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Sometimes our eyes and hearts are drawn towards bright colourful moments. These might be moments of beauty ~ sunsets, an eruption of roses growing wildly by the side of the road.
Sometimes it is quiet subtle moments, though, that speak to our soul, a gentle holding of space for us to simply be with no expectation of anything at all.
To be drawn into a moment of awe is wonderous. And to be drawn into a moment of simply is-ness, of simply being .... Well it too is wonderous but in a different way, a gentle way .... And sometimes it's harder to notice those moments. But when they emerge when I become aware of them ....Huh, I really, I can do nothing other than breathe ....
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Centred on evocative and deeply healing guided meditations, Kimiko holds Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pst. Please join us. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop her a note by e-mail.
Centred on evocative and deeply healing guided meditations, Kimiko holds Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pst. Please join us. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop her a note by e-mail.
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Kimiko Karpoff - Tracks in the sand
I found myself using this morning's meditation time tidying up the clutter in my space. It wasn’t a considered thing, I hadn't intended to do that. But somehow that's what I found myself doing.
I'm not really a very tidy person. And because I do so many things I find that it's easy to put aside that piece of, kind of tidying the thing away before I start the new one or move on to something else. I also find this in time of Covid, so much that comes into my space comes through delivery. That’s a new thing. But that's just how it happens and so I sometimes accept the delivery and then put the box in the corner. And found that there were several of those where I had never put the items that I had received away on the somewhat empty shelves that sit above them.
And so, my meditation became clearing space. And it made me thoughtful about that idea of being the change you want to see in the world and what that means. We often think of it as in big terms, in terms of peace or maybe environmentalism. But it is also a helpful reminder for small and everyday things. If you want, if I want to have a sense of spaciousness, that my room is calm, that this place where I spend my time is a peaceful place, then I need to be that, I need to be the one who makes it that. If I want to feel well in my body, then I need to be the one who thinks about what do I want to do, what can I do, to make myself feel well in my body, rather than thinking when I feel better then I will walk more or I eat better or have more energy for....And while that's not untrue, that we have moments where we just need to listen to our body saying to us “just sit today,” it is also true that sometimes just getting outside can be helpful.
This notion of being the change that I want to see, I had to laugh a little bit because I remember hearing someone talk about that in regard to opening space for relationship, for friendship, for lovers even. And she said if your bed is cluttered with things then energetically you are saying that you don't have space for someone to share that with you. If your days never include time to connect, then you won't connect.
If I walk in beauty as I call myself to do, I might not
see the wake of that beauty that I have left behind.
But somebody else who walks there next
may see and experience and appreciate it.
see the wake of that beauty that I have left behind.
But somebody else who walks there next
may see and experience and appreciate it.
I'm really saying this for myself. This is really just me talking to me .... Being the change. If I want to have beauty in my life then I uphold beauty. Hmm. I feel like this is one of those lessons that I learn over and over and over and I've probably even said these before, out loud, in this space. And yet here I am again reminding myself. And while tidying up this space, taking away the boxes, putting things on shelves, putting books off stacks on the floor onto shelves. Which, by the way, I've discovered means that I can actually see, much more easily, what books I have. Imagine that. But doing that creates this space of calm, makes this place peaceful ....
I'm thinking of the image from yesterday of the tracks of water in the sand and how it speaks to me of how we leave tracks, marks of what we are, what we've offered. The tracks in the sand are not the waves but they show us where the waves were and I love the photograph, I love that image because it in itself is beautiful. And so even though it is not a picture of waves it has beauty on its own. And the waves may not even be aware of the tracks they have left in the sand ....
Even walking into a space where care has been taken, the thing is that we don't think of the work necessarily that went into creating that, we just appreciate the space. It's often how it is, the appreciation of what is.
Being the change. I may never see when I walk in the world if I walk in beauty as I call myself to do. I might not see the wake of that beauty that I have left behind. But somebody else who walks there next may see and experience and appreciate it. And so I walk in beauty for the Earth. And for those who walk on it. And I create space for myself so I can do that. And although I didn't have the kind of meditation I expected, I think this is good ....
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Centred on evocative and deeply healing guided meditations, Kimiko holds Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pst. Please join us. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop her a note by e-mail.
Centred on evocative and deeply healing guided meditations, Kimiko holds Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pst. Please join us. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop her a note by e-mail.
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One year ago, on March 1, more than 30 women gathered in my mother’s home for our annual Hinamatsuri luncheon. In Japan Hinamatsuri, also known as Doll’s Festival or Girls’s Day, is celebrated to pray for the health and happiness of our daughters. Here in Canada, my mother and I began a tradition of hosting a luncheon to celebrate women friends.
