Mayan Dream Musings

I just finished a very large project for Healing Touch and now they go into their annual international conference. I was privileged to know Janet Mentgen, the founder of Healing Touch. She carried the vision and the drive which allowed energy work to become mainstream. In a society which values the intellect over all things when talking about illness, Janet had the courage to speak about spiritual life. She transcended any particular religion, and thus stayed open to all peoples. She did the research which allowed a grounded science to support work with the energy body. Thus, she opened the door for nurses and doctors to embrace a larger vision of healing. By transcending any particular religious dogma, she also opened the door for most religions to incorporated Healing Touch into their own healing ministries. She allowed work with the human energy system to become mainstream.

Janet also brought an educational structure into place and certified at various levels so that people could enter into healing touch training with safety. This structure has grown and matured into eight (or nine) countries.

Janet died last year, but she has left a powerful legacy, and I feel very privileged that she invited The Beloved, and The Journey of Joy albums to be a part of her life, and to be a part of Healing Touch.

My Customers….

I love all of you who visit this website. We are people who are working together in this world to bring forward a larger vision and potential for the human being. We are doing this through healing touch, or art, or music, or massage therapy, or Reiki, or business administration, or teaching, or any other form of service.

I love all of you who visit this website. We all are struggling with various life issues, but we stay the course. We do not do it “perfectly” but we continue to strive for our potential. We are opening to the unknown. We love and are loved.

I love all of you who visit this website. We are walking together in this world on the path of consciousness. We care about this world and live in compassion. We assist one another in love.

Self-employment as a musician is such a challenging enterprise! I find myself working the strangest hours and my sleep patterns are changing. Middle of the night seems to be a very creative time. It’s so beautiful at night. The moon light (no matter what it’s phase) is predominent. The frogs, crickets, cicadas layer their beautiful song in three part harmony.
I can hear trains from far away. The air feels clearer. Everything feels more open to spiritual experience.

It has always been my dream to be able to create without any constraints of time. Now I have that! There are no excuses and no complaints. The challenge is to release writing, music, etc. unconditionally. I want to put limits and parameters on what I create and how people receive it. Sometimes I forget that creativity comes from the unknown and it is simply that to me…unknown until I write it or play it.

THE WEB:
This last week I have been moving a large creative project through the process of publication and shipment. From this project, I realize how much my own work affects the lives of others. The person at the CD duplicating company is dealing with a high pressure job (I remember that from the VERY recent past!). Since things were not moving exactly as I wished, I could add to his high pressure, or make his day easier by my own focus. Susan, my wonderful graphic designer, was also dealing with difficulties with the process of the cover. How could I best support her own creativity? The customer that I am producing this project for will be blessed by a good project, excellent music, and a help to his/her own business…..or not depending on what I do. This is the weaving.

I was never so aware of this dynamic until this week.

THE BELOVED. The Beloved is music which evokes the energy of relationship. It has a lot of movement, and it is joyful. It reaches out into the world with uplifting and arching piano. The melody of the first movement of the mantra is in G major, the key of the throat and of creativity. The second movement moves into the root, the source of fire, and the erotic. The final movement is firmly grounded in the key of F, the heart center. Relationship is the weaving of life force amongst all of us. This creative weaving is the ultimate healing energy. Creativity! No wonder The Beloved is used for healing organizations all over the world, and for creative projects.

FINALLY…. the challenge for me is to stay in the unknown and not move into the smaller space of consensus reality.
Quite a challenge for this musician!

August is a month of anniversaries for this family. We have Jason and Leah on August 13, Andy and Lysa on August 17, and Walt and I on August 19. Congratulations to all! I can’t believe that it will be 39 years of marriage for Walt and I this coming Saturday. That means next year will be 40 years! I thought 40 year anniversaries were only for old people.
What happened? Anyway, Walt and I are still very much in love and are looking forward to 50 more years. That will make us geezers of 110 or so. (”Honey, where did I put my teeth?”)

Monday I woke up and couldn’t walk. The pain in my left hip was intense and my leg would not support me. Where did that come from? I went to John Alter, my chiropractor, to find out that my hip socket had been jammed for over a week, and as a result, my nerves and muscles were swollen and inflamed. So, ice and Advil were prescribed. Meanwhile, I am completing a major project for one of my clients, and so staying in bed is not even an option. Monday night I couldn’t sit, or lay down. I could stand, but couldn’t walk around. So sleeping was somewhat of an issue. Tuesday, I expected to be all better, but injury doesn’t work that way. I spent much of the day on the road taking care of this special project, which had to be at Discmakers overnight Tuesday. By evening, I was walking across the UPS parking lot, and the man comes running out saying “are you all right? Can I help you?” I had a lot of empathy for people without all their body parts working well. It’s amazing how much we need our hips (and every other part of our body). Walt has been doing energy work/body work on me twice a day since Monday.Walt, thank you! Thank you! I fully expect to be well tomorrow. However…it’s now 12:45 AM and I am still up because I can’t sleep.

Patience is NOT one of my virtues!

In spite of temporary pain, I am still extremely happy to be self-employed and in the business of creating music.
The more I listen to the world news, the more I know that my music is important. So are the creative endeavors of every person who is willing to make the effort. I saw a bumper sticker: “The world belongs to those who show up”.

