Author: Ki McGraw

In my private practice I have the freedom to meet my clients where they live. This is often metaphoric although lately it’s been literal. I did four house calls yesterday. I also did a private session and taught class at Hatha Yoga Center.

I feel honored to be allowed into someone’s personal sanctuary in order to facilitate their process. It takes me back to the feeling of the old country doctor of medicine, whereas I’m non medical in my approach to holistic counseling.

Do you like some of the old ways? Are you free to incorporate them into this modern world? Ki to Happiness appreciates what serves.

Several years ago circumstances brought about a strong reaction in me toward fleeing. My response was to channel that impulse into slow steady preparation as I gathered more information. The Covid year ground that process to a halt.

Staying put and hunkering down brought me to a soft landing. After all we’ve been through, I revel in the depth of safety Hatha Yoga provides. Circumstances have changed and now my reaction is free from fight or flight. Free from trauma, I embrace my life anew at this depth.

How is your post Covid experience? Have you landed? Ki to Happiness lands in the soft embrace of Hatha Yoga Center.

Sometimes our reliable tools of breath work and meditation need to adjust. When life comes at you with too many demands, shocking changes, and uprooting surprises, all can ricochet within. This is when open eyed meditation may serve.

If it all possible, we allow the open eyes to fix on the stable part of a candle flame. Even watching one on a screen can help, if circumstances don’t allow fire. Keeping the eyes steady, and open, we identify with the stable aspect of our consciousness. Our essence remains, even as surprises shock and disturb our dancing flame. This has helped me bring my breath into rhythmic stability, balancing my mind.

Can you meditate with your eyes closed or open? Are you able to adjust your tools to accommodate your present needs? Ki to Happiness identifies with essence.

Today’s celebration of the Chariot in India includes a large rooster, depicting one of the offsprings of Lord Siva and Parvati. In the east, an 18 wheeled chariot conveys the cosmos through all the changing yugas or epochs and all creatures participate.

Yesterday there was a man dressed in a large rooster costume at our nearby community center. In the west, we think of 18 wheeler’s as semi trucks, delivering goods and hogging the highways during summer road trips. Kids at the center didn’t care about east/west. Semis/chariots.They saw something funny and checked it out.

Can you see the similarities between East and West? When you say something funny can you check it out like the kids? Ki to Happiness checks out the funny stuff in both east and west,

I ventured out to the farmers market yesterday. Like a mirage I kept blinking to make sure I was really seeing what I thought I was: People were walking in all directions some hand-in-hand without masks. Dogs pulling leashes sniffing at each other’s butts. Musicians playing their hearts out on sax or fiddles. And Kathleen’s friendly welcome, remembering me from before the masks.

In the wide open I started to melt. My eyes leaked the stress of the pandemic down my cheeks. I gestured to Kathleen for a hug. Her amplitude engulfed all of me as I sobbed. Then I walked on, still whimpering a bit until my first purchase: a crate of mixed berries. Next, sunflower sprouts..squash blossoms…vegan cookies…the back to Kathleen’s for smiles and a great deal!

How are you doing without Covid restrictions? Have you released the trauma from the pandemic? Ki to Happiness releases in the wide open.

My brother’s good news from his surgeon brings relief. He is healing on schedule with no need for further procedures. Our good friend who has helped give him rides to his appointments confirms his report. Her text amplified his report. My mother’s voice on the phone sounds chipper again as my dad plays backgammon with his care giver, no longer stressing about how my brother is.

As a single man who lives alone, perhaps he didn’t realize that not only his coworkers feel the load of his medical leave. Many of us share in it, and now in the relief. No matter how isolated and independent we think we are, we are part of the web of life, interconnecting us all.

Can you feel the relief with me? Were you aware that you were helping me carry my sisterly load? Ki to Happiness shares the good news.

Today my brother Patrick goes in for his next examination following his second surgery to reattach his retina. My thoughts are with him and prayers are to the patron saint of vision, Saint Lucia.

It’s helpful to me to know how to pray. I am repeatedly aware of my human limitations. Each day I ask for help. Especially on this new moon, I invoke the Helpers all around us to see us through to clear vision, right action and constant Remembrance.

What limitations are you up against? Who can assist? Ki to Happiness accepts limitations and remembers to ask for help from the Limitless.

I spoke with an old friend yesterday. Her dad recently passed away. She didn’t want to talk about it because she didn’t want to cry anymore tears of grief right then. She said “tell me about your life. How was your reopening? Are you enjoying the summer?”

I followed her lead. I wanted to support her in her process as she is. As we talked, I remembered what feels like an unspoken creed of soul sisters, our way of being with each other through life’s ups and downs. It brought me to tears of love.

When’s the last time you softened into tears of love? Do you remember the unspoken creed with your soul family? Ki to Happiness sends love to all soul sisters and brothers.

Five years ago while we were in Bali our housesitter here in Seattle told the story that he was stalked and followed into our home. The story came to a conclusion yesterday with the presentation of a homemade gift and a blanket apology “if” anything that occurred resulting from that was problematic.

My computer was stolen, along with my stateside wallet and a lifetime’s worth of jewelry collected from many friends and travels. A large gaping hole remain in my kitchen for four years as a reminder of the “problem”. Yesterday’s A Course in Miracles lesson was “the salvation of the world depends on me”. With that reminder, I knew my role was prescribed: patient forgiveness.

How long are you willing to patiently wait to receive some sort of apology? Are you able to forgive without one? Ki to Happiness impatiently forgives immediately and is willing to patiently wait indefinitely for any kind of apology.

I slept in today. Without fireworks in the middle of the night, and after a big long walk into our beautiful nearby woods, I stayed asleep until 4:45 AM.

As I started, the practices did me more than me doing the practices. The well worn habits have dug a deep groove in my psyche. My actions followed the groove up to now.

What groove results from your habits? Which practices do you? Ki to Happiness grooves in the early morning.