The centerpiece of Hinamatsuri is a set of Hina Ningyo, decorative dolls, representing the Emperor and Emperess and their court. When I was three years old, my grandmother made me a set of Hina Ningyo when my family visited Japan. Most families do not have a set of these dolls so this is very special.
The centerpiece of Hinamatsuri is a set of Hina Ningyo, decorative dolls, representing the Emperor and Emperess and their court. When I was three years old, my grandmother made me a set of Hina Ningyo when my family visited Japan. Most families do not have a set of these dolls so this is very special.
Listen to the popular Hinamatsuri folk song.
This year we have all learned the importance of staying connected while we are apart. Since we were not able to gather for our luncheon, instead we created and sent special cards. In any given year around 35 of us can gather. Counting all of the cards sent by me, my mother, my son and niece, nearly 100 cards travelled across the country and the world.
While sad not to gather, I am grateful to be reminded that we can find ways to reach out, to connect across distance. Even with all of the cards sent, there are many other people to whom I did not send a card. In the same way we cannot invite everyone for lunch, we could not send out an infinite number of cards. However, it makes me aware of the number of women who have touched my life as friends, teachers, mentors and co-conspirators. And if you did not receive a card from me I hope you will realize that you are also important to me, women and men both. I am so grateful for your presence in my life.
My brother and I in Japan.
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Kimiko Karpoff - Spring poised
Spring is still elusive. Like the birds flitting in-and-out of the bushes. You can hear them and sense them and occasionally even see them, but not quite. They’re there. They’re here.
And in the same way when you pay attention you can see the bits of purple peeking out from the branches of last year's blackberry vines, and the leaf mould that still predominates the ground ....
But it's coming. We know this in the longer days, the shift in the smell of the air, the sounds. And most of all I can feel her. I can feel her presence just waiting .... ....
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Centred on evocative and deeply healing guided meditations, Kimiko holds Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pst. Please join us. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop her a note by e-mail.
Centred on evocative and deeply healing guided meditations, Kimiko holds Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pst. Please join us. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop her a note by e-mail.
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Early Spring is a time to re-imagine how our core essence will blossom.
Here is what we know about Trees. We know that when the blossoms have blown away, and the leaves of the Tree have fallen to the ground, that the Tree is not dead. Rather the Tree has withdrawn into the core of her being. She has drawn inward to the essence of the Tree that she is, allowing that essence to rest during the time when it is dark and cold.
The Tree is not dead. She is conserving her energy .... She maintains all of the connections that are not seen by those of us who inhabit this middle world, the connections deep below the Earth.... the connections to clear and ancient Waters, to Grandmother and Grandfather Stone beings, to other plants, other roots, the Mycelial Network .... ....
I’ve learned from Tree that stripped of blossoms
and leaves is not stripped of self,
But released to the very core of being
that it is held within
and leaves is not stripped of self,
But released to the very core of being
that it is held within
Here is what we know about Trees. In the very early Spring as the light begins to lengthen in the days and the days track a little bit warmer, she notices and begins to wonder what Spring will bring, And puts those wondering it out in buds to gently feel the air, to taste the wind .... To feel that warmth that will soon course fully through her ....To greet the light as it begins to return ....
I'm watching outside our door from the shelter of the kitchen. The buds begin to form and to plump up even now, long before the time when we would plant a garden, long before the time when these buds will blossom either into flowers or leaves. I note that she is making preparations, gentle tender ones, moving towards greeting old friends again, like the Sunbeam and the Rain, but staying contained for now knowing that it's not time yet ....
One thing I’ve learned about Tree, that I learn from Tree, is that stripped of blossoms and leaves is not stripped of self, But released to the very core of being that it is held within the trunk and the branches of herself, that continues to connect deeply with the Earth and continues to reach up to the Divine .... And I have watched her all Winter and watch her now, and take a moment to turn into myself, to turn inward .... The energy is not out in the blossoms, it allows us to connect to that deep wisdom below the Earth, without distraction. And so I’m called to make that connection, to listen deeply, And hold that in the core of my being as we prepare for Spring and the coming forward With what we call new life But is simply a re-imagining of the life within that is already there ....
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Centred on evocative and deeply healing guided meditations, Kimiko holds Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pst. Please join us. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop her a note by e-mail.
Centred on evocative and deeply healing guided meditations, Kimiko holds Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pst. Please join us. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop her a note by e-mail.
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Kimiko Karpoff - Water ~ Each of us carries a river
When I was in Ghana it was women and girls who were keepers of the water. They would fetch water, often carrying it great distances to bring it back to their families, to the village — for drinking, for cooking, for bathing. We know that water is life and it was women who are responsible for ensuring that there was water.
