And warm, not just from being snug in the cozy Victorian bed and breakfast, the Fresh Start, run by sisters, Innis and Sheila, not far from the bridge on North Street and the sights of the Maritimes harbor front. The January weather of Nova Scotia has gone from a balmy mild wind to snow and frigid cold, so sharp it makes my lungs take notice.
Inside at the Fresh Start, our group, led happily by me, delved deeply into gaining expertise in therapeutic skills using Full Body Presence: Grounding and Healthy Boundaries. Full Body Presence is like the glue that holds the pieces together for both client and practitioner or caregiver, when layers of trauma begin to unwrap or when strength and stamina are challenged in situations of sudden injury or loss.
In reality we need this glue, that I call mother duck grease to handle the grind of ordinary daily stressors, and to open our eyes to our emergent truth: that we each have the capacity to live enormously compassionate, expressive, satisfying, creative lives. Seven women from across Canada met in the Victorian parlor of the Fresh Start, with huge bay windows looking over naval academy property and supervised by an enormous yellow cat named Tigger.
Much to the chagrin of our hosts, Tigger greeted us, midmorning, proudly with a yowl that announced his present, a live mouse, who promptly ran for cover under the drapes of our center table. The mouse was rescued and escorted to his or her fate outside, while Tigger sniffed and smelled under the table and between our chairs, searching for his lost treasure. Reassured that this was extremely rare, I thanked the big amber fellow for his efforts on behalf of the physiotherapists, nurse, day care owner, and skilled Craniosacral practitioners gathered in his domain.
Others can hold a steady presence for others, but are not so skilled in being home for themselves. We are all different. I love sharing this four day class with groups, especially the mother duck grease story. In our group, we settled into listening to the internal parts of ourselves that have a healthy dose of mother duck grease: where we rest easy, and feel spacious and open. And we listened and observed where the grease was missing or incomplete: the empty, knotted, painful swirls inside our skin.
