PALEONTOLOGIST BARBIE AT THE TWO MEDICINE FORMATION, MONTANA, USA

CAMP MAKELA IN THE HIGH PLAINS OF MONTANA (photo by Hallelujah Truth)

At this time last year (July 2014), Paleontologist Barbie was finishing her third week of paleontology field work with her colleague Tony Martin in the beautiful High Plains west of Choteau, Montana. While there, they worked with an incredible field crew from Montana State University, as well as from across the U.S. and other countries. In honor of her amazing contributions to science and science outreach, as well as to acknowledge her cohorts, here is an interview with her in which almost all of the questions came from other paleontologists via Facebook (see Paleontologist Barbie Rocks).

The Interview

Ulf Schyldt: What is your most important ichnological find in the Two Medicine Formation?

Paleontologist Barbie: You mean, what can I reveal (Paleontologist Barbie raises her eyebrows)? The Two MedicineFormation is full of trace fossils, even though it's most well known for its dinosaur bones and eggs. So it’s really hard to narrow my answer down to one ichnological find. But I would say that all the trace fossils are my biggest ichnological find, because they tell us how the animals were behaving in their environments 75 million years ago—that’s pretty darned important!

HIGH PLAINS OF CENTRAL MONTANA. The first day of field work is always the most exciting! Paleontologist Barbie is relishing the ride to the dig site as the field vehicle winds through the high plains of central Montana. “Three cheers for mindlessly picking through rubble in the hot sun all day for the sake of collecting data for paleoecological and taphonomic analyses that may or may not make it through peer review, and probably not get published for years!” she shouts, with what is admittedly not the catchiest of cheers. (Photo and caption by Tony Martin)

Andrew Rindsberg: I’d like to hear about your field assistants.

Paleontologist Barbie: My field assistants rocked! Of course, I did field work with my usual colleagues Ruth Schowalter and Tony Martin, but I also met and did work with the volunteers at Camp Makela, who were such willing participants in my paleo-enthusiasm. They were all hard working, curious, and loved learning about fossils and geology. You couldn’t ask for better companions in the field. I hope to see them again some day and wish them the best of success! See the photo to see how “rockin'” they were (Paleontologist Barbie laughs at her geological pun)!

THE TWO MEDICINE FORMATION. Formed by mud and sand in rivers and lakes during the Late Cretaceous Period about 75 million years ago, the Two Medicine Formation was the place where paleontologists uncovered some of the first evidence of dinosaur nesting and nurturing behaviors. “This place and its paleontological record fills me with awe!” Paleontologist Barbie says, in an awkward attempt to avoid saying the overused phrase, “This is awesome!” (photo and caption by Tony Martin)

Andrew Rindsberg: Paleo Barbie, is it true that your remains will survive the human race to be found hundreds of millions of years later by our successors, who will name our brief epoch the Barbiocene?

Paleontologist Barbie: (Paleontologist Barbie giggles) I wish, but it’s really hard to say how much of me will be around in the future. I just hope that my contributions to science outlast my physical presence. That’s what science is all about—it’s a letter to the future.

MAIASAURA (GOOD MOTHER). Paleontologist Barbie is thrilled to see a signpost in the same place where paleontologists Jack Horner and Bob Makela discovered nests of the dinosaur Maiasaura in the late 1970s. These sites included eggshells and bones of baby or partially grown Maiasaura, which led Horner and Makela to propose that these dinosaurs took care of their young, much like modern birds. “Get out of the nest, you lazy freeloaders!” she says, acting like a disapproving dinosaur parent. (photo and caption by Tony Martin)

Ronald McDowell: It could be my computer screen, but, Paleontologist Barbie, please tell me you haven't gone for the New Jersey orange tan.

Paleontologist Barbie:  Hey, I was born with this skin tone, so I am not going to apologize for it (Paleontologist Barbie laughs). I am fortunate to have a little more natural protection when out in the field than many of my colleagues. I really like how I look like most of the world.

READY FOR ACTION. As everyone knows, Paleontologist Barbie is always ready for action, and her first day of field work at the main dig site – Egg Mountain - was no exception, as she eagerly picked up the nearest rock hammer. “Stop: Hammer time!” she says with her usual aplomb. (photo and caption by Tony Martin)

Andrew Rindsberg: Paleo Barbie, how is it that a piece of dino poop can be preserved, when dog or cow poop doesn’t last very long in our usual experience?