I remember watching even young women and girls carrying open bins of water on their heads .... and not spilling a drop. I don't know if you've ever tried to lift a bin of water. A bin of water is both extremely heavy and any little movement will cause a wave action. And so they became adept at absorbing within their own selves the movement caused by walking ....
When we share through water ~ the energy of Love, the energy for Healing ~ that emanates and resonates throughout everything.
One thing we know about water in our much more comfortable Western existence and much more, perhaps, scientifically educated one, is that we, each of us, is made of mostly water. It varies depending on who you read and where you get your information, anywhere from I've seen as low as 60 or 70 per cent to as high as 90 per cent of our body weight, our body mass is water .... Each of us carries within us a river, a lake, an ocean of that life-giving liquid ....
And so when we share through water ~ the energy of Love, the energy for Healing ~ that emanates and resonates throughout everything. Because we are part of the cycle of water. We take it in and we release it, Just like the ocean, Just like the river, Just like the rain .... .... .... And so we honour Water and we honor those who are tasked with the maintenance, With the preservation, With the Sanctity and Sacredness of water ....
Water is Life. We are Water. We are Life. Join Kimiko on a guided meditation healing with and through the Water in you
~
Join my Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pacific. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop me a note by e-mail.
Join my Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pacific. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop me a note by e-mail.
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Kimiko Karpoff - gratitude bird song
Generally during gratitude practice,
moments, images rise up. But today
as I called in that practice it was
simply.... silence. And I thought
There must be something From the
past day the past few the past
week.... That I would name as gratitude.
And then I realized that In that silence
I could hear the birds singing .... .... .... ....
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Kimiko Karpoff - Bill's coffee brain
The water only sign on the water kettle mostly worked, there was mostly only water in the water kettle now. But that note didn't help his brain work. Today I found the coffee jar filled with water.
I knew something was up. Just his behavior, I knew that maybe something had thrown him off. And when I came into the kitchen I could smell that distinct coffee smell and I wondered if, in fact, he had put coffee in the water kettle. But it, there wasn't any, I sort of peeked even though he was standing there. And he had the coffee jar and he was fussing about with his coffee. And then he went down with his apple and his coffee down to the garage where he likes to sit and listen to the radio and smoke.
So I picked up the jar which was, oddly, not in the spot he normally puts it. This is a man of habit so the jar being off to the side was a little oddity But when I picked it up of course I could tell that it was full of water. And the thick dark sludge of instant coffee and water going down the drain like syrup. I imagine, in fact, that that dark sludge was how his thoughts trickled to him now. Trying to see through that darkness, must be really disconcerting ....
The water only sign on the water kettle mostly worked, there was mostly only water in the water kettle now. But that note didn't help his brain work. Today I found the coffee jar filled with water.
I knew something was up. Just his behavior, I knew that maybe something had thrown him off. And when I came into the kitchen I could smell that distinct coffee smell and I wondered if, in fact, he had put coffee in the water kettle. But it, there wasn't any, I sort of peeked even though he was standing there. And he had the coffee jar and he was fussing about with his coffee. And then he went down with his apple and his coffee down to the garage where he likes to sit and listen to the radio and smoke.
So I picked up the jar which was, oddly, not in the spot he normally puts it. This is a man of habit so the jar being off to the side was a little oddity But when I picked it up of course I could tell that it was full of water. And the thick dark sludge of instant coffee and water going down the drain like syrup. I imagine, in fact, that that dark sludge was how his thoughts trickled to him now. Trying to see through that darkness, must be really disconcerting ....
#dementia
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Kimiko Karpoff - 100
January 28, 2021 we gathered for the 100th Virtual Healing Circle since the pandemic isolation. Join us each Monday morning at 9 a.m. and Thursday evening at 7 p.m. pacific. Email for connection info, check out the Healing page or find us at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience page on facebook.
A Moment
100 is a round number, a coming
together. The zeroes following
that simple 1 make it significant.
Mathematically 100 is 10 tens .... that tell us that
each step comes together and creates something
more .... Collectively every drop fills an ocean
or a river. Every moment creates a life ....
Every person creates the circle ....
100 means that you started 99 ago
and kept going. It marks a journey,
it doesn’t end a journey, but marks one .... .... ....
100 is like the hummingbird that persevered
through a flight that seemed impossible
on every level. And then hovers
over the flower — another impossibility --
and drinks sweet nectar. 100 is
a celebration .... .... And so we celebrate
the coming together, the circle .... .... .... .... ....
We are the celebration ....
Each moment marks 100 something ....
