It’s still winter, in fact it’s the dead of winter (chilly nights in the Northern hemisphere’s January). It was very cold this morning, freezing cold, 27 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s unusually cold for the Bay Area. The ‘holidaze’ are over and the juggernaut of shopping is but a dream, though the fallout from the season still lingers in the body from the daily 24/7 blather the media/politico industrial complex sends forth.

And – it is still – winter! Keep the body warm, know that this is the body’s time (your body) to return as nature does into its regenerative inner sanctum. Know too, that if there should be illness, this is also the body’s challenge for repair and revitalization. Winter is preparation for the coming season of growth (however that should manifest).

This winter, give yourself over to the pleasures of your body. Feel into it, listen for its message of healing and renewal. This is not about how you wish to ‘THINK’ of yourself. Certainly you cannot talk about most of what the body can tell you. Let the feeling of your body inform, in-form from the in-side – be informed by what it feels. Let it feel you into the present with new wisdom and vigor for the coming year.

When I was younger and occupied with the duties of stay-at-home dad-dom, I used to walk down the street from our flat in San Francisco with my 3-year-old son to our local coffee house, Tassajara Bakery. It would take us a long time to cover the two blocks as my son would get sidetracked often by his own body’s locomotion, by sticks and bugs and such. As we made our way down the street, one of our neighborhood luminaries would pass us on his way to the same café. We exchanged salutations with enough regularity that it became a joke between us: he always arrived before us. His name was Thom Gunn and he was an incredible poet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thom_Gunn

This poem by Thom Gunn speaks volumes to me about how one should address the seasons of the body, particularly a mature male body.

The Visible Man

            Now I can count on you.

People are restless and they move too much,

But you no longer have a young man’s heart

Hot for experience without review,

Pumping responses to the latest touch:

            We do not need to part.

             Yet nothing lasts, you know.

I tell you what, there is a place divides

The house’s structure, hidden at the center.

If I show you that crawl-space, you must show

The inmost secrets to me that skin hides.

            Here, I will help you enter.

I find great comfort in this poem as it asks me to realign the pleasures my body offers and to feel them (definitely feel them) before thinking on them. People are restless and move too much without feeling it! … “hot for experience without review, pumping responses to the latest touch”….  The house is the body. With touch-awareness comes the realization that there is a hidden center, a crawl-space, where the secrets that skin hides may be reintegrated.

I offer massage as a sublime avenue for delight and self-reflection, feeling the body’s lessons, reviewing through feeling. Touch affords the opportunity to rediscover your inner witness, the crawl-space that reunites mind and body.

One of the key elements of our bodies is the ability of our senses to take in vastly more information than our waking consciousness can actually ‘talk’ about. We have these incredibly abundant capabilities called mirror neurons that allow us to feel through someone else’s doing. Bodies (my body, your body) are able to respond in ways we cannot consciously think of or communicate through talking. Through massage I offer mutual participation in service of healing, literally remembering your body. 

The beauty of the language of the body is that it is universal. You don’t need to believe in any creed or philosophy to believe in your body. Your body is enough – it is perfectly in and of nature itself.

I offer my unique individual practice attending to you, focused on you, with personal attention to your pleasure and awakening … a remarkably different experience than businesses that are based on group work.

Take advantage of this regenerative time of year to focus inward and to re-unite mind and body in a language beyond words.

Here, I will help you enter.