Next Steps for Dancing with Thoreau and Viewer Comments!

DANCING WITH THOREAU

A new film by Chis Korrow, creator of Garden Insects

After a successful premiere at the Clyde Theater on Whidbey Island, 
Dancing with Thoreau is now entering the film festival circuit!

"Dancing with Thoreau is a work of art that honors the artful in nature. Korrow’s use of still photos, interviews, quotations and moving images provide a means by which to enter the timelessness he feels is essential to a fulfilled and meaningful life."—Dianna MacLeod, Whidbey Life Magazine

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Viewer comments...
"Let me first compliment you on the film. To say my wife, sister and I thoroughly enjoyed it would be an understatement. We were inspired and encouraged. When we left the theater a butterfly flashed from across the street. It allowed us to get quite close and actually touch it."—Gary Piazzon, Whidbey Environmental Action Network

[Chis Korrow is] such a keen observer--the footage and narration of the crows at the beginning was just stunning. In fact, all of the images were breath-taking. Hope the film and its message will find its way around the world. —Susanne Fest, PhD, Antioch University Midwest

"I was very moved by your movie... so much so that I have gone out each morning since to the wetlands by my house to listen and see the amazing life that awakens with the dawn. Thank you for producing something so beautiful and compelling that will help many of us Remember…"

“May the film benefit many sentient beings.”

“This ever deepening breathe of fresh air will etch new conscious awareness...” 

Biodynamic Gardening Class on Whidbey Island

Biodynamic Gardening and Farming
Workshop for Beginners
with Chris Korrow

Gardening with biodynamics and understanding what nature is telling us about our gardens.
Plus, making and spraying biodynamic preparations, Barrel Compost and Horn Manure (BD #500).

When: Saturday, September 24, 2011, 11am-early afternoon

Where: Langley Community Garden
(Anderson Family Farm: 1041 Al Anderson Ave, Langley, WA 98260), Whidbey Island

Call: 221-0430 (local) or 270-406-9116 (mobile)
Email: 90acres@accessky.net

Bring: A chair if you think you might need one, sun hat and water.

Cost: Fee by donation. Farm interns are free.

Chris has been farming and gardening organically and biodynamically for more than 20 years.
Learn more about Chris at www.breathedeepproductions.com

Someone Left the Package Out in the Rain

—Christy Korrow

Today when I went to the post office, the prized proofread copy of the fall issue of LILIPOH magazine had arrived in the mail. I knew it because of the red card in my PO Box. I took my tag and handed it to the lady working behind the counter. She presented to me my Express Mail package encased in a plastic bag, stamped with the words “We Care.”


Normally, the cardboard envelope was not surrounded in plastic. As I picked the package up, it went limp. It was soaking wet. I could see through the clear wrapping that the envelope was torn. The postal looked at me with compassion, “It arrived that way,” she said. She also noted that it arrived late, which meant that Caryl, our proofreader, could obtain a full refund of the $18 dollars it cost to insure the package arrived in my hands the day after she’d mailed it.


Now, for years I have been studying the process of thinking, watching thoughts arise, trying to be mindful and awake to the understanding that thoughts are realities and have an impact on the physical world. I noticed what was surfacing in me as I held my soggy pile of important papers. I was annoyed. Pissed. Discouraged. A refund just wouldn’t be good enough. Someone had to make this right.


I walked home, and peeled the package open for closer inspection. The pages were damp all the way through, but luckily, not to the point where the ink had run. The copy was still legible. I pulled each article apart and spread them out across the living room floor, near the open front door so the air blowing in would help them dry quickly.

As it was, I was running late. I was headed out to attend Just Write for the first time, a writer’s group in Coupeville hosted by literary agent Andrea Hurst. I brushed off my annoyance and rushed out the door.