100 breaths since the last 100
100 steps since the last 100 ....
100 beings gathered ....
100 moments of prayer and love .... ....
Today we mark 100 ....
Blessed be ....
A Moment
100 is a round number, a coming
together. The zeroes following
that simple 1 make it significant.
Mathematically 100 is 10 tens .... that tell us that
each step comes together and creates something
more .... Collectively every drop fills an ocean
or a river. Every moment creates a life ....
Every person creates the circle ....
100 means that you started 99 ago
and kept going. It marks a journey,
it doesn’t end a journey, but marks one .... .... ....
100 is like the hummingbird that persevered
through a flight that seemed impossible
on every level. And then hovers
over the flower — another impossibility --
and drinks sweet nectar. 100 is
a celebration .... .... And so we celebrate
the coming together, the circle .... .... .... .... ....
We are the celebration ....
Each moment marks 100 something ....
100 breaths since the last 100
100 steps since the last 100 ....
100 beings gathered ....
100 moments of prayer and love .... ....
Today we mark 100 ....
Blessed be ....
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Winter sunset from the park.
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Kimiko Karpoff - Pandemic persectives on the Sun
Of all my years living on the West Coast, which is most of my life essentially, I never really noticed how much where the Sun set moves through the seasons. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that actually. Particularly since my condo has a view of the West and I often watch the sunset or notice the setting Sun. But it wasn't until I moved here during pandemic that I really noticed. And it was because of the beach.
At the beach watching the Sun as it makes its late day journey down, I would often go to capture the beauty of that light, the beauty of that moment and also just to be there in that time of quietude. It’s often when in peak summer the geese are there. It's when people start to pack up and go home, not that there was ever lots of people at the beach. And now that the parameters of both pandemic and my own physical limitation with a broken foot have even more narrowed my ability to go very far, where the Sun sets now is still accessible to me in a way that it would not have been in the middle of the summer with the same condition, the same constraint. In the summertime often where the Sun really started to slide behind the visible horizon was quite a bit more North, often behind that curve of the bay where White Rock is. And then later just past that point looking off towards Point Roberts area, still North but a little bit more West.
Late spring looking North as the sun sets over White Rock.
And now, standing on the edge of the park overlooking the water it is really straight ahead, straight out to the open ocean. Of course not open, in the distance there are always islands. But whether we can see them Is always a question. But there is a broad expanse of water at that point before we hit land again. And the Sun seems to hover just above the water ....
In the late afternoon, really in the hour before the Sun is really considered to be setting, the Sun is still slightly to the South .... sometimes looking like it's going to come down just over Blaine, Washington Marina. But then it doesn't quite, in this moment.
I’m noticing that I can tell that the days have lengthened just a little bit again. Instead of setting at shortly after 4, the Sun is starting to hang around until closer to 5 again. Peak summer it set at often beyond 9:30 in the evening which is of course why it was that much more North by the time it was that low in the sky.
And now, standing on the edge of the park overlooking the water it is really straight ahead, straight out to the open ocean. Of course not open, in the distance there are always islands. But whether we can see them Is always a question. But there is a broad expanse of water at that point before we hit land again. And the Sun seems to hover just above the water ....
In the late afternoon, really in the hour before the Sun is really considered to be setting, the Sun is still slightly to the South .... sometimes looking like it's going to come down just over Blaine, Washington Marina. But then it doesn't quite, in this moment.
I’m noticing that I can tell that the days have lengthened just a little bit again. Instead of setting at shortly after 4, the Sun is starting to hang around until closer to 5 again. Peak summer it set at often beyond 9:30 in the evening which is of course why it was that much more North by the time it was that low in the sky.
Summer sunset with geese.
Once again this time has been a bit of a gift, giving me this opportunity to notice .... And my constriction, too, has given me an opportunity to still find places that I can access to receive those moments of beauty. To find them in the hour even before we would traditionally think we would find them.
To see the light in this way ....
The Sun in so many ways that we don't consider, keeps us alive ....Providing heat for the Earth. Creating the conditions for photosynthesis. Nourishing the plants that we eat. And becoming the fuel for the oxygen that the plants offer back to us. And how little I paid attention ....
I know more now why people looked to the Sun as a representation of the Divine, the Life Giving. And observing the sunset with the sure knowledge that in the morning it would rise again continuing to gift us with its Life Giving.
Blessed be ....
Join my Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pacific. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop me a note by e-mail.
Join my Virtual Healing Circles Monday mornings at 9 a.m. and Thursday evenings at 7 p.m. pacific. Learn more at the Good Vibrations: the Energy of Resilience facebook page, check out the Healing link on this site or drop me a note by e-mail.