Ronald McDowell: Andrew Rindsberg asks an important question, Paleo Barbie. Do you think there may have been something "special" about dino poo that staved off microbial or insect degradation?

Paleontologist Barbie: I got one word for you both: calcite!

Hallelujah Truth: Can you elaborate about “calcite” for those of us who don’t quite get its role in preserving dino poop?

Paleontologist Barbie:  Well, the dinosaur dung, otherwise known as coprolites, was cemented by calcite. That calcite held together all of the pieces of plants that went through the gut of a dinosaur. Calcite probably came from the water that contained calcium and bicarbonate that combined to form calcite. I could talk about chemistry all day, so I will stop right there, but let’s just say that it cemented so that dino poop is like concrete, preserving the dung-beetle burrows where dung-beetle mothers were trying to feed their children.

Jibunnessa Abdullah: Paleontologist Barbie, study of human poop can tell us so much about human movements, environment and disease (among other things). What’s the most exciting thing you’ve learned from looking at dino poop?

Paleontologist Barbie: In the Two Medicine Formation, the thing that we learned from dino poop is that dinosaurs ate wood. That’s right! They were like giant woodpeckers. These dinosaurs—which were hadrosaurs—chewed up the wood for some nutritional content. But that seems strange, doesn’t it? Because wood doesn’t have much nutrition in it. So my colleague Karen Chin thinks the dinosaurs might have eaten the wood because of the insects in it. Insects…yum!

DINOSAUR COPROLITES. Yet another exciting find in the field area was a dinosaur coprolite: yes, that’s right, fossilized dinosaur poop! These coprolites were studied by one of Paleontologist Barbie’s heroes, Dr. Karen Chin, and likely belonged to Maiasaura, which definitely did not pick up after itself. But wait, that’s not all! This coprolite is a two-for-one special, with a dung-beetle burrow also in it. “I’ll bet that beetle had a certain kind of grin, if you know what I mean!” she says, trying desperately to keep her composure before giggling uncontrollably. (Photo and caption by Tony Martin)

Lee Hall: Paleontologist Barbie, why does the Two Medicine Formation preserve delicate structures like wasp burrows and horseshoe-crab tracks so well but dinosaur tracks so poorly?

Paleontologist Barbie: Great question, Lee! Again, I think the answer is calcite. That at least for the wasp burrows and their cocoons, calcite cemented those with very fine detail. The horseshoe crab tracks were preserved in mud and then cast in sand. Because they were little, they were more easily preserved than a dinosaur track. Think about it—one dinosaur foot could have smashed down deep into the mud and made a real mess. It’s the difference between dropping a pebble in a pond or a boulder. So even though dinosaur fossil tracks are big, they don’t show much detail in the Two Medicine Formation.

INSECTS AND DINOSAURS. A closer look at the burrow reveals a few more details, showing that an insect likely burrowed into the ground next to the dinosaurs nests and made its own nest. This and other fossil insect nests tell much about the original environments there 75 million years ago. “Hey, it’s not an entire Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, but insect trace fossils are way cool, too!” she points out to everyone there. Who can argue with that? (Photo and caption by Tony Martin)

LYRICS OF FOSSIL PUPA CASES. Speaking of fossil insect nests, Paleontologist Barbie is very excited to see places in the field area with thousands of beautifully preserved fossil insect cocoons. These cocoons were likely made by wasps, which dug into soils and laid eggs, which later grew up into larva and made cocoons around their pupal cases. “Can’t read my/Can’t read my/No, he can’t read my pupa case,” she sings exuberantly, altering the lyrics just enough so Lady Gaga wouldn’t be tempted to sue. (Photo and caption by Tony Martin)  
 

Trish Weaver:  Have you been seeing lots of evidence of invertebrate trace fossils or any evidence of invertebrate body fossils? Does Paleo Barbie lack “inverto-vision”?

Paleontologist Barbie: Ha! Never! Like I said before, there are lots of invertebrate trace fossils. And I love invertebrate body fossils. But they're not very common in the Two Medicine Formation. The invertebrate body fossils I did see are of snails. Small and large snails there lived both on land and in water. I’ve even seen some of these snail body fossils in the dinosaur coprolites.

Emmy Hill: Do your findings in the Two Medicine Formation seem to support the hypothesis of the “deltaic environment with a series of ponds” deposition?

