Journeys With Oz

I am excited to announce that after many requests and considerations I will be presenting the basic six Resonance Repatterning classes ONLINE and I need your input! I will be sending a survey out soon to get your thoughts on this exciting new venture. As a virtual experience you can learn this amazing process from the comfort of your own home. This will be a powerful experience for new students and a wonderful opportunity to update and solidify the process for existing students and practitioners. To manage the virtual side of things, RPA past president and practitioner Carolyn Winter, has agreed to be my partner with this new venture. We are very excited to begin in the fall so please look for the survey coming soon and thank you in advance for your participation. Ardis

It’s an interesting time to live in Arizona. We are complex mixture of people and philosophies. Recently there have been some prominent events that have caught the attention of the world. Gabby Gifford, congresswoman from Tucson, is an optimistic gentle soul. By all accounts she was popular with the district she represented and liked to plan events in her area where she could interact with her constituents and listen to their concerns. She did this frequently and attracted a large crowd each time. In January of 2011 she also attracted a mentally wounded man. He shot her and killed six other people in a Safeway shopping center. There were many heroes that day that managed to stop him before he could take more lives. Gabby was shot in her head and the bullet went through the left side of her skull. She received wonderful medical care and has spent the past year rehabbing from that tragic moment. Brain trauma is very serious and the work she had to do to recover her speech and movement is ongoing. In light of this reality she made a difficult decision.
She loved her work. She loved representing Tucson in Congress. She loved her colleagues. She loved her Republican colleagues too. She was known by all as fair, honest and willing to reach across the aisle to compromise. She stood for integrity and loved her job. Last week she resigned. It was an unforgettable scene to witness. All the news channels covered it because of her high profile tragedy as a member of congress who was nearly assassinated.

One of theirs was attached. One of theirs was critically wounded. They looked at her thinking it could have been me. In light of that reality their humanity came through. I saw human beings coming together in Congress. What a refreshing sight. They praised her, honored her, hugged her and cried. Democrats and Republicans, who on a good day seem to merely tolerate each other, came together this day as one heart. They radiated love. In that moment there was peace. In that remarkable session they actually unanimously passed Congresswoman Gifford’s last bill through. It doesn’t matter what the bill was about. What struck me so profoundly was the CIVILITY that was apparent that day.

In her five years of service Gabby Gifford got a lot done with a mixture of pragmatism and bipartisanship. Her legacy will be how she inspired Americans with her remarkable recovery, her determination, courage and dignity. Gabby had not recovered enough of her speech so her colleague read her final remarks to those gathered in the House of Representatives. “From my first steps and first words after being shot to my current physical and speech therapy, I have given all of myself to being able to walk back into the House floor this year to represent my district. However I know this is not the time. I have more work to do on my recovery before I can again serve in elected office. I will recover and will return and we will work together again for all Americans”. Then she walked, with assistance up to the podium where the speaker stood. I am sure they clashed in the past. I’m sure they argued with each other. I’m sure they butted heads in their five years together but not this day. She slowly walked towards him with support and stumbled slightly in her attempts to get up the step and handed in her letter of resignation. He hugged her with tears streaming down his cheeks. In that moment we saw politicians being people with gentle hearts. It was powerful and profound to witness this amazing display of love.

I am holding the possibility that Gabrielle Gifford’s true legacy will be that moment when politicians remembered what was really important in life; an open heart willing to listen and embrace differences. Hurry back Gabby. Arizona needs a reasonable, strong, courageous representative who is ready, willing and able to listen and compromise for the greater good.

It’s hard to imagine the opportunity in such a trauma. Yet we clearly witnessed, in that display of support and tributes from the House of Representatives, an amazing heart opening. We witnessed consensus. We were given hope. I hold the possibility that they will retain a measure of the civility they exhibited that day. It could happen. God indeed works in mysterious ways……

There is a new dynamic in the marriage of Michael and Rosalyn Lieb. They have been married almost a half century. He is an English Professor and she is a lawyer. They have both retired. Not that they wanted to. Life gave them a new challenge. They both have Parkinson’s disease. This is the new third partner in their lives. How they deal with this and the new “hobby” they have begun doing makes their story most interesting.

