universal form

reconnected with another babaylan today. Hilda N. love her. i first met her when i attended Nicky Perlas' weeklong seminar on waldorf education last october at st. scholastica. i was on crutches and had a half cast back then, and she always gave me candy or something sweet to eat.

she's in her early 60's and among other things, she is a massage therapist. one of the students strained her shoulder crawling around in a cave in banahaw, so Susan invited Hilda to come and share her medicine and healing.

she taught a tai chi class this morning that was great. my first one ever actually. she taught a lot of shoulder movement exercises and stretches and asked me to lead and encourage the students to do them everyday because she noticed that everyone's shoulders were up to their ears.

as i was going through the movements, i realized that i've done these movements before. every morning actually at The Center. universal form. we do universal form before we sit. i hadn't done it since i'd been here. synchronicity strikes again...

grateful.
gratitude.
gratitude to my Teacher.
gratitude to my Sangha.
i'm here with you!
you are here with me!

had a conversation with Hilda about what being Fil-Am means.
why Tagalog on Site is such an important program.
the challenge of straddling two worlds.
the lack of space for dialogue about this with our families.
she got tearful when she was talking about our bodies.
how we carry our wounds.
she felt it when she touches us.
no wonder our shoulders are the way they are.

it just occurred to me that Hilda is around the same age as my mother.
they seem so different.
it's that vine, i tell you.

i gave a copy of my narrative to Hilda.
she said, "thank you for trusting me with your story."
maybe someday i'll be able to give one to my mother.
then again, maybe not.

Hilda is from Mindanao.
she invited me to go home with her sometime.
i would like that very much.