Many books praise the natural world, but none quite like Ed Yong does in his book An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. He takes readers on a journey into the sensory bubble in which we live, examining the nuances between each creature’s unique perception.
Posts filed under Issue #83
Roadside Marsh
The westbound traffic on Interstate 94 is at a crawl this morning and I couldn’t be happier. It’s a Wednesday and brilliant sunshine glints in my rear view mirror.
Finding Myself Through Human Design
On New Year’s Eve 2020, I was feeling a lot of pressure about choosing a career path. The pressure came from my partner of six years, Jake. He was frustrated that I could not just choose a career and stick with it. He couldn’t understand that I no longer wanted to work a traditional job and felt burnt out. I felt like I was living in the movie Groundhog’s Day. No matter where I worked, I always found myself in the same situation. Either the boss would not understand me and become angry or frustrated, or if it was not the boss, it would be a co-worker. Every traditional job I had seemed to chew me up and spit me out. I would find myself in a pattern of staying for about two years before the environment became toxic, and I would hop to the next job. I never understood why this would happen. I was a hard worker, friendly, and did my best, but it did not matter. I was stuck in the same cycle.
Namaste, Katie: Our Spring 2023 Yoga Column
Whether you're a seasoned yogi or getting ready to roll out your mat for the first time,
here you'll find a variety of useful tips from local yoga instructor, Katie Hoener.
Leaps of Faith: Third Mind Books
When I spoke with Arthur Nusbaum, owner of Third Mind Books, he explained that The Third Mind is a literary collaboration between novelist William S. Burroughs and artist/poet/novelist Brion Gysin that was first published in 1977. The book illustrates how a third mind is created when two people share their individual perspectives through discussion. Their openness of thought makes it possible for a third intelligence to emerge. Nusbaum gave an additional interpretation, saying “Personally, and this is what Burroughs said philosophically about it, an author and the book are two things. And the reader creates a third mind when they translate what the author says through the book. It’s the same with other forms of art.” He adds that his personal interactions with Burroughs inspired him to name the store as “a wink at Burroughs, just like our logo with his silhouette in a fedora.”
All Creatures Great and Small: In-Home Euthanasia and Hospice-Assisted Natural Death For Your Pets
The bond we share with our pets is one the strongest bonds we will ever experience. Their devotion to us, as well as their non-judgmental, unconditional love, leaves an indelible mark on our hearts which is why saying goodbye is so hard. As a Certified Hospice and Palliative Care Veterinarian, the most common question I am asked is, “When will I know it is time to say goodbye?” What many families do not realize is that choosing where and how to say goodbye can be just as important.
Ann Arbor Farm and Garden: Flower Therapy and Community Beautification
Do you like playing in the dirt? Maybe you’re a bit of a novice when it comes to plants, but you enjoy taking walks in neighborhoods that have been enhanced with beautiful flowers, or even learning more about them from an expert. Do you think of ways that plants and flowers can create beauty in a public place in need of some love and care? What about arranging flowers? Are flowers your go to for a loved one suffering from an illness? Would you like to help students who have a passion for botany or in improving the natural environment? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then read on to learn more about Ann Arbor Farm and Garden, an organization that has been giving back to the community for more than 75 years.
Black Men Read: Expanding Possibilities Through Storytelling
“This has to change, on my watch,” Yodit Mesfin Johhson realized. The need for change became urgent when her own son was in second grade. Her life’s work in racial justice organizing took a big pivot toward the education sector with one call. It was Black History month and there were no Black men on the Mitchell Elementary School’s faculty. Her son’s teacher called to ask if she knew any Black men that would read to his classes. Of course, Mesfin Johnson arranged a roster of volunteers that rotated through the school's reading hours all throughout February. The realization that her son had no Black male role models at school collided with her own awakening to spur a deep dive of research into the educational system. “It turns out that less than 2% of U.S. teachers are Black men.”