On the 30 minute drive north to the midpoint of the island, I thought about the following:
My package was wet, and though the label on the outside said “We Care,” the subsequent fine print said, in so many words, “We’re sorry, but mistakes happen.” I can understand that sometimes a machine might tear up an envelope, or a piece of mail might get lost. But this—this was clearly the result of someone who did not care, someone who was sloppy or negligent. So here I was, a mind full with negative thoughts (as opposed to mindful). At least I noticed that much.

Later, I began to wonder about the man or woman who’d mishandled my package. What kind of day might he or she been having? Underpaid, overworked, feeling pressures of family, economy—while here I sat, in the sun, on the Coupeville wharf writing this blog post. As I looked out over the water, the wet manuscript suddenly didn’t bother me one bit. This unnamed postal worker had a careless moment, and it resulted in a wet package. But then, I had personalized the unfortunate experience.


Thankfully, I realized I had a choice. Did I want to say “yes” to the negative thoughts I was having toward this person, when, by thinking them, I was only solidifying the truth that this person disappointed me and negatively affected my experience? OR did I want to hope for a healthy, happy, peaceful life for this person who maybe did not have the presence of mind to care about my package?

By saying “yes” to caring about the individual, I did something for myself. I released myself from reliving the idea that I am a victim, that I am merely the object of someone else's circumstances. By changing my thoughts, I freed myself from recreating a negative reality (“Why did you do this to me?”), and instead, retrained my attention, my thoughts, onto a mental picture of “I wish you well.”

An interesting inner shift. It might not change the reality of this other person, who I don’t know, but it has changed mine by giving me a more compassionate vantage point, and a softer, more humane point of attraction. So, for that, I thank the postal worker who left my package out in the rain.

PS Suggested flower essences to support our best self in this kind of situation to come soon!

Flower Essences: Calm Down, Catch Up

As a busy editor who also works in various other sectors of publishing, I wanted to share the following flower essence combination with any of you who are also multitasking your way through the world, and at times find it all to be a bit too much. Typically a remedy is taken on an as-needed basis as acute situations arise by putting 2 drops into a glass of water and sipping it throughout the day, or for ongoing situations, 2 drops, 4 times per day is a standard recommendation. Remedies can be purchased at local health food stores, or ordered over the internet. I can do a session with you over the phone, drop me a line if you are interested. christy@accessky.net

Elm

Elm is the remedy for those of us who take on a lot of responsibility, but then begin to feel that the responsibility is too much, and who feel that our confidence begins to slip. Thoughts such as -- how can I ever accomplish all of this? I am on over my head, and I am not going to be able to do a good job with all of this, I’ve overcommitted myself and the quality of my work is going to slide -- are indicators that Elm is in order.

Elm will help to bring about a sense of balance, and a renewed sense of feeling as though you are on the right track, and the work load will be placed in its proper perspective. Mechthild Scheffer notes that the stress of the Elm state is the higher self calling for moderation, and on some level this stress we are experiencing is a warning to us -- we are not meeting the demands of our own soul.1 It is helpful during times like this to visualize or picture a task completed, this is especially effective at bedtime, right before sleep. When we sleep we connect with spiritual beings who assist us on the astral plane and help us work out our problems. Our impatient and doubting ego is out of the way, and all the voices that say “I can’t” are quieted during the night. When you wake up in the morning, quietly pay attention, and notice if you are receiving a solution or resolution to an issue from the pervious day, or sink in to the sensation of knowing you are capable of meeting your responsibilities. This exercise enhances the effects of Elm.

Hornbeam

Hornbeam is for when we feel mentally overwhelmed at the thought of all that we have to do. Where Elm will help us regain confidence with our responsibilities, Hornbeam will bring about an inner strength and knowingness, an enthusiasm. For it is with enthusiasm that we can accomplish great things.2 We can accomplish things with sheer mental will, but this is not sustainable. When the intent behind our actions is lined up with the mission of our higher self (one of love and service), a strength comes from this, and we can trust in the outcome of a plan larger than ourselves.

