Sunday morning, it\’s dark, cuddled up in bed, and my mind is racing. I\’m about two steps ahead of my alarm clock, excited, wondering how the day is going to unfold, and questions, questions darting around in my mind… \”Have I gotten the notes right?\” \”Will someone get stuck on our driveway?\” \”Will all the dogs get along, or will I be dealing with a terrible dogfight wound?\” \”Will everyone be able to hear me?\” and on and on, around and around. Then the alarm starts to tinkle, so I crawl out into the cold, and have a nice long warm shower. I head downstairs, and then go right down under the house, to take a look, and imagine the day going well. My first full day Whole Energy Body Balancing workshop! The culmination of 18 years of working and working at my passion, ready to share with a group of very special people.
\”No time for lollygagging!\” I tell myself. There\’s a lot to get sorted in the next couple of hours, before everyone starts to roll in. Breakfast, chi gong, a stretch – and time for me to tune into the energy of the class, as well. How are we all flowing together, if I put us in a circle. Pretty well, about a minus 2. So as I check my emails I hold space to open up this flow, and after 10 minutes or so it\’s beautiful, a plus 7-8, feeling great.
My belly complains, so I walk into the kitchen and cook some eggs. Our dogs are restless, antsy, they know something\’s going on, but they\’re not quite sure exactly what. Pearl is stuck to me like glue, and keeps nudging me with her nose for some reassurance. The clock seems to be on steroids this morning, the minute hand is moving like the second hand, it seems. After brekky I go back down and set up the massage table where I\’m going to stand. People shouldn\’t be arriving for another half an hour, but suddenly there\’s a growl of an engine, and a car pulls in on the grass beside my van.
\”I\’m sorry,\” she tells me, \”I got my times mixed up, and we were two hours early, we\’ve been out for a long walk and everything, and I hope we\’re not too early.\”
\”No, that\’s fine!\” I say, thinking, \”Gee wizz, I\’d better get moving, get our cars out of the garage, and get Mari down to the bottom of the hill to direct traffic!\”
A quick flurry of moving my van, tucking it away on one of the small flat bits on our block. (We are perched up on the hill, with a very steep driveway, upon which more than a few people have come to grief.) Mari scooted down the hill in our car, and before long, another wagon came growling up the hill. With a dog trailer behind. I tried to direct them. but alas, they pulled into the garage. Woops! not ideal. An inspired and confused sequence of backing and filling, and chocking wheels on the slope because the brakes wouldn\’t hold ensued. Thankfully, after about 10 minutes, with a strong smell of burning clutch. we got the trailer in a safe place, detached, and parked. In the meantime two more cars loaded to the gills with tables, dog cages, dogs, people, and lunch, had pulled into the garage area under the house. I directed them to unpack, and then trotted down the hill to warn Mari not to send any more up yet. By the time I got back to the top of the hill I was panting hard. We sent the unloaded ones down, then more came in, disgorging gear, dogs, fold up chairs, and lovely people too.
The next half an hour was a bit crazy, but finally 18 people and 31 dogs with all their paraphernalia were settled, and I could start the teaching. Only 15 minutes behind schedule, too! The morning was a lot of content, talking and talking, with me conscious of the tyranny of time, needing to catch up and get on schedule. Lots of happy smiles, hardly any questions. Before lunch we got some hands on happening, starting to learn the feel of our dogs spines, how they move, whether or not they were stiff or locked up. Then, in the afternoon we delved into the doing, connecting with healing energy, enjoying a healing empowerment, learning the 5 minute deep pressure massage, the craniosacral system release/mobilisation/balancing technique, and the three sweep energy balancing technique. I would circulate around in each practice session, making sure to connect with every student and be sure they got the feel of what I was teaching. It was so exciting to see the light bulbs of understanding light up in their eyes when they \”got it\”.
A break for tea, and a walk around the garden in the cloudy cool day, then it was time for everyone to do a whole session with their dogs. I\’ve never seen so many totally relaxed, blissed out dogs in one place. All the students in a deeply peaceful state, totally focused on serving their furry friends. Some of the dogs were so deep in trance you could have set a bomb off beside them and they wouldn\’t even have twitched.
Then it was time to wrap up the day, and a grand exodus. Before you could say \”Jack Robinson\” all the people and dogs had poured into their cars and back down the hill, away to their homes, and I was left feeling a bit stunned, and very happy at how well the day had gone.
I\’ve had some lovely feedback already…