My hands (and body) listening, precious Sanne llistening

I will be giving a demo on Conscious Touch at the upcoming Equine Affaire expo at the Big E in Springfield, MA on November 8 at noon.  I hope you can come!

Conscious Touch integrates some of the principles of Somatic Experiencing (trauma recovery) touch with what I have been exploring most recently with awareness of fluids and breath. I will be focusing on reciprocity – being touched by what we are touching. Too often our touching is about doing, and we forget to be, and rest in the moment.

David Abram puts it this way:  “As breathing involves a continual oscillation between exhaling and inhaling,” he writes, “offering ourselves to the world at one moment and drawing the world into ourselves at the next, so sensory perception entails a like reciprocity, exploring the moss with our fingers while feeling the moss touching us back, at one moment gazing the mountains and at the next feeling ourselves seen, or sensed, from that distance…”

Touch is a sensory language that we speak with not only our hands, but our entire body. Touch is how we connect, explore, and soothe. Touch brings us into a visceral and immediate sensual relationship with the world around us. When coupled with our other senses, touching is one of the ways that we draw close, decode, and savor.

Please join me at Equine Affaire.  Besides my workshop, there are hundreds of events, seminars, classes, and demonstrations with terrific instructors and clinicians..

On Friday night we suddenly lost our beloved Sanne to a catastrophic colic. He was 21, and had been with us since he was 3.  His name, Sanne (Sa-na) means Lily in Dutch. I liked to call him Sanne, the Lily of Holland.

He was/is our angel, guide, dance partner, co-therapist, fabulous ride and precious friend. Our dear friend JoAnn Eccher wrote on Facebook that she is picturing him bathed in celestial light and moving toward a speedy rebirth.  What I am feeling is the ache, the waves of grief, buoyed by my love and gratitude for the blessings of his many soulful teachings.

There are so few words.  But there are these images.  Most taken by either his other mama Pam White or Jeff Anderson.

Thank you my beautiful, blessed boy.  Thank you.