Green Living: Ditching the Paper Towel
Did you know the invention of paper towels was completely accidental? Many are familiar with the Scott Paper Company which founded toilet paper all the way back in 1879. In the early 20th century, the Scott plant received a railroad car’s worth of paper rolled too thick for toilet paper. Instead of scrapping the whole load, one of the founders used a story he heard about a school using small pieces of soft paper to hand out to students with runny noses during flu season as an entrepreneurial opportunity. The paper was perforated into small towel-sized sheets, called Sani-Towel, and sold to hotels, restaurants, and railroad stations for use in restrooms. It wouldn’t be until almost 30 years later before paper towels were popularized for household kitchens the way they are today.
Great Tastes in Local Food: Spring 2023
Restaurant reviews for: North Star Lounge, Latin American Cuban Cuisine, and Plate Sushi and Chicken.
The Art of Spirit Guide Messages and Tarot
Like many, my spiritual journey started at a young age, I felt, saw, and simply just knew. I knew there was more, especially when some of my dreams came to fruition. I simply didn’t understand how to interpret how that came to be. I would lose myself in my art, writing poetry and short stories.
Sustainable Health: When Food as Medicine Becomes Food as a Threat to Health
In the early 1990’s, when first beginning my foray into nutrition work, the cutting edge was the emergence of the low carb diet. The Atkins Diet was published in 1992 and faced off against the high carb, low fat heart disease reversal program of Dean Ornish. Ornish is a physician who led the public and the medical community toward a plant based, low fat lifestyle approach to preventing and reversing heart disease.
The Past Rarely Stays in the Past
Sometimes it’s hard to uncover the truth about past events. Other times the past reveals its truths almost unbidden. Either way, the past rarely stays only in the past.
Cooking With Lisa
Vegan burgers are plant-based alternatives to traditional meat-based burgers. They’re made with a variety of healthy and tasty plant-based ingredients, such as beans, grains, vegetables, and soy protein, and can be seasoned with a variety of spices and herbs to create a flavorful and satisfying meal.
Tea Time with Peggy: Cold Brew Tea
By Peggy A. Alaniz
With the high heat and humidity of a summer day in Michigan, the last thing I want to do is boil water for tea. It’s summer! I want to take life easy, maybe play in my garden or go out on the lake. While boiling water is not hard, I don’t want to waste time waiting for the tea to chill. While I could let the sun brew some tea, I could just as easily cold brew it in the refrigerator overnight.
The Practice Beneath the Practice
By Kelly Kempter
My bodywork practice synthesizing Shiatsu and Thai massage serves as a physical manifestation of a deeper spiritual practice. Both Thai massage and Shiatsu are rooted in Buddhist traditions, and I feel honored and enlivened to be a part of these pathways in the modern world. The principles of Insight Meditation offer guidance for my bodywork sessions, allowing a somatization of the path.
In my mat-based bodywork practice, I utilize a mapping of the body-mind-heart founded in Shiatsu and Five Element Theory and apply methods from both Shiatsu and Thai massage. I studied Thai massage twenty years ago at the beginning of my massage therapy training and fell in love with the approach; performing Thai massage on a clothed recipient on a floor mat feels like a beautiful duet of healing touch, a slow, meditative dance akin to Tai Chi. The choreography of it, if you will, awakens a sense of being fully embodied in the practice of touch.
Some years later, when I began studying Five Element Shiatsu as taught by Frances Farmer, I was able to connect with a foundational theory that makes my heart sing and reminds me of deeper truths. Utilizing presence, reverence, and full body engagement along with a growing understanding of Five Element Theory and being in tune with nature (with the seasons and tides in our bodies) the stage is set for healing--I’m all in. I am listening with my whole being to another person’s pain and honoring the life force within which is healthy and whole. Frances Farmer observes, “Your body has the inner wisdom to heal itself, and I am here to listen and learn.”
Both Thai massage and Shiatsu are mat-based therapies founded on a premise of oneness and that the giver is healed as much as the receiver. The therapist opens their senses to what is present and holds it in a loving light. Holding is the essence of what I do. I hold tissue with my body weight. I hold points with my fingers, knees, elbows, or toes. I hold words. I hold the pain of embodiment. I hold emotions, sensations, and thoughts. I stay with what arises, watch transformation occur, and remain curious. In the simplest way, I am listening, witnessing, feeling, and accepting while holding the physical form.
