Category: VT Survival

my gift to you…

my gift to you…

by Kelly (of rituals) ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

FLOOD RELIEF

for body, mind & soul

Thursday, September 29, 2012

Route 9, Marlboro, Vermont

5:30 pm

Klimt, visipix.com

Like the Little Drummer Boy, I’ve humbly asked, “What can I give in the face of so much devastation?”

But the best I’ve had to offer is my presence; which pales in comparison to those with hammers and shovels and know-how.

Physical labor has never been my passion.  But I do like to move. To music. And I could offer that to you.  And it would feel good. And you would leave restored–body, mind & soul.

The first class of my fall YogaDance session at Marlboro Elementary School on the miraculously restored Route 9 is Thursday, September 29 at 5:30 pm; and I’d like to offer that class as a gift to all of you.

There’s nothing you need to bring, except for maybe a water bottle. You can dance barefoot or with clean, non-marking soles (like sneakers), and you can dress comfortably with layers to peel off as needed. You don’t need any skill or experience, and basically the music does what it needs to do– inside of each one of us.

What I bring as the instructor (besides a rocking sound system) is what I offer in my writing–deep presence to what is alive in me and what is alive around me–in you.  In this way, I create a soundtrack that is always eclectic, bold, soulful, soothing–and just plain fun.

I begin with something quiet, maybe some classical cello, and then move into blues or jazz or funk before opening into something really powerful–rap, world, rock; and then shifting again– into the sweet sounds of the heart, before really ramping it up with something energizing and FUN.

As the hour ends, the music turns inward again–with a ballad perhaps; and then we sink into final relaxation with notes that transcend thought.

This is what I’d like to offer you. To all those touched by flood, murder, and all manner of trials.

If you’d like to come just show up–or drop me a line with questions or anything else that comes to mind.  (See form below.)

Details:

  • FREE Community YogaDance Class
  • Thursday, September 29, 2011 at 5:30 pm
  • Marlboro Elementary School gymnasium, Route 9, Marlboro, VT.
  • Bring a water bottle, dress comfortably to move, dance barefoot or with clean sneaks.

Absolutely no charge. This is my little drummer boy gift to you. Given freely. In the hope that it will serve all who come.

Pass it on.  The space is expansive, and so is the heart of the people in Vermont.

Kelly Salasin, September 2011

For more about YogaDance, click here

or ask a question/RSVP below:

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Thank you for your response. ✨

Surrendering Summer

Surrendering Summer

by Kelly (of rituals) ♥ 5 Comments
Auntie Fran at the River House, all rights reserved, Lila Salasin, 1970

Ask around and you’ll find that I have a hard time surrendering summer, and that’s putting it mildly. As soon as we pass the Summer Solstice and the days begin to grow shorter, my pond cronies tease me about the sun dropping behind the mountain a minute earlier each night.

As flirtatious June heats up into toasty July and then releases into cooling August, true friends hush others when words like “autumn” or “school ” are spoken in my vicinity; while others openly mourn along with me.

But this year is different, at least this morning–midway through September. Today, I am willingly relinquishing my rules for prolonging summer (and I am almost welcoming the changes the new season brings.)

Maybe I’ve evolved. Or maybe this is just an intermission of enlightenment, and tomorrow I’ll be back to my old ways–chasing after summer with flip flips or pond dinners and alternately taking her departure personally.

It may be that I’ve had my fill of sadness this summer–from my son’s diving accident at the pond; to my best friend’s collision at the beach; to the loss of innocence at our community Co-op; to the devastation that rocked my state.

I don’t want to spend any more time being sad. I feel so much appreciation and love and tenderness; and in the grace of that flow, even I can surrender summer.

Kelly Salasin, Marlboro, VT 05344

What Soothes You

What Soothes You

by Kelly (of rituals) ♥ 2 Comments

“The mind creates the abyss, the heart crosses it.”

~Sri Nisargadatta

visipix.com

I had the opportunity to connect with a renown naturopathic doctor friend of mine, who just happens to live locally; and we touched on the stress people are feeling following the floods.  A light bulb went off when she said that this can manifest in different ways–even in physical injury.

I excused myself from the small gathering and called home right away. My youngest answered the phone and brought it outside to his father who was chopping wood.

“You know how Aidan has been hurting himself so much lately,” I said. “Maybe give him a little extra attention tonight. It could be fallout from the floods.”

My doctor friend also touched on nutritional and supplemental support for post traumatic stress, which hadn’t occurred to me, and I wondered if the Co-op might put together a end cap display of products for that. Between the murder and the flooding, they could use the extra support themselves.

Unlike my friend the doctor, I didn’t watch the flood come across the road and into my house; and unlike my new colleague at work, I didn’t see it take out my entire road. I also wasn’t there at the Co-op Tuesday morning a month ago when a shot was fired inside.

And yet, I am emotionally and physically spent from August as if I had been everywhere.

What do I need, I ask myself.  What would soothe me?

…some soft music, a cup of chai, time walking with a friend.

It was ten years ago this month, when I had to rock myself into letting go of the heartbreaking strain of 9/11.  I walked my dirt roads, soaked in the changing colors, and restored my sense of self and place.

May we all find what soothes us as we rock ourselves into the changes life brings.

Kelly Salasin, Marlboro, VT

To read more about the devastation in Vermont, click here;

or here, to read more about the tragedy at the Brattleboro Food Co-op.

Watching Over the Dead

Watching Over the Dead

by Kelly (of rituals) ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

When Hurricane Irene first came up the coast toward my hometown by the sea, I grew worried for my mother.

She’s been dead for 11 years.

On the evening my family hiked our way back to our home in the Green Mountains, abandoning our car near the cemetery on Fox Road, I worried about Jesse.

The night was dark, the wind howling, and the roads precariously eaten away by the engorged streams, and still my thoughts turned to the young man whose life was stolen, over two years ago, at the heartbreaking age of 20.

Why would I worry about the dead at a time like this, I wondered; and then it occurred to me; that perhaps it was they who were worrying about us.

Caring for us, really.

Watching over us.

Thanks Mom.

Thanks Jesse.

Keep up the good work.

Kelly Salasin, Marlboro, Vermont

To read more about the flooding in VT, click here.

Note: Cemeteries in Vermont have been affected by the floods; click here to read more.