They are dancing. Research indicates that exercise is good for these patients and combining music with movement seems to create some positive changes in their bodies. Parkinson’s is trying to slowly take their bodies away and dance is giving it back.

Lindsey Tanner, (associated press) writes “that Michaels diagnosis began 11 years ago and Rosalyn became his caretaker. But two years ago she developed a tremor too and was diagnosed as well. “I couldn’t believe it. It seemed incredible to me that we both should have the disease” he said. “It came as a real shock, a real downer. No-one in either family had a history of this disease- it came out of the blue.”

This couple still loves to read, go to the symphony and opera and get together with family and friends. In addition, once a week, they head to an unusual Chicago dance class tailored for Parkinson’s patients. A nurse first recommended it to Michael three years ago and his wife went along-first to help Michael and now to help herself as well.

The tremors and stiff, awkward movements of Parkinson’s hardly seem compatible with dancing. But exercise is recommended for patients to improve flexibility and brain specialists are investigating if dance offers something more. For this couple the answer is clear: “It just lifts the spirits. It does transport us, to a different planet where Parkinson’s doesn’t matter so much. We check our disease at the door and we’re all one community, mutually supportive and we dance together. It’s just a marvelous experience.”

These dancers are not professionals. Yet their moves are poignant and stirring. Some are in wheelchairs or can barely move without their partners’ help. During a recent class, a man stood behind his wife’s chair, leaning down to gently stroke her immobile arms in time with the music. A pianist with two small drums fills the studio with a steady, soothing beat. Their teacher, Sarah Fuller, leads students through basic dance exercises: rhythmic arm lifting, bending and foot stomping. Sometimes they are seated in chairs, sometimes on foot, sashaying in a way with their partners across the dance floor.

Sarah commented: “they assume that they’re not dancers, whereas I see them as dancers. I don’t see the disease-I try not to. I try not to let it permeate the room. But I also see them working through it and pushing to find new ways of movement”.

Music speaks to the emotional brain. Research at Washington University in St. Louis indicates that Parkinson’s patients walk more quickly and with less stiffness if they do the tango twice a week. They theorize that when you hear music it may bypass damaged brain cells making movement easier.

Michael and Rosalyn are less severely affected by Parkinson’s than some of their class mates. Yet their hands shake when they swing their arms toward the ceiling and their halting strides across the floor aren’t as long and graceful as Fuller’s. But when they face each other in a sort of do-se-do, smiling and rhythmically shifting their feet, there’s no question that they’re dancing. The class has become a highlight of their week. Whether the benefits are physical, psychological or both they say dancing” has mobilized something inside of us”.

They are a dignified couple. They are also philosophical about how their lives have changed from this disease. They have sold their family home and scaled down to a condo without stairs. Roslyn says: I have a goal of dancing at my grandchildren’s weddings. Together we represent one unit, one truly healthy person who is becoming unhealthy as time goes on. But that’s ok”.

This couple is dancing through adversity. Has a great ring doesn’t it? It is easy to imagine spiraling down and focusing on all that is lost when there is a diagnosis like this. They made a different choice. They chose to keep moving forward and to keep discovering new ways of being in the world and in their bodies. This article quotes them as saying:” We’re facing up to it and we’re enjoying each other in a way, and loving each other in a way, that would have been impossible without the disease”.

I am most impressed and humbled by this couple and how they are living their lives. I would like to get this amazing learning without a diagnosis of an incurable disease to prompt me. That is one of my intentions for the New Year. Keep moving forward and most important: KEEP DANCING! Ardis

I read an article recently in the Arizona Republic newspaper about a homeless man who made an interesting choice.

