely grateful I am for your being in this world and in my life, Doris

 

Greetings on this lovely warm spring day! I am always amazed at the persistence and resiliency of our world as every spring, the tender new sprouts of the plants that have been in a deep sleep through the winter months begin their re-entry into the warmth of the sunlight. So inspiring and so necessary to remember that what is in potential can come to fruition.

On the other side, reminders of the fragility of life and how we never know from one day to the next what will happen. One of our dear friends about a week ago found her partner who had gone up for a peaceful nap, no longer in this realm. A beautiful passing for him but such a shock and much grief for her. The emerging unexpected faces us with challenges and struggles in our response to these life changing events.

With love & blessings for the new sproutings to emerge in your life & for your grieving for what is passing, Doris

April 1^st. 2014

Coming events this season:

Still a few spaces in the retreat day Revisioning, the Art of Perceiving, on April 12, 12-5pm at Inner Evolution Healing Centre.

Continuum ongoing classes will resume for 6 weeks at Yoga on 7^th for the month of May & into June, May 2- June 13 (no class May 23) – 11am-2pm. You may attend the first class on a drop-in basis as an introductory class if you are new to Continuum and of course, you can register for the series. $180 for the series, early discount by April 25^th & underemployed $150. Drop in $30 (no drop in after the first class unless you have Continuum experience.)

Susan Harper will be in Seattle on May 3 & 4 for her workshop. Awakening Heart Fire into Living Dreams.

Contact: Doris Mosler    206-782-0120    dhmosler@gmail.com

See flyer.

Sam Berne (www.drsamberne.com) will be in Vancouver for a free talk at Banyen on Wednesday, June 4th, from 6:30-8pm. His new book, I Sense, At Play in theField of Healing will be available & he will sign copies after the talk. His workshop, Visual Alchemy: Depth Exploration of the Body-Eye Connection, will be held on June 6-8, @ VST, UBC.

Contact: saskias@telus.net, 604-926-7398

See flyer.

On the summer Solstice weekend, June 20-22, Penny Allport & I will be offering a three day residential retreat, Deepening into Light, an Immersion intoContinuum Movement and Creative Process, at her Dream Lodge on the Sunshine Coast. There is a maximum of only 10 participants so register early to reserve a space.

See flyer.

 

 

 

 

Deepening Into Light

An Immersion in Continuum Movement and Creative Process

with Doris Maranda and Penny Allport

Friday, June 20 – Sunday, June 22, 2014
Dream Lodge, Wilson Creek, Sunshine Coast

Through the resources and processes of Continuum Movement, perceptual inquiry and ritual space, join us for a shared time of moving, creating and being in the embrace of nature, silence, and others who are called to deepen into an embodied sense of lightness at this potent time of the year.

A container is offered to serve a collective field of movement inquiry, and to nourish into fruition, the buds of what is gestating in the deep well of our being.  Extended silence offers time to slow down, engage in natural rhythms, both inner and outer, and to allow movement and meaning to unfold. Space and supplies for expressivity through paint, paper, collage and other creative portals is offered.

Doris Maranda & Penny Allport combine over forty-three years of experience diving in the deep well of Continuum Movement. See their websites for more info:    www.dorismaranda.com    www.pennyallport.com

Hours:  Begins at 11:00 a.m. on Friday & ends at 3:00 p.m. on Sunday (All-Nighter, period of extended silence, begins Friday evening).  Experience in Inquiry-based movement practice required.

Investment: $275.00.   Early discount by May 20, 2014  and underemployed $250.00.  Class limited to 10 participants.  To register:  doris@dorismaranda.com  604 254 0147 or pennyallport@gmail.com 604 803 4607.

Accommodations:  shared room/tenting & kitchen facilities available – contact: pennyallport@gmail.com   All meals responsibility of individual.

Click here for printable flyer.

A family of souls gather as the whispers of fading sun turn into an inner light.
As Earthtime recedes into creative rest, so we, echo with the same.
A chorus of restorative energies sing through us
as the soon-to-be buds of inspiration
germinate in the welcoming dark. (From a Winter Solstice Intensive with Emilie Conrad)

In June 1989, I arrived at Mount Madonna for my first dive into the Continuum Movement waters. Little did I know at the time that it would be a life changing event and something that I would be involved in for the rest of my life. Now, almost 25 years later, I continue to learn from, be enriched and inspired by this somatic movement work. Of course, we all know that we can’t learn a musical instrument, nor a new language overnight, yet somehow it is more difficult to commit long term to a process like Continuum where one is tuning into a totally different alternate system in our bodies, minds and souls. I am always amazed when a participant believes they have “done Continuum” after one series of classes! Meditators and Yogis know how much of a commitment, time and patience are needed to grock & then to learn from such a process.

While I was practising Continuum this morning, I realized that while I struggle so much with many “I can’ts” – physical limitations due to the effects of post polio, there is also this beautiful place that I can access which to me is sensual, erotic, life enhancing and pleasurable. So as well as time and patience, it is essential that a practice be pleasurable, something that allows one to ride through the struggles and the sadnesses into the realm of pure sensual pleasure, joy and peace. Then I can enter into the “Yes, I cans” which are there for me to inhabit along with the grieving for the losses that are also relevant and need tending to.

The spirit of Nelson Mandela speaks poignantly to the “Yes I cans,” as who but he could imagine not only forgiving his enemies after all he and the South African people had been through, but becoming partners with them. As he spoke in his inaugural address, “We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us. …..and as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give others permission to do the same.” May his soul’s light continue to inspire us to dwell in what is possible even though at times it is hidden from us. May we find the way to lift the veils, “to be in deep relationship with life, to be truly erotic, engaging the whole body, heart, mind, spirit and flesh, calling the inner life into play, where we are pulled to something stronger and more vital than simply ourselves.” (Terry Tempest Williams)

Following is my schedule for the winter/spring session. Immersion Continuum weekend workshop is in the planning stages, for either May or June, hopefully on the Sunshine Coast. In addition, Cherionna will be returning to Vancouver, March 22/23 for a Continuum weekend workshop, “Fluid Attachment.” Check out her website for details: www.cherionna.com.

With love and blessings for the Winter Solstice & the holiday season! Doris