My spiritual journey is the foundation of this incarnation; it is the ground I stand on and guides all aspects of my life. For me, it is easy to see how it is the very bedrock of a practice that involves touch and healing. Although, I do not limit my spirituality to a single tradition; it is a living practice steeped in Insight Meditation. Also called Vipassana, Insight Meditation is one aspect of Theravada Buddhism, which is practiced in Thailand. The teachings urge us to sit in meditation, study the Dharma, move with awareness, cultivate Sangha, pay attention to the stillness, speak with kindness, walk in silence, and watch what arises. The idea is to honor whatever is present, inviting all of it in for a cup of tea—the old wounds, fear and grief, the harmonious heart, mundane plans, rehearsals spawned by anxiety, inner peace, re-playing of scenes laced with shame, the exalted states, and everything in between. Returning to this moment over and over again, in a spiraling dance of unfolding, we come closer and closer to home. When we sit with our resistance, its grip loosens, and we are brought back to wholeness.
Vipassana practice, Thai massage, and Shiatsu are all founded upon a cosmology of non-duality. They are based on the radical premise that there is nothing wrong, nothing to be fixed, that we are already healthy, vibrant, and whole--that our true nature is one of peaceful aliveness. We can only gain access to this wisdom in the present moment. Since the body is always in the present moment, it makes for an easy entry point into both healing and spiritual inquiry. Connected to our wholeness, we observe ties to the natural world; we begin to see that we are not separate from nature, but a manifestation of its elements. Awareness of sensations in our bodies brings us closer to our elemental nature and invites its own sort of healing.
My bodywork practice is a somatic exploration of Insight Meditation. In both practices, upon first glance, there is chaos. There are complaints. There is pain. There is dissatisfaction. When a client walks into the room, they give name to the details of their suffering. Similarly, when we sit down to meditate, our patterns of suffering become apparent. When we touch or are touched with care and attention, the resistance begins to melt. When we stay with sensations, mindfulness creates an opening in which suffering can transform. Over time, the consciousness of what is happening becomes larger and more powerful than the details of our pain. As my Thai massage teacher, Paul Fowler wrote, “In the Thai way of thinking, illness and disease are a natural part of life and although it recognizes that the body is out of balance when these things occur and need to be corrected, there is less tension around illness and disease because they recognize that these things are natural and impermanent.”
For me, both meditation sessions and bodywork sessions integrate a ritualistic start and finish. When a person walks through my door, utilizing Buddhist principles around compassion and sympathetic joy, I open myself to be a kind witness, one who accepts whatever is going on, hearing the details and honoring the suffering. Taking in the fullness of a human being, perhaps I am able to discern which elemental phases are speaking the loudest and what parts of a human are in need of nurturing. Moving over to the mat, the process of setting up the body of both giver and receiver in a relaxed alignment contributes to concentration and enhances energy flow through the system. This is true as well for tending to our posture when we sit in meditation. This pre-session care creates a sacred space and a kind of healing cocoon. With the first touch, I am reminded of my Vipassana teacher, Susan Weir’s words, “Let awareness do the heavy lifting.” I feel deeply into the very essence of a person, beyond the complaints that they walked in with, beyond their name and the person they experience themself to be. I too walk beyond myself as a massage therapist working on tissues. I open my awareness to our joined life force. I listen with an intimacy that unites two beings via a shared experience. There is nothing to do but be present while connecting with a solid, relaxed pressure. There is literally nothing that needs doing, fixing, changing, or even healing. Our wholeness and vibrancy is already present, it is the essence of us. With a courageous presence, when we are able to pull back from doing and engage in the art of non-doing, we connect with a force that is always in a state of balance. This is coming home.
Kelly Kempter is a licensed massage therapist specializing in Thai Massage and Shiatsu in her Kerrytown studio. She seeks to inspire balance in the community through the practice and teaching of bodywork. Visit her online at kaizenhealingarts.com.
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About seven years ago, I fainted when sick and hit my head. I sustained a concussion, but it was on the severe end of what is considered a concussion, right before you get to a moderate traumatic brain injury. I was sent to neurology and then neuropsych for a support group to teach me how to cope with the effects of the injury and how slowly the healing happens. Unfortunately, I was let go from the group after six months.