Thanksgiving Practice

There are so many different ways that I meditate. As a reiki practitioner, I have a practice for giving myself reiki. I work with mantra, healing sounds, ringing bowls, guided meditation, vipassana meditation, walking meditation, laughter yoga, other yoga, and many other methods.

Considering I have so much to choose from, it keeps my practicing fresh and alive. I pick and choose what works for me. Often this means that I have diligence for a period of time using a particular method. In this area of my life, I don’t have a specific teacher, but many teachers. About 3 days ago I returned to my beloved horse stance that I first used in Kung Fu a decade or so ago from my Pai Lum Tao. This started to translate into me practice more Qi gong. My favorite go-to is “polishing the stone.” It’s also called “polishing the table,” but it’s the same. The previous practice I learned from another school. I’ve included the video below for your reference, but I hadn’t seen it before today. Same with the video above, which I think is a great introduction to moving like water. Today, on Thanksgiving, I created a movement that’s perfect for my needs and I named it “bamboo swaying in the wind.” I’ll be working with this new Qi Gong I taught myself for a little while, and so far it feels amazing!

There are so many ways to look at abundance and prosperity. In times of challenge and pain, grief from loss, and sadness it can be very difficult to see even the tiniest amount of hope. We must be humble and remember that circumstances are fleeting. They change, they are subject to the ebbs and flows and the vicissitudes of life. What I love about Qi Gong, is that it’s a gift you can give yourself, and you don’t need any supplies but your own breath and movement. It’s a way to cultivate Qi which is the what the entire universe is made up of——-talk about abundance!

Image by Qijin Xu from Unsplash

Blogiving for thanks, pie

Unsplash photo
Give Thanks from Unsplash
Image from Unsplash

In the deep fall
don’t you imagine the leaves think how
comfortable it will be to touch
the earth instead of the
nothingness of air and the endless
freshets of wind? And don’t you think
the trees themselves, especially those with mossy,
warm caves, begin to think
of the birds that will come — six, a dozen — to sleep
inside their bodies? And don’t you hear
the goldenrod whispering goodbye,
the everlasting being crowned with the first
tuffets of snow? The pond
vanishes, and the white field over which
the fox runs so quickly brings out
its blue shadows. And the wind pumps its
bellows. And at evening especially,
the piled firewood shifts a little,
longing to be on its way.
~ Mary Oliver

I’m grateful for this blog and all the marvelous people I have met via blogging. I appreciate our connections, and I love reading your blogs. The reflection and time that I spend reading each story, poetry, fiction, listening to music, viewing art, photography, reading about joy and sorrows, it all adds so much to my life and makes me feel abundant. Doing Nano Poblano challenge this month helped me to realize how much I gain from just making a post, any post. Though, there are many times I think I’ll run out of material, or not make it to the chopping block to prepare a little wordpress dish. I offer you my gratitude to each of you for being who you are. Wherever you live, a day of gratitude is every day. Please enjoy your piece of virtual pie!

Photography from Unsplash

Roots

Ka Malana Photography

connected in the rudraksha forest

i meditated and traced back into my blood lines

the joys and sorrows of all who came before me

drawn full into my body.

navigating along a nano-sized boat along these channels

I explored my arteries, arterioles, and capillaries;

when I reached my heart, I leapt out of the boat

and dove deep into my left ventricle, swam for an hour.

now, I don’t exist as the meat and flesh of walking

human-normal.

life of bamboo

Ka Malana Photography
Ka Malana Photography
Ka Malana Photography

To withstand an earthquake,

arcing in the wind,

dancing mysterious music

percussive, clinking, bell-like, windy reed

to become so useful as wood, paper, or diaper

disposable fork or spoon, paper-towel.

Life as One of the four nobles, 1500 in species,

powerful, sheltering, in just 7 years,

assemble raft or scaffold any structure, move along

and usher water

grow, once cut re-grow,

improving your roots, absorbing nutrients,

even becoming a vase.

However hollow, always full of utility and movement,

so to become your life,

to become a proverb, and a philsophy

to live as mighty as a tree

When I was in China, students from the University of Beijing met with me and I was given a Chinese name. Unfortunately I do not remember the whole name, but one part of the name had the word, “bamboo.” I had forgotten about it until I found some photos to share that I took when I was at the Botanical Gardens a few years ago.

Self-Kindness meditation

Yay! Today is Pepper day! It’s the 22nd of each month. This month is especially peppery since we are doing the November Nano Poblano 2020 blogging challenge.

Enjoy the meditation I recorded for you above! Give yourself a hug: you deserve it.
Ka Malana Photography
Ka Malana Photography

This weekend at my NCGR meeting, I learned that a woman who was a very kind and loving friend, and astrologer, passed away. I hadn’t known. I looked back at the last text message she sent to me in January 2020 after meeting my daughter, and I felt very glad that I had the chance to meet her. I’m sad that I didn’t get to know her more, or work with her more. I had only been to her house a couple of times for her classes. She was an amazing mentor to so many. I missed out in a lot of ways. One year she told me that she added us (my family) to her special New Year wishes and ritual. I felt so touched. I saw her at over a dozen meetings these past few years before I had my baby, and before the pandemic.