This has been one of those “whoosh!” days. Yesterday, Walt and I spent the day together just having fun. We went to the Salamonie State Park and Forest in the morning (dodging storms!) and saw Pirates of the Caribbean in the afternoon (during the storms). Then out to supper for Indian food. Days like this provide the fuel for days like today where “whoosh” breaks out and I work from beginning to end of the day. However, I am constantly grateful that I have this wonderful music, and the extraordinary people who are connecting with me through my music.

In my few spare moments today, I was reflecting on how I create music. There is so little of the mental in this process.
I find myself soaking up nature, and sounds, and sacred space such as Mayan ruins. Then I am almost compelled at some point to play music from my interior into the outside world. Always I have some idea of the feeling and the color of this music, but seldom actually know the melodies or the harmonies until I have entered into the sacred space that supports the composing and performing of my music. Then all of my technical expertise, and my spiritual world come together to support the birthing of the music. After it is birthed, often it goes through stages of growth. I take the music that is newly composed and meditate and walk with it. As it changes my body and my energy field, the music also often goes to the level of its potential. It’s such a joyful and profound process for me.

During the last ten years, I have also created soul music for specific people based on this same process. I begin to connect with the person’s soul and their purpose. Eventually, I know that the music is ready to emerge and I go into the recording studio and the music creates.

My performance also comes from this same space. What a “whoosh” performance is!

The more I read about composers, the more I know that this is a common process of creation. We may use different words to describe the creative process, but if music is to be created, this is the universal process.

I have also come to deeply appreciate the training in energetic work which I have received over the last twenty years.
It is similar to Healing Touch or to Reiki, although a little different form. This ability to see, understand, feel energy fields and the chakra system, has certainly grounded my musical composition and performance.

The other important componant for all of my music, is the physical exercise that I now have time to do. I love it and as my body grows more vital, my music and my connection to people grows more vital.

Well….enough musing on this for now. The hot weather has broken, and it is fabulous outside. So….out I go!

A dear friend, the one of the best musicians I know, asked me to write an endorsement for her upcoming release.
I love her work! I didn’t want this to come out of a superficial “mind” space, so I spent time today outside, letting nature help me find the words for this endorsement. I went to the zoo, and spent a couple of hours in the rainforest, soaking up the sounds of rainforest birds, waterfall, green all around and super humid. I am SO homesick for the rainforest of Central America. Then to lunch with a good friend, and back outside with the writings and meditations of my musician friend. What a wonderful, transformative way to spend a day. Hopefully it will also result in a super awesome endorsement. My musician friend deserves no less! Now…onward to the group meditation tonight with the music of Kiva.

Man am I out of shape. Years of sitting behind a desk, traveling in a car from Fort Wayne to South Bend and surrounding cities, and falling into bed at night….all have left me with the body of a VERY OLD person. So, even though I am now an official card carrying member of AARP (yes, friends I am), I am not ready to let my body fall into dust.
So these days have been full of walking, working on the bicycle, and the ab machine. On a more serious note: I cannot perform to the level that you would want in a concert unless my body is strong. My good friend and mentor, Conrad Satala, has developed a series of meditations that work with the deep body and soul connection. This goes one level beyond mind/body connection, and the exercise I am doing and the meditation go together to reweave this body.

When I walk outside, or sit with my work outside, I am taken up with the cicada sound and the various bird sounds, and the colors of the greens. One of my new pieces HAS to have cicada in it. How can such a small creature make such a huge sound? Why is it so comforting? It’s ironic that this small creature doesn’t live very long in the outside world.
It does it’s song, mates, and pretty soon is gone.

The Musings Newsletter went out, and I am now getting the chance to reconnect with people that I haven’t talked to for a while. How very cool!

Evidentally my new granddaughter, Caeli Ann, is growing like a weed. She is now about five weeks old and absolutely beautiful. My other three granddaughters are going into school in a week, so I am being e-mailed with stories of school shopping, and other adventures. Having 8-11 year old girls in your life is a sure way to stay giggly….no getting too serious allowed!

Beverly.

Well everyone, Thursday and Friday I spent about 18 hours getting the Musings Newsletter folded and stuffed into envelopes, along with the other letters, etc. I had to ask myself “Who is your really awful boss, that would make you work 18 hours (1:30 in the morning) on a project to meet a deadline? ” Well, since I am now officially self-employed, I am my own awful boss!

However, it was SO exciting to be getting out Musings again, and to have a new format that I just love.

Otherwise, we at Mayan Dream Productions are simply enjoying the meeting of new people, and spending time with customers we have had for a long time. That is probably the best part of being in the music business…..getting to meet so many fascinating people.

Yesterday, I was in the checkout lane at the grocery store, and as usual had my cell phone with its toll free line with me.
Lo and behold, I received a phone call from California with a story and an order. So….left the check out lane, parked my cart in the vegetables, and talked to a wonderful person and wrote an order down on the back of an envelope.
Obviously, I need to move my order forms from my car, into my purse! But it was just fun to have this conversation when I least expected it.

Now….onward to the next adventure.