Once we trust in something larger than ourselves, we can relax into our daily demands, and know that each situation is bringing about the best for our highest good. It is helpful to pick on or two doable actions, and without further contemplation, just do them--this sets a flow in place where momentum can build on the feeling of having actually accomplished something. This sets off a domino effect where things seem to become accomplished on their own, or with very little effort, a person you are waiting to hear from calls you, a project is approved with no hassles, people are early on deadlines--there is an ease and a flow to the tasks at hand. Activities that takes us out of the mind like exercise, yoga, mediation, and time in nature are additional remedies for the Hornbeam state.

Chestnut Bud

Now, this is interesting. On the surface, Chestnut Bud helps those who continue to make the same mistakes over and over, and fail to learn from the lessons that life, God, the universe is trying to teach. But, when we go a little deeper, and look into why it is that we are met with the same kind of repeated lessons again and again, we see how this is often an issue of attention, of paying attention and of awareness. So often, we don’t move through life in an awakened way. If we are too busy and as a result too scattered, we aren’t fully incarnated into the moment, we skim the surface, going through the motions, while in our thoughts we have already moved ahead to the next task. This can quickly spiral out of control, not only do we not get the most out of our experience, we never feel fully alive because we are concentrated not on the NOW, but on the future, which doesn’t exist yet!

Chestnut Bud cultivates the inner experience of being in the moment, and the simultaneous experience of higher self awareness (our higher self is the part of us connected with that which is eternal, so when we let go of our worries of the past and future, the part of us that is constant can live in our consciousness). Deep breathing and stretching are both helpful body-based ways to help us slow down and integrate into the body--a solid representation of the now.

When we are filled with enthusiasm, balance and self-awareness, our thoughts are free from angst, stress, judgement (you get the picture). Our thoughts then vibrate at a higher level, which means that all of our bodily molecules are vibrating at a higher level. The result? Our gifts to the world are more evident and generous, we shine, and the world begins to shine back on us. The resistance which kept us apart from that which we were trying manifest, accomplish and attract has now dissipated.

—Christy Korrow

1. Scheffer, Mechthild. Bach FlowerTherapy: Theory and Practice, Healing Arts Press, 1988, p. 83.
2. Steiner, Rudolf. Spiritual Foundations for the Renewal of Agriculture, Bio-Dynamic Farming and Gardening Association, 1993.

For those not so familiar with flower essences, here is an excerpt from an article that appeared in the Winter 2011 issue of LILIPOH magazine, “Flower Essence Therapy: Blossoming to Wholeness with Plant Energies” by Elizabeth R. Mackenzie, PhD.

FET: The Inside Perspective

From the point of view of the FET practitioner, the essences are all about energetic vibration. According to [flower essence practitioner] Rhoni Groff, “Flower essences are made in water and begin with prayer.” Practitioners point to the unique properties of water, which is known to be an excellent conductor of electrical energy, as the reason the vibration of the flower is able to extracted and stored. They cite the work of Masaru Emoto, the Japanese researcher who demonstrated that water crystals appear to reflect the attributes of positive or negative words as evidence that water transmits energy.

FET practitioners believe that the spirit of the plant transfers to the water, which can then be preserved as a tincture, and that when the client imbibes the tincture, the energetic essence of the blossom interacts with the client’s vibratory field to catalyze changes in consciousness. Groff puts it this way, “Flower essences carry a high vibration, and through the process of resonance they raise vibrations with our chakra system.” As with the idea of entrainment, similar vibratory fields are drawn to one another, so that a person attracts people and events based on his or her vibratory rate. The basic idea is that a person with a relatively low rate of oscillation will end up surrounded by other persons with low vibrations, and vice versa. In this worldview, raising the rate of vibration becomes an obvious good for all with important healing implications for both the individual and the collective.

For most FET practitioners, the main goal is to use the energetic healing forces of the plants to help clients free themselves from habitual patterns and beliefs that no longer support growth.

¹ See www.hado.net.

² See www.GiftoftheFlowers.com. Rhoni Groff works with clients by telephone as well as in person.