Dave Tally spent most nights sleeping on a mat at a homeless shelter. During the day, he walked the streets. That is where he found a backpack with over $3,000 cash and a laptop in it. Enough for his own place, a bike to get around on and the means to fulfill a long wish list after being homeless for six years. He had found the backpack at the light rail station near the University. He knew it probably belonged to a college student.

The interfaith shelter had seen Dave’s potential when he showed up for a bed each night in his shelter which required sobriety. They had selected him as one of the programs night monitors. Although many shelters struggle with violence and crime this one rarely has such troubles. “The program works because people like Dave don’t want to do anything to hurt the people from the church who are kind enough to let them sleep there;” the director of the shelter said.

At the time, Dave was working a step recovery program. Drugs, alcohol and a string of bad decisions had dogged him for much of his life. He had lost his driver’s license when he got a DUI, lost his job, and bit by bit his life unraveled. He developed a plan with an agency caseworker to reach his goals. To get a job he needed to get his driver’s license reinstated. He had to pay fines. He had to get rid of some debt. A bag full of money would have been an easy fix. But to meet any one of those goals he knew he would have to keep attending his recovery meetings and telling the truth. He was committed to his sobriety. He also struggled with what to do with the money he had found. He confided in his mentor and he told Dave it was up to him to make a decision.

In the Resonance Repatterning seminars I talk about the affect dishonesty has on our energetic system. Even keeping one penny more than is owed you will diminish your energy. This demonstration is powerful for my students and gets us thinking about the choices we make and justify every day. Dave has never been in one of my seminars. He just knew that keeping the cash, “just didn’t feel right”. Dave says the choice came down to not being able to take something he didn’t earn from someone who might need it.

With the help of the shelter director they tracked down the owner. It did belong to a student who got distracted in a conversation on his cell phone and forgot his bag. He had planned to use the money to buy a car to replace one wrecked in a recent accident. Meeting him and hearing the student’s thanks and praises for his honesty and kindness made Dave feel good about himself. He had not felt that in awhile. It is hard to have faith in yourself when you’ve been digging through the trash for a meal and hurting the people who love you. Dave knows better than most how easily life can spiral out of control when it comes to the disease of addiction. “I didn’t want to waste all the good that people had done for me,” he said.

Dave’s good deed sparked an international outpouring of goodwill. People wanted to help get him off the streets. The story went national. He was interviewed by CNN, People magazine and ABC’s Diane Sawyer. A few foreign news outlets picked up on the story. Maxwell House coffee put him on a 30 second commercial as a part of a marketing campaign on the power of optimism. Donations started pouring in for him exceeding $10,000. A lawyer volunteered to fix his legal mess so he could get his driver’s license back. It took about 6 months but he arranged for him to pay restitution from his fund and do community service. A dentist fixed his teeth. The ripple affect of energy spiraling up when we do the right thing!

“I just want to thank everyone who was willing to help give me a second chance in life.” Even though he had enough money to move out of the shelter right away last year, he asked to keep volunteering and sleeping there. Last January, Dave moved into his own apartment. He chose a no-frills, five-unit complex across the street from a church where he had slept when he was homeless. He said he wanted “a reminder of where I’ve been and where I’m not going back again.”

Seeing Dave’s commitment to getting his life in order, the non-profit offered him an internship at a community garden it was starting to help fill the charity’s food pantry with fresh vegetables and fruits. In June, Sparks called Dave into his office for a review. “I messed with him a little, but I knew he was getting the job,” Sparks said. “He’d worked so hard.”

Dave says now has his dream career. “I’m blessed,” he said, adding that he hopes to return to school to further his horticulture studies. He is in the garden almost every day planting, digging and cultivating food that is distributed to community volunteers and to the food pantry. “I just don’t want anybody to have to take something out of the garbage to eat,” he said, explaining why he spends so much time in the garden.

Recently, he started managing an internship program that allows people who are homeless to volunteer in the garden. He doesn’t preach to anyone, though. “I let them know that when they’re ready to make changes, it’s possible,” he said.

