The Christmas season ushers in performances of all sorts: piano recitals, grade school dramas, choral and orchestral events, (Handel’s Messiah), ballet (Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker), community choirs, church plays, festivals of carols, and much more. I invite you to consider two key vantage points of performance: being a witness, being witnessed.	How do you 

? This word, of Old English origin, means ‘

’. How do we see or know? Imagine yourself at a young child’s first piano recital; then imagine yourself at Celtic Thunder’s Christmas Special. Do you witness these from the same perspective? What influences your process of witnessing? What expectations do you have? How do your expectations affect your witnessing of an event…and even your enjoyment thereof? Can you see/know from an unbiased perspective?Now consider what it is to 

. Say you are with your long-time singing group, offering a show at a local club where you regularly perform. Compare that with performing at a university stage with a musical theatre group you recently joined. In both you are being vulnerable in offering yourself, and they are different…. in many ways.	Being a witness and being witnessed happen in all aspects of our lives, not just in performance.

: Here is a practice for you to explore with a friend: 

 is the mover/the person being witnessed. 

: Choose an activity in which you would like to be witnessed for about 10-15 minutes such as knitting, skating, playing piano, reading aloud, walking… . BEFORE ‘doing’ your chosen activity, take a few moments to breathe deeply and slowly, letting your body settle and allow your body weight to yield to the support of the earth. Then bring your awareness inward to sense into the nuances of your inner state: how you are feeling, what you are sensing, and so on. Feel the support of your friend who witnesses you with loving kindness. Follow your inner impulses of movement and allow this to take you into your chosen activity. Try to balance your inner awareness with your outer awareness of your activity.

: sit comfortably, feeling your pelvis rooted into the chair, feet resting on the earth. Let your whole body breathe deeply. Let your mind rest, quieting mental chatter. Attune all your senses so that you can 

 the experience fully. Let this experience be new/fresh in this time and place. From where in your body-mind are you witnessing? 

 from a place of non-judgment. Witness with 

, the mover, the one who was witnessed, share for 2 minutes from a first person perspective using sentences starting with “

” . Report on your movement and experience and AVOID judgment statements.	Then B, the witness, shares for 2 minutes on his/her observations, using “

” statements. AVOID judgments and interpretations.

Pause for a few minutes to absorb this experience, then change roles.

Witness—Witnessed

October seems to be a paradoxical month: the 4th marks the blessing of the animals, the 17th is the Hunter full (super!) moon, and the 31st celebrates both scary ghosts and saintly souls. How do we reconcile these seemingly opposed actions and what is our role in it? One way is to cognitively dismiss some/all, but I would like to offer a somatic mini-practice of being a blessing and receiving a blessing with the natural world. First a 

 of background: Traditionally the Celts marked the transition from harvest to winter on October 31 by creating big bonfires to protect citizens from the risen 

 who created havoc and who facilitated the telling of the future by Druid priests. They also celebrated Pomona, the goddess of 

 (have you ever bobbed for apples?) In the 7th Century, Christians transformed the Celtic festival by celebrating the martyrs and 

 of the church on all-hallowed eve.	October’s full moon is the Hunter moon: a time when indigenous peoples respectfully hunted fattened 

 and other animals for both food and clothing for the winter.	Francis of Assisi (12th century) left a life of luxury to care for poor people. He also viewed and cared for animals as his ‘brothers and sisters’.Francis, patron saint of animals, is celebrated by people bringing their 

/agricultural animals to be blessed.	The 7 Sacred Teachings of the indigenous peoples come from a framework of humility and respect for 

 and from whom we are encouraged to learn.	It is from these latter two perspectives that I invite you into a 

Find a comfortable place outside in nature, or at home with your pet, or in the coop with your chicken. Spend a few moments, breathing deeply, connecting into self. Tune into a sense of your body mass and release your weight into gravity, feeling the earth supporting you. (3-5 minutes)



Keeping shoulders relaxed, rub your hands together briskly, allowing the fingers of your right hand to interdigitate with fingers of your left hand. (1-2 minutes)

Gently pull your hands apart, moving them slightly away and then closer to each other, sensing the bio-magnetic energy between your hands. Then use one hand to hover slightly over your forearm until you sense that same bio-magnetic energy between your hand and the outer layer of your skin (the epidermis is the outer protective layer of skin that ‘looks outward toward the world’). Try to feel this sensation throughout the whole of your body.

Ever so gently allow your hand to touch your forearm, and allow your awareness to touch the second deeper layer of your skin (the dermis is the inner layer of your skin that ‘looks inward into your body’ and contains hair follicles, sensory nerves, oil and sweat glands). Again try to feel this throughout your whole body.

Deepen your conscious awareness again to the connective tissue layer underneath your skin (the subcutaneous layer contains a loose fascial gel-sol matrix with collagen, elastin, additional nerve cells, blood and lymphatic vessels, and fat cells). Once again, allow this sensation to spread thru your whole body.

Staying with this ‘all-over’ awareness (your ‘spidey senses’), stand or sit near a living being (tree, plant, pet…). Allow a fair bit of time to sense the other being thru this layer of awareness. Close your eyes and slowly move closer and further away from the other being. When do you feel you are ‘touching without touching’? Try to stay in ‘sensing’ thru your ‘spidey senses’ rather than a cognitive knowing. We are seeking to develop a deep level of sensing. As you come into relationship, ask the Creator to bless (the tree or pet or chicken or insect….etc) and open yourself to learning from this relative of yours.(15-20 minutes)

As you bring your exploration to a close, allow yourself time to gradually transition thru these same layers (this time in reverse order: subcutaneous layer to dermis to epidermis). Return to your sense of weight and breath. What epiphanies did you have?

*Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, founder of Body-Mind Centering®, articulately describes this an embodiment of the superficial nervous system network.

Forms of Blessing

Autumn welcomes us with golden aspen poplars and larches amongst deep pine and spruce greens with the background of a cerulean blue Alberta sky. The season’s cheerful palette encourages me to consider upcoming 

: colourful root veggies and squashes, layered clothing for cooler outdoor adventures, truncated daylight offering time for inward journeys and reading. As I watch the busy-ness of squirrels, birds, deer, and elk, I reflect how nature is preparing itself for the incubation of winter, and how I too can make mindful choices regarding my wellness. According to the Global Wellness Institute, 

 pursuit of activities, choices, and lifestyles that lead to a state of 

 health’. This whole-person pursuit includes aspects of our physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and environmental life. One could include other (and more) aspects, of course, and what resonates with me is that wellness is 

. Process-oriented practice. Wellness, for me, is a 

, an action to which we return day by day, moment by moment. It requires a 

 in our choices, no matter how mundane or marvellous. It’s an ongoing process in that as we change and grow, so can our wellness practice.​​ How does this relate to 

? Just as nature has a unique rhythm and manifestation in each season, so can we allow ourselves the freedom to make new mindful choices to support our wellness. ​

 this: mindfully commit to one process-oriented practice per month, not as a ‘task’ but as a loving invitation to yourself. Notice what you sense in yourself; notice how you feel. Test it out if it’s a practice that works for you. Here are a few ideas:

• Include two colourful veggies on your dinner plate

• Attentively listen to and absorb your favourite uplifting music

• Practice being fully present with your significant other

• Read holy literature with an open and discerning heart

• Look and genuinely see the beauty of unfamiliar things in nature

• At bedtime, sense the settling of your bodymind

Enjoy your process-oriented wellness practice!

Seasons of Wellness

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Witness—Witnessed

Forms of Blessing

Seasons of Wellness​

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Witness—Witnessed

Forms of Blessing

Seasons of Wellness