Monday, December 15, 2014

take five

Don't forget to take a moment for you! Sit comfortably. Close your eyes. Take ten deep breaths -in through your nose, out your mouth- filling your lower abdomen as much as possible. Before you open your eyes set an intention: a goal, a mood, a feeling, a hope.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

deep ground massage + bodywork

A return home, a return to my roots, has proven just as difficult as the Uprooting to the east. In our transient states, we find an ease in the temporary. We outstretch our hands to hold another, but know that our time is fleeting. We cherish those moments, believing that we may never have them again. But the radical act of setting down roots, a conscious attending to Connection, to Longevity, is careful work. We set our feet in the ground, and stand still, letting our words and emotions go to work. As we unearth new friends, colleagues, and acquaintances, we discover the communities that thrive in the places we come to know.

The deep ground I find here --my birthplace, my Home-- is overwhelmingly familiar. It is strange to surround yourself in a foreign place, and then return to the familiar. Time passes, and things change, but your just can't separate out the Herstory from the Present. I just had coffee with a friend who is Home after teaching English in Japan for five years. The re-introduction to everything you know isn't, as we'd assume, easy. We grow accustomed to adaptation, the clever workings to adjust to a new environment in a moment, learning new ways of doing things, even challenging what we believe.

As I recall the wonderful things of the PNW, and especially Portland (as she grows, and boasts a bustle of artists and young people) I am pleased to offer my massage work.

Here, in the NW, massage is about creating moments for yourself. Massage provides the time to rest, to collect and reintroduce the parts of yourself that slip away throughout the days, weeks, and months of living that happen between the times we take care of ourselves. This is a call, to care for yourself, yet another radical act in our busy, busy world.

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

a license!

mail-call!
I've been a licensed massage practitioner (LMP) in Washington State since 2010. I had a great practice on Capitol Hill where I served fellow artists, and creative beings, with affordable pricing. I moved away from Seattle, my home for nearly 8 years, to pursue graduate studies on the east coast. Returning to Portland in August, I spent an entire month preparing for the Oregon Board of Massage Practical Exam. If you know a licensed massage therapist (LMT) working in the state of Oregon, give them a hug! That was a serious test of skill, knowledge, and confidence in my massage work. And I passed, with a 93%. Whew!