Being Present
	by KD Farris, Ph.D.

Serenity: As Calm, As Clear

Welcome back. For me, it has been a long fruitful time away. A busy time. A time for change and the start of new things. An enjoyable time. A warm and sunny summer. Not a slow time, not a peaceful time. Not an empty time. Yet all the activity has delivered me to a very clear and very spacious place within whose arms I am now cradled.

Now is a serene time. A time clear from clouds. A feeling of relief sweeps over and through me. A blessing of spaciousness, relaxation, and clear mindedness. Now is a time when I can receive.

Without the current emptiness, free from thought and tension, I do not believe I could look back and see the wonder that the summer held for me. Something of the beautiful flow from the crazy intensity of summer’s pounding gate, leaves the essence of the past months as hues of powdered blue and easy green tones. Not cold colors, but not hard either.

Something of the calm after the storm teaches me to see the storm for all its calming qualities as well. Sometimes when I’ve come through intensely filled periods such as the last four months have been, I can feel beaten up. You know the sensation. Everything hurts. You’re exhausted, don’t want to think, are drained of inspiration.

But other times, trying periods like these can still turn up as good memories. We come through a storm, through big changes, through supercharged events, and we feel good about ourselves—aware of how the choices we made and the way in which we chose to carry things out made a difference in how we felt at the end of the day, at the end of the week, at the end of the summer.

Some of my most treasured times were filled with loss, change, big decisions, and uncertainty. Other periods of my life that I hold dear to my heart were periods of great emptiness. Times of spaciousness, an easy rhythmic flow from one day to the next for weeks on end. Transitional times. That’s what it is. That is what these both have in common. Be it transition by way of emptiness and waiting, or transition through activity and decision-making, something of the serene emerges in both.

It is this quality of serenity that I am most drawn to. The quality of serenity that can be present in the calm before the storm, and after, as well the high voltage that we can experience when we are whipping around at its mercy.

I turned to my Funk & Wagnalls for an insight into what it is about serenity that I find in the not so calm times. And I learned that within its Latin root, "serenus" also means clear. And that is when I recognized the common thread between the two phases that I experience—serene as calm, and serene as clear. In the midst of storm and change, and the relentless pulsation of life’s sometimes too hard rhythms, vision of heart, mind and soul can still be clear. And in reflection, especially if we have survived and are triumphant, what remains in our bodies is where we were clear. And if enough of our self was clear, we can feel calm, not only in the aftermath, but in the memory of the fertile time itself.

So in moving through this fall and winter season, stay true to your deepest knowing. Keep clear your vision of the uninterrupted skies above, and remember that even within the storm, calm serenity abounds.

© Copyright 2003 KD Farris, Ph.D.. All Rights Reserved.

KD Farris, Ph.D. is a successful counselor, healer, and bodyworker. For more than twenty years she has taught extensive workshops based on MESHE, HESHE, MISON & ORBIT as well as many other self-discovery topics.

KD began developing her integrated bodywork and counseling techniques in 1983 under the tutelage of many prominent doctors and healers throughout the United States.

Her education into the spiritual and physical aspects of the human experience served as the foundation for her private practice and the development of a new philosophy. She combined her techniques into four guiding principles, which she shares in her book, MESHE, HESHE, MISON & ORBIT: What My Grandmother Taught Me About the Universe. She teaches a companion workshop series, where she creates an interactive environment demonstrating the material from her book with tangible, life altering effects. In these workshops, individuals discover a deepening of their relationship to self, others, and life itself.

Through individual counseling and group workshops, she has taught her results-oriented programs to many different types of people including those confined to mental institutions, substance and food abusers, and generally, people in life transitions, struggling with intimate relationships, or who lack direction in their lives. Visit www.kdfarris.com.

KD is currently touring a new body of work, Talking About People in Transition, Also Known As Liminal Space. She will be writing about liminality and its relevance to day-to-day living in upcoming issues of Soulful Living. For more information on this new and exciting topic, or to learn about more her private practice, workshops and lectures, visit www.kdfarris.com.

Contact KD at: info@MESHE.com

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