“I learned in my recovery program not to judge other people. I guess all I can say is that if I hadn’t been at that point … where I was working the program … I wouldn’t have been at the point to make changes in my life.”

In the spring, when Dave’s license was reinstated, he bought a motorcycle. He follows a strict budget to maintain his simple lifestyle. “My bills, they get priority. Nothing else gets done until they get paid,” he said. “It’s a great feeling to be able to put back into society after being a person who was dependent on society for so long.” At the end of a day’s work, he gets to go home.” The key that opens my door is a privilege, and I have to earn it.”

It is amazing how many doors open when we do the right thing. Dave is a wonderful example of that. He chose well. Then he chose well again and again. That is all we can do. We are at the crossroads daily. What we choose defines who we are. Is Dave that unique? Or are there many people who are down but wealthy in spirit? What would you have done?? Ardis

This was the challenge the Arizona Republic newspaper gave to the people of Phoenix Arizona over 60 years ago. “All around the country a horrible disease was making children sick. Polio was a highly infectious disease caused by a virus that invades the nervous system. In the 1940’s people were terrified of it. Nobody knew how it was spread or why some were spared. Most of the victims were children.

A national organization was created to help find a cure. There was little funding and the chapters were run by volunteers. The Phoenix chapter turned to the local newspaper for help. They asked Charley Hoover, ad director, if he could find some advertisers to help out. There was another reason they chose Charley. His little boy Tom had polio.

He wanted to help yet didn’t know how to raise a lot of money in a short amount of time. He went into Tom’s room to say goodnight. He turned on the light to talk with him. That’s when the idea was born.

The plan was simple like all good plans are. He would collect all the money he needed in just one night. At that time Phoenix was still a small town. So he blitzed the town with flyers and posters. There were radio ads and newspaper stories. All the promotional pieces said: turn on your porch light, fight polio tonight.”

It was a time of great fear and confusion; but not on this night. This night was about having hope and fighting back. On January 16, 1950, a huge fundraising effort was held to help the campaign to eradicate polio. If people wanted to give money they turned on their porch light. At 7pm air-raid sirens wailed and klieg lights blazed across the sky

As the sirens blared a group of marchers prepared to take to the streets. They had a plan and if it worked it would be remarkable. It could make a difference. But first, they needed to see a sign. Across the valley, porch lights began to flicker on. The light replaced the darkness”.

An army of volunteers, all mothers, marched into the streets to collect the money. One mother per block would go door to door. If someone was in an apartment or hotel room they were asked to hang a shoe on their door knob to let the collectors know they wanted to give. Edith Jordan, now 94, remembers that night. She turned her porch light on-“everyone did; everyone wanted to do their bit”.

At 8pm the sirens ran again and the campaign was over. All of the mothers took their collection to their local fire stations. And in the course of one night, in a city a fraction of the size it is now, the marching mothers collected $44,890.63 the equivalent of more than $400,000 today.

The people at the foundations national headquarters took notice. They sent a film crew to Phoenix and asked Charley Hoover to re-create all of the steps in the process. That film was then sent to every regional office in the country to show how they too, cold raise funds in just one night. “Phoenix has given you the pattern: You can do it!”

By the next year, the Mothers’ March was a national campaign. In 1953 more than $10 million was raised from the campaign. That money went to research including the field testing of a promising vaccine developed by a doctor named Jonas Salk. Within two years, new polio cases in the US dropped by 90%. The group that raised the money, the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, soon changed its name. Today it is known as the March of Dimes”. ( John Faherty, Arizona Republic newspaper)

Light, simplicity, community. It takes one person to create the pattern of hope so others can (“SEE IT). What Charley did was truly remarkable. There are people doing things like this every day. They are the pioneers. The one’s who find a simple answer to a seemingly hopeless problem.

In this season of light there are endless possibilities for new ideas. I challenge myself and others to focus on solutions. I am weary of hearing about how awful everything is. I prefer to spend my “energy capital” thinking like Charley did. What switch can I turn on that will lead to a life changing idea? aRDIS