Here's an old Pandemic post from July 7, 2020
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Collaboration has its risks. It requires sacrifice, emotional intelligence and clarity of purpose. As with any endeavor, vision and leadership are key to successful implementation. My understanding is that only through example is it possible to lead. If I resonate with another’s example I am encouraged to collaborate, and trust in the insight and gifts they are offering. What is "Value in action"? Surely it requires an exchange of energy, the gift of presence, and the devotion of time.
When the "being-that-is" will communicate a message, they tend to be clear messages. Sometimes I have experienced these messages in triple form, and rapidly following one another.
Recently, during a restorative evening yoga class, I had such a reveal. We were in a deep floor pose, relaxed, and my mind as usual was wondering over all the things. In the pose, but mostly in my mind, brain thinking that 'nothing could see or catch me' within that inward exit from the collective knowing. Suddenly, a very large and obnoxious phone alarm started going off from the storage cubbies at the back of the room. The girl at the end of my row jumped up and there were the sounds of frantic scuffle and shuffle as she desperately tried to get to her errant phone ASAP and shut if off, and stop the disturbance! The adrenaline rush in the room was palpable, both from her scramble and the startled Consciousness-es in the room.
At the instant that the alarm was stopped, a fire engine started to whine just outside the studio windows. This was a much louder sound and any thought or attempt to focus on the teacher’s calm voice was lost in the startle. After half a minute of this loud siren, the truck began to pull away and we all anticipated a “calm return” to our quietude and practice finally...but no! Just as the sound was fading, a very large jet plane passed over the roof, and seemed to be only 5 feet above it judging by the noise level, further pulling us all into the apparent roller coaster of sounds we had been thrust into! With each new bombardment of noise, only breath kept me from collapsing into a pile of side-splitting laughter on my mat, the hilarity increasing exponentially with each new trumpeted message.
“I am and will speak to you. You think you as an individual have some degree of control over when and where these messages come to you, you think you can turn me down, off, over? And yet with the turn-turn I will continue to speak these messages in the timing and way I will. This is my divine directive. Listen.”
Photo 7-7-20: Detail of Kohala Mural Project, from the "Punia" panels