Developing Practice

My work is a practice.  Its taken me years to realize this, this thing which I have always known.

No wonder it’s been a many-stage path to arrive here.  No world I have been in, has started from here, in practice, as an end in itself.

Its been my own life, coming to terms with my own proclivities — accepting them, loving them, knowing them — for me to arrive here.  And there are worlds here… coming home to what I’ve always known.

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A practice… It is something in the solitary, coming from ‘me’ sense.  Its something in the simplicity and repetitive container of doing/being within it.  It is something in the ‘offering’ – what you provide and give to others from a practice:

There is a sense of reciprocity, relationship.  A service, built on skill, time, presence.  You interrelate; you may have more experience and thus be ‘giving’ the service, but the lines are blurred, both learn from seeing the other.

The energetic quality is thrilling, so different, a giant exhale — the meaning of practice spans nearly all I do now, a gift of alignment: my work, my relationships, my self-care, my meditation and prayer, my writing, even my ukulele.

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A practice brings us back to ourselves everyday.  It immerses us in experience.  It is something you do over-and-over, goes forever.  It is non-verbal, energetic (finally, a body-led, experiential world).  It is a place you come back to, a container you create.  It is something you bring with you wherever you go.  You don’t own it; you own nothing.

It is the starting point of taking on the role of a teacher.  Starting to be one who self-generates. You teach not as one in charge, but as a participant, someone who may be further on this path, but who also gains from doing with others.

Time, heart, and practice.  So great to arrive, at the beginning…  Who knew this is what I would say?