Stay at Home Retreat: Health, Poetry and Spiritual Inquiry

When I told my friend, Caifornia-based poet Ellaraine Lockie that I had finished a four-day stay at home retreat, she suggested I write about it, that other writers might like to know how and what I did.

Well you can imagine that two things which inspired this kind retreat (as opposed to traveling somewhere) were time and money, or rather lack of it. In the last three months, I have already traveled to Mexico with family, and then to NYC with daughter for a college visit, therefore my travel time and budget were used up for the next few months at least.

Some aspects of my lifestyle worked in my favor. I have a creative and supportive family who understands the importance of pursuing art and spiritual contemplative study. This was important—I didn’t have lots of loud people in my periphery, people asking me to do things for them or meet their needs.

I live on a beautiful farm and especially this time of year the cherry tree in front of the house is in full bloom and the pastures around the house are bright green. Because I live here all the time, I think I forget, or take for granted, how beautiful Cumberland County Kentucky is. Often times I think about all of the places I would rather be. This time was an opportunity to settle in to a remembrance of the beauty of my own backyard.

Earlier in the year I posted photos of my beautiful new writing space, well-lit with big windows and bird feeders. So, while the beach is always calling me, my own humble home is also a place of tremendous inspiration. My muse is on call 24/7, it’s helpful to be reminded that I do not have to travel to exotic places or place myself in complete isolation to find her.

More or less the retreat, or any retreat for that matter, was more of a mindset, and in some ways even a form of clever trickery. An agreement perhaps, or a commitment of sorts. I scheduled the four-day block well-ahead of time. I wrote it on my calendar just as I would any other time important commitment, and I informed my family that this event would be taking place. I arranged my work schedule accordingly, and yes, I had to say no to a few things. For instance, a coworker who missed her usual work day offered to come later in the week, but instead, I rescheduled her to come the following week. I made arrangements with my husband to take up my usual day driving daughter to dance class. So, it did take a bit of effort. But a small price to pay. I can see how if I would have been more lax, life would certainly have seen to it that I didn’t have this time to dedicate to my art, my self-development, my health. Here I was faced with the question of worth and value of these sometimes diminished rights—and it felt right to place these pursuits in a place of importance, for this short block of time anyway. If I can’t say “no” to the onslaught of outside influences for only four days, how can I expect these aspects to thrive?

So—how did I spend my time? I spent long periods in the morning journaling, and in mediation.

I was able to edit large numbers of poems, and complied a new chapbook. I submitted the chapbook to some contests, and submitted additional poems to online literary magazines.

I sat outside and ate my lunch. I reinstated my daily brisk two mile walks, which had fallen by the wayside with cold wet winter weather (perfect excuses!).

I took the time to consult the I Ching on matters relating to the direction of my writing (#14—those who act out of a place of joy can’t help but gain followers).

I studied Mary Oliver’s A Poetry Handbook” A Prose Guide to Understanding and Writing Poetry, read quite a bit of Ezra Pound, and another book about Tolkien’s work on the Oxford English Dictionary, and his wonderful ability to adapt Old and Middle English words into his stories.

I ate a lot of raw foods (salads, fruits, smoothies). I find a noticeable increase in mental clarity and energy when I eat mostly fruits and salads.

I only checked email in order to look up contest and submission info (I did take one phone call from my friend Pat Ritter).

How did I feel on Monday? Well, as though I could use two weeks of this kind of life! But really, I reentered into a busy work day with a renewed sense of ease and appreciation. My thoughts had slowed, they had a chance to stretch, and feel free. I accomplished more that usual working at a slow and steady pace. I have a clear understanding of why this is—I have taken a bit of my retreat-ness with me into my week. Not having to transition back into home, and my “usual” life, saved me from having to experience a sense of feeling let down, having to give up a strong feeling of freedom. The stay at home retreat didn’t set up such a strong contrast between “retreat life” and “regular life.” Feeling this in my own home was empowering, I know I can encounter a sense of freedom that I once thought I could only access by getting away.

