| My husband Tom and I recently enjoyed a | | | | generally dissed. My great dis-covery over the |
| weekend workshop with Al Huang, a | | | | years has been that I was doing that to myself - |
| world-renowned philosopher and Tai Chi master | | | | I was dissing myself, I was belittling myself. |
| who has toured with Sammy Davis Jr. and hung | | | | An even greater discovery is that I am so much |
| with the Dalai Lama. We have attended his yearly | | | | more than the 'little me'. We all are so much |
| workshop in Santa Barbara for nine years. He is a | | | | more. Our life force is vast. That vast self wants |
| 'chi'leader extraordinaire, encouraging and exciting | | | | to be here, to be seen, to express through us. |
| us to come alive and open to our Big ME, Big CHI, | | | | Even little Dennis the Menace has an inkling of his |
| Big WOW selves. He teaches Tai Chi in a way | | | | Big Self. In a cartoon, Dennis is sitting in a corner, |
| that invites, ignites, and unites the realms of | | | | being punished, and with a scowl on his face he |
| Heaven, Earth, and Human, helping us to boldly | | | | proclaims, "I'm Dennis! THAT's who I am. THAT's |
| embody our vast life force, and inspiring the | | | | what I shoulda said!" |
| question, "Just how big and how vibrantly alive can | | | | The real question is, "Who do you KNOW you |
| we let ourselves be?" | | | | are?" That knowing, that remembrance of my Big |
| He talked about his friend, Ram Dass, who wrote | | | | Soul Self is the most important thing in my life. |
| the book Be Here Now - a very important book | | | | Since my recent experience with cancer, it has |
| for me that helped jump-start my stalled life | | | | become even more important. Every day I invite |
| force in my early twenties. Al told us he was | | | | and unite with my vast energy field by doing daily |
| going to talk with Ram Dass the next day. I | | | | practices. In the morning I dance, moving up and |
| thought, I'd love to give Al the book I wrote | | | | down, backward and forward, side to side, inward |
| called Be Here Meow - Enlightening Lessons | | | | and outward, embracing, balancing and flowing |
| Learned from my Feline Friends. It contains some | | | | with All That Is. Every afternoon I go for a walk |
| of the juicy philosophy and humor that Al was | | | | and feel and affirm, "My feet kiss the Earth with |
| sharing with us and I thought he might get a kick | | | | every step" and likewise "The Earth kisses my |
| out of it. Maybe he'd even tell Ram Dass about it | | | | feet with every step." As I walk, I imagine the |
| - how cool would that be! Dare I do that? The | | | | top of my head opening like a funnel, receiving |
| 'little me' was quaking in my Crocks...who do I | | | | love and guidance from above - I am taking my |
| think I am? But Al had done his job well, and | | | | vast energy field for a walk, I am walking my |
| during the last break of the weekend workshop, | | | | God. |
| filled with the Big Chi of the Big Me, I walked up | | | | A few years ago there was a man on the Oprah |
| to him and gave him my book. He laughed at the | | | | show talking about a plane crash he survived. He |
| title, and shared with me his appreciation for the | | | | said that as the plane was careening towards a |
| cats in his life, and thanked me for the book. As I | | | | violent crash he looked back at the people on the |
| walked away my energy field fluffed out like an | | | | plane and saw a big bright light around some |
| excited feline and you could almost hear me | | | | people, and lesser degrees of light around others. |
| purring! | | | | He was profoundly struck by that, and in that |
| "Who do you think you are?" is a common | | | | moment he vowed that if he lived, he would live |
| question of the 'little me', the pygmy. I am aware | | | | his life fully, shining the full brightness of his life |
| of times I have pulled my energy in, minimizing | | | | force. |
| myself, virtually disappearing myself. People have | | | | Our life force energy has a dimmer switch, and |
| actually bumped into me as if I weren't there! I | | | | we are in control of that switch. Just how big, |
| have super powers of invisibility! What do I get | | | | how bright, how alive can we let ourselves be? It |
| out of that? I get to be safe, to fly below the | | | | is our choice -- brighter or dimmer, pygmy or Big |
| radar, to be a fly on the wall. But it creates a | | | | Me. The great challenge is to become more and |
| backlash - the fly becomes a hornet as my | | | | more comfortable with embodying our vast spirit, |
| repressed aliveness shouts, "Hey, I'm here!" Like | | | | our vibrant aliveness, our magnificent soul. |
| Ratso Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) in Midnight Cowboy, | | | | How about you -- do you feel like a pygmy or a |
| when he pounded on the hood of the car that | | | | Big Me? Where is your dimmer switch turned to? |
| almost ran him down, saying, "I'm walking here! | | | | I invite us all to dare to turn up our light, to let |
| I'm walking here!" It's that feeling of being | | | | our Big Soul Self shine through us, to be here |
| disrespected, disappeared, discounted, just | | | | fully, be here NOW, and be here WOW! |