I follow the tugs of two inner nudges, step off two more cliffs . . .

All week long I’ve been internally tugged to check out a retreat this weekend, to be held at the Tibetan Cultural Center. Today I noticed that the Friday evening Intro was free, which pushed me over into driving out there.

Wouldn’t you know, I thought, after meeting Fr. Francis Tiso, this guy is a a Catholic priest underneath his Buddhism! I try to get away, say I’m a “recovering Catholic,” but here we go! I’ve decided to sign up.

Here’s part of his IONS bio:

On the way home, after listening to him for two hours, trying to remember delicious phrases like “oscillating between samsara and nirvana at an infinitesimal rate,” I realized that I was doing what I said I would do, after returning from the two month Buddhist vipassana meditation immersion in Thailand, go “on retreat” for one weekend every three months. It’s now just short of three months since I left Thailand! And the place I originally dreamed of going on retreat was the Tibetan Cultural Center (they have retreat yurts there)! So that internal tug was, unbeknownst to me, a reminder to follow through on my promise to myself — just not quite the way I expected.

P.S. From some of his stories tonight, it feels like Fr. Tiso’s life parallels mine, full of high drama and strange synchronicities.

P.P.S. Right before leaving for the Center, I got another inner nudge: that it was time to change the tag line for this blog from “Bridging Above and Below” to “Blending Above and Below.” This came to me during yoga, as I was lying on my back, marveling at the cloud scudded sky above, feeling the earth below. Earth feels hugely pregnant with birthing energy, bursting through into greenery, flowers, birds, insects . . . Sky feels thick and sweet with light and love and majesty. I sense sky descending, mingling, interpenetrating, with primal Earth energy rising, Sky and Earth energies electro-magnetically meeting, swirling, spiraling into brilliant full-throated beauty, the mystery of Being.

Blending Above and Below . . .

If I still want to make that tag-line change after the weekend is over, I will do so then. It feels right, but want to give it time to settle in and not be my usual impulsive self.

Until Monday!