I highly recommend trying this. It’s affordable, it feeds your soul, and your muse will reward you for it.

—Christy Korrow

Detachment/Inner Peace

Om with laundry acting as prayer flags

Lately, Chris and I have been discussing the differences and similarities between an experience of “inner peace” and “detachment.” When we find inner peace, if only for a fleeting moment, we are detached. We are neither in the past, nor the future, but feet firmly planted in the present. We require the past to feel a loss, to lament that which has been and we require the future to yearn for what has not yet come to pass, to wish for what we are not, or what the moment isn’t. Detachment has a connotation of less warmth, it speaks of a singularity, where the moniker inner peace feels more pious, more at one with all. Yet by realizing the one in oursleves, we relaize the one in all, and by realizing the unity in all, we are greeted with our true self. Both inner peace and detachment can infuriate another by the sheer non-reactive response, the response that does not seek to please, to perform, to gain, but only to allow. Can one even disagree, without an inner rise, one can shun, love and accept, all from the state of pure detachment? There is an objective choice at play, a freedom of response from one who is married to the moment. The Mother once said, “Freedom from attachment does not mean avoiding all occasion for attachment.” This helped me to see that detachment in the sense of a spiritual aspirant does not mean aloof or cold-hearted. In fact there is a chance for a pure expression when not polluted by what we are attached to—including allowing others to feel the pain to which they are entitled. Nature is not attached, seems to be in a constant state of inner peace, and she does not seem to cry because we are cutting down so many of her trees and soiling the air she breathes--but this does not mean she is not taking action. I learn much from her in that way, I can align my identity with her’s by gazing into the woods, and suddenly, my problems seem to soften.

Gardens and Prayer

Biodynamic horn manure (BD #500) to bring earthly 

and cosmic life forces to the plants via the soil.

The French philosopher, mystic and activist, Simone Weil 

(1909–1943) once wrote, “Absolute unmixed attention is 

prayer.” Her statement holds meaning for those who en- 

gage in biodynamic work. While practical and scientific in- 

formation about biodynamics is widely available through 

hundreds of books, websites, classes and conferences, the 

spiritual aspects of our movement cannot be so neatly 

packaged and sold. 

Though it is important to share “how-to” information, 

and encourage friends and fellow farmers to use the prep- 

arations, it is equally essential for practitioners to adopt 

a devotional mood while working with the land. Rudolf 

Steiner describes an attitude of reverence as a fundamental 

prerequisite for the human soul to gain access to supersen- 

sible worlds. After all, emphasis on how the spiritual world 

is active in nature and agriculture is what sets biodynamics 

apart from organic agriculture. 

Mindfully stirring the preparations, or really being on 

our farms and in our gardens can become opportunities for 

the development of spiritual capacities. This is the juncture 

where we go beyond a biodynamic practice that is more 

or less, one of following instructions or guidelines, to one 

where the gardener or farmer participates with the whole 

of nature; through this higher sense of awareness, spiritual 

scientific research takes place. We become capable of phe- 

nomenological research, “reading the book of nature,” and 

can come to our own understanding of what, for example, 

a healthy plant, field, or landscape truly looks like. From 

the basis of this understanding, we can problem-solve and 

discern what can be done to restore balance. 

—Christy Korrow 

Letter to readers of the fall 2009 issue of Applied Biodynamics, the newsletter of the Josephine Porter Institute, Christy is managing editor. 

Traversing Chris's New Guide for Observing Nature

I wanted to explain a little bit about Chris’s new Guide for Observing Nature. I feel it is almost more of a guide to meditation. This explains why observation nature can help us regain peace in our lives, balance, and so forth. Nature is constantly, naturally, in this state, and therefore, purposefully putting ourselves on the same wave length with the natural world places us in a direct line of access with creation, pure and unaldarterated by judgment, complaining, and even to a great extent fear. It’s almost as if we allow ourselves to be influenced by how nature unfolds, expose ourselves to her, so to speak, and then when we resume our “regular lives” we carry within us a consciousness of calm, heightened awareness, and rhythmic living. It’s quite practical actually!