Cambodia part 6: beautiful people

It’s not easy to get my photography converted from a shiny print into a photograph with glare; and even though I saved the negatives, there are projects that I never got around to, like making new prints or digital images from the negatives, or scanning in photos, etc etc.

However I enjoyed these compositions of people in their natural element, and really feel these images express the beauty in the spirit, and the community liveliness I witnessed.

Diegesis

Each twist and turn

in the story of life

is but a flutter of light

glinting off a butterfly’s wings.

each moment is a whisper of

soft spoken messages fleshed with meaning

during our telling of it

who and what, where and which way when

is not as important as how we felt

when we quieted the inner din

and stared dark into the silence

feeling the holy fragility of the moments

that are too few to give us any true picture

of where we are going…

Cambodia part3: portraits

Portrait of a young girl
Ka Malana Photography
Looking at tourists with friends
Ka Malana Photography

These photos I took in 2001 using my 35mm film Minolta camera, enjoying capturing moments at the temple complex while I deeply immersed myself as an observer.

Photography was a high art for me. I enjoyed developing and processing my own film.

Capturing these authentic moments and photographing the intricate architecture brought me so much joy. I wouldn’t publish these photos if I had taken them recently because I highly respect peoples’ privacy. These children are grown up by now, so I don’t think it’s an issue.

There’s controversy about capturing the photos of aborigine who felt that capturing their image on film was stealing their soul. Consider the photography you see in National Geographic. Was everyone’s permission asked? These are some of the dilemmas and controversies an anthropologist and photographer has had to consider.

Cambodia part2: Angkor Wat

Ka at Angkor Wat
Ka Malana Photography

Like this.

This is the life—

The satisfaction of a statue,

expressing timeless surrender.

We can travel to a memory,

even tarnished, it will shine.

You can dream about what’s possible,

and re-imagine what already happened.

May we all live and grow old

and smile, contentedly.

Like this.

Outdoors in Cambodia: a meditation

In this blog post, I have a recorded a track for meditating outdoors. I’ve also included my photography from my visit to Cambodia in 2001. There’s two images of me from 19 years ago, taken by one of my teachers from University of Pennsylvania, Larry Silver.

Please take some time to sit outside and listen to this meditation, sitting or standing against a tree.
Ka Malana Photography

15/30

Family love and life

So grateful for another day on planet earth with my loved ones. I’m grateful for all the genuine connections I have in my life with people who are not physically close, too, but are so so close to my heart. My friendships that are enduring are so valued in my life. I’m grateful for my loving family. I’m also grateful for my blogging connections and this month’s challenge helps me to keep centered on what matters most while being able to weave in and out as I need to and am able!

14/30

As people weave in and out of our lives, its so important to remember our inner lives. This new moon I embarked on a new journey with my Medicine Woman studies. It’s an incredible New Moon in Scorpio sextile to the Jupiter-Pluto conjunction. I received an initiation today and conducted a special ceremony; my path has begun on a deeper level, in private. Many of us walk between the two worlds, and as we anchor ourselves in the unseen world, we enrich the world we do for the consciousness of the planet. Today we also celebrate along with this New Moon, in many regions of the world, such as Northern India, Diwali, the festival of lights. It’s the celebration of good over evil. May we realize the goodness in our hearts, and come together on this planet. That is my hope each and every day.

Chocolate Vitality Chia Seed Pudding

3 tablespoons of chia seeds

8 oz unsweetened almond milk

1 tbsp Organic maple syrup

Ghirardelli 1 tbsp

Organic cacao powder with Maca to taste

1 Tsp of vanilla

Cinnamon and nutmeg and a touch of cardamom to taste

I added in the apple 🍎 and pear 🍐 to top it off, but certainly mix it in!

When I took the picture, I didn’t even intend to share it. I just took the picture as a way for me to remember what I did. Basically, daily blogging is quite a stretch! So is preparing food when you are super busy. I would have probably mixed up the ingredients before taking the picture, but you all get the point!

Isn’t this a great time of the year, though? I love it… I’m looking forward to some more Autumn-engaging posts soon! Meanwhile, I think apples and pears are lovely for celebrating autumn! Be healthy =)

*note about the chia seed pudding: you have to stir it regularly so that the pudding gets to be the best consistency as it prepares to wait overnight in your fridge. First put in the maple syrup and mix it with the unsweetened almond milk (or milk of your choice) then after that’s all dissolved (because you don’t want the chia to clump to it), put in the chia seed and stir, wait about 15 min, and stir again. Then wait about another 20-30 min and stir again. Then it can sit again in the fridge for a few hours or overnight (for best consistency) as the chia seeds create a tapioca-like pudding texture.