Hello. It's been a little bit I gave myself a few weeks for my voice to rest. And honestly just feel called to read something out loud. And the tricky thing about, you know, sharing in this way is sometimes use, like, what's something new, what is the next thing I'm going to share? What is going to be? What's next, you know, just that feeling that like yearning for what's next. And I guess in a way to resist that, or challenge that, or invite a little more time to stay with something. I'm going to read again from underground, black feminist lessons from marine mammals, by Alexis Pauline Gums. And I kind of I mean, I think I knew this, but I just noticed today that in the back [of the book], there are activities to do by yourself with other people. And then in larger pods, so maybe not your like, direct, you know, circle, but like people that you come in contact with, often, maybe collaborate in ways that maybe you're interested in aligning your values a little bit more, you know, how to practice these things. That's what it is a lot of these things we're learning. We're learning that there's like another possibility another way to be. So this is kind of like a double practice for me. So this one, she, or they invite, mature their pronouns here. Gums invites us to listen to ourselves record meditations from the book. So maybe I did read that and, and subliminally did it. But now, I'm here. And there's a different piece that's really resonated with me. I never used to be a person that liked marked in their books. And this is like, a while ago, obviously, more than six years ago, I want it to look like clean or if someone else were to read it, maybe I wasn't ready to share what parts resonated with me. But now that I'm reading this one, I used black pen and yellow highlighter. And I have like those mini yellow posts in it's kind of like all over. So I love how many times I've read this and how many different times different parts arrived for me. So I'm going to read from Chapter 17. If you have the book, page 141. Maybe you'd like to read the digital copy. You can find that on my arena. Lavender Orange. I'll link it for you. So if you'd like to read along. That's cool. I just got out of meditation. So I'm feeling really grounded. But I thought maybe we could take a little bit of time and ground together before I read. So wherever you are, maybe you're seated, maybe you're standing maybe you're lying down wherever you are like to invite you to soften the gaze. Maybe even close the eyes allowing yourself just a moment to arrive to your container to your body whether that's its physical expression or emotional expression breathe
Okay, now that you're here, now that you've arrived, just allow yourself a few moments to feel held by the surface below you. A cue for three rounds of breath. So each inhale like you imagine yourself getting a little longer. little taller, maybe. And on each exhale, I love for you. So imagine that you're softening, maybe melting like butter to the surface beneath you. So finishing your exhale here, breathe it out
Inhale, filling space in the belly, the heart the throat. Exhale, let it out. Again inhaling feeling the expansion in the belly and the chest and the mouth go ahead sigh let it out
Last one together inhale filling length across the collarbones taking up just a little more space than you did before maybe you open the mouth the lips feel the breath escape.
feels good you can stay here saying deeply connected to this vessel we've just created give yourself space just to receive care from your lungs from the earth maybe even the sound of my voice the sound of your breath maybe even the world around you
you heard the cap that is your cue for a sip of water if you're also drinking water right now
so I'm going to talk about I'm going to read from this chapter called Slow down I was inspired to reread this chapter after my first okay I'm saying this with a lot of like deep deep deep deep gratitude my first encounter with a manatee and ocean the other day right here just a few I don't know measurements so a few 100 yards from where I'm sitting right now. I'm back of course but um but yeah, I want to read from this because although this this particular parts not about a man as he it's the lesson that I think was arriving for me so I have to share that with you. Starting at the top of page 142
before she goes underwater the harbor seal will slow her heart. Yes. From 120 beats per minute to three or four heartbeats per minute. But first she exhales. she is underwater. The oxygen she needs is the oxygen she has. Her blood breathes for her through her muscles as she descends as deep as 1500 feet deep enough for what she needs. to do, she slows her heart and listens. reaches, knows what if you could hear the world between your heartbeats slow down enough to deepen into trust How can I learn the skill to tell my heart to slow down, the pressure is coming. Slow down and we will have the air we slow down and trust the ocean underneath you and live in it the underneath that nourishes love, your blubbered warm your sleep, survival you among the most abundant seals. And then you come back out to the surface and you race your heart to meet the sky. You breathe again to feel the world. Your heart, the speed of recognition, your heart, the waking of your lungs. I love you so much. I will learn my changing heart. The way it slows and when it quickens the space between and all this closeness, I would breathe at the pace that requires love. I would breathe at the pace that love requires. Which is not always the same. But it's always here. My heart.
harbor seal lives half her life and water half her life on land. And through it all she has to know her heart. What it makes possible her breath and what it needs. And I can live this whole life from my heart. Despite all my impatience and my fear. I can know my heart. Like Love knows you. has always known ready exhale