I have read the Guide many times, and was recently inspired to apply the nine practices in the book, one by one, to my own life, beginning with the first...

SLOW DOWN
I have just completed about two weeks of “slowing down.” The first couple of days, I was only able to remember to slow down for about five minutes each day! Pretty pathetic! And as I became more determined, I was able to meet face to face with my various alter-egos. One is the woman who says, “Keep busy busy all day long, and you will never be faced with boredom, or have to face the fear of being with yourself during an empty moment!” Another warns, “You are driven by a ‘super woman’ mentality that says you have to do it all, there is no TIME to slow down—things won’t get done!” But I finally did it, I was able to take a couple of days, and went through my tasks with presence and deliberation, only setting a couple of small goals for myself. I found myself with long stretches of time, with nothing to do, wondering around the house looking dazed. One day I even turned the TV on, and in comes Chris to find me watching Ellen and Oprah. He looked perplexed. “I am slowing down,” I said. “Slowing down does not mean reclining on the couch on the middle of the afternoon watching television. That’s not what I meant!”

Needless to say as the next couple of days went by a sort of miracle happened. I have worked with enough spiritual practices over many years to the point where I can clearly identify a “shift” in energy. Spiritual results always come in the back door, and according to the timing of the universe, not our own narrow expectations. Just when you think “nothing is happening,” it’s as if the gears in our universal psyche shift and we are on to another frequency, or into another state of perception.

And this is what happened for me, after a few bumpy, and a bit awkward moments, I settled into this Slow Down rhythm. My anxiety that if I wasn’t moving a mile a minute, that things would not get done dissipated. It sounds paradoxical, but even though I was slowing down, it seemed as if I was getting more accomplished. My motivation was coming from a quieter, less frantic place. Tasks seemed to go unusually smoothly. The universe seemed to be meeting me half way—people who I was waiting to hear from suddenly called, work based solutions were at my finger tips, ideas flowed. And yet, I had extra time. I was inspired resume a writing project, read two books, got back into a new meditation routine, decluttered my house, and reconnected very strongly with my creative impulse, leading to new ideas and possibilities for current and future projects.

A key to successful spiritual development is the understanding that we have many other way of accomplishing tasks besides sheer will. Once again we turn to the effortlessness of nature, how much she accomplishes and how much abundance she has to share with us. It certainly belittles us as we flounder to get though each day and our seemingly important tasks. The beauty of it is that we can tap into this generous energy of nature, we are woven from the same cloth, it is inherent in it, so all we have to do is become aware of it, and this is what Chris has set out to do in this little Guide. Thank you Chris!

Dancing with Thoreau

Chris’s new documentary Dancing with Thoreau is underway. Much high definition footage was shot on a cross country family trip that took us through Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, Olympic and Rainier National Parks. The film will be a compilation of meditative imagery and interviews with notable folks who bring insights into the connections between nature and human consciousness.

As Chris puts it:
“My new film helps us to increase our awareness of our place on this planet and points out methods we can use to reconnect with the world. Being more in touch with nature we become more in touch with ourselves and most importantly how we fit in—and fit in we must. There is a reason why Buddha sat under a bodhi tree and Jesus went into the dessert for forty days.

Nature is the greatest untapped educational tool we have, we intimately study how it works from a mechanical point of view, but the true lesson to be learned from nature is how we work, how the laws that govern this planet work, and how these two concepts must eventually work in unison. When we increase our understanding and relationship to the laws that govern life on this planet, we double our ability for growth, adaptability and harmony, for we are then working from the perspective of, for example, not just how to keep money flowing, but how it can keep flowing within the constraints of sustainability, balance and harmony.”

Most recently Chris interviewed the 89-year-old Dominican nun, Sister Adrian Hofstetter, author of "Earth-Friendly Re-Visioning Science and Spirituality through Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, and Rudolf Steiner" (SteinerBooks 2006) for the the film.