Paleontologist Barbie: I really like that question, Emmy, because I love geology, especially sedimentology! Let me say that word again…sedimentology! That is the study of sediments and what they tell us about their environments. I think the sediments and the fossils of the Two Medicine Formation show mostly rivers and soils and not so much deltas. Sure, there could have been ponds. But those ponds might have been what geologists call oxbow lakes. Those are small lakes made when a river cuts through a channel and leaves behind one of its meander bends. But if anyone can prove me wrong on deltas versus rivers, it would be you, Emmy (Paleontologist Barbie laughs).

 

SCOPING IT OUT TOGETHER. Always wanting to be helpful when working with a field crew, Paleontologist Barbie adjusts the focus for Emmy Hill as she sights the crosshairs of her scope on a stadia rod. No, that’s not some euphemism: it’s science, and the best science is done cooperatively. (Photo and caption by Tony Martin)

Hallelujah Truth: Why did you go to the Two Medicine Formation this summer? You’ve been there before.

Paleontologist Barbie: That’s like asking somebody, "Why did you go to the Louvre again? You’ve been there before." The Two Medicine Formation is one of the most famous formations in the world for the environments that dinosaurs lived in 75 million years ago. It’s especially famous because of what it tells us about dinosaur nests and parenting. I went again to learn more about what's there and especially how the body and trace fossils can be used together to tell us about the original environments there.

 

AMONGST THE RUBBLE PICKERS. One of the nicknames bestowed on the volunteers working at Egg Mountain by their merciless overlord (who may or may not have been David Varricchio) was “rubble pickers.” This meant lots of breaking rock with hammers, gathering it with dustpans, and picking through the rubble for pieces of dinosaur eggshells, bones, teeth, fossil insect cocoons, or other fossils. “What a scoop!” Paleontologist Barbie exclaims. (Photo and caption by Tony Martin)

Hallelujah Truth: I know that you and your colleague, Tony Martin, talked a lot about different kinds of “vision” or ways of seeing for conducting fieldwork out in the Montana badlands. Can you explain?

Paleontologist Barbie: Yes! Every day I had to use different types of “vision” for seeing different kinds of fossils. For bones, I had to use what I call “osteo-vision,” for trace fossils I had to use “ichno-vision,” for eggshells, I had to use “oo-vision.”

DELIGHT AT EGG MOUNTAIN. A few of the other volunteers at Egg Mountain are delighted to have the assistance of an esteemed (and popular) scientist like Paleontologist Barbie there. Here, Emmy Hill (having just auditioned for Mad Max: Fury Road) and Eric sieve through rubble for small bits of eggshells, bones, and teeth. Good thing they have someone of Paleontologist Barbie’s expertise there to help. (Photo and caption by Tony Martin)

HUMOR AT THE DIG SITE. Sure enough, it’s not long before Paleontologist Barbie spots a bone fragment among the rubble. “With this much bone, we should be able to reconstruct the entire dinosaur!” she says jokingly. Unfortunately, someone takes her seriously, adds feathers to the bone fragment, claims it’s from China, and easily publishes an article about it in a prestigious journal. (Photo and caption by Tony Martin)

TOOLS OF THE TRADE. Paleontologist Barbie moves around the site, working cooperatively with Paul Germano and Jared Heuck to uncover a possible dinosaur nest. Working around the nest sites is delicate work, often requiring tools like brushes instead of hammers. “Why, I do believe we are looking at some dinosaur eggshell here” she says, following a decisive stroke of her brush. (Photo and caption by Tony Martin)

“EGGSHELL – YES!” It is an exciting discovery, considering how much of the original dinosaur eggshell is still in place. This is promising evidence that other eggs may be near this one. But of course, Paleontologist Barbie is also aware of how eggs or eggshells could have moved far away from their original nests before being buried. “How would you like your dinosaur eggs: scrambled, fried, or fossilized?” she asks rhetorically. (Photo and caption by Tony Martin)

Hallelujah Truth:  Weren’t three weeks in the field difficult or challenging? How did you collect and organize all that data?

Paleontologist Barbie: Sure it was difficult, but that was the fun part. I love a challenge. Each day, I went out in the field looking for fossils, looking at the rocks, with a few things in mind. But I also expected to be surprised. I documented whatever I saw by writing notes, taking photographs, and recording where these fossils were.

Hallelujah Truth: While doing this careful observation and recording, did you ever experience epiphanies?

Paleontologist Barbie: Of course! There were a lot of times while I was recording numbers, making a drawing, or writing down what I saw, that an explanation would suddenly pop into my head!

Hallelujah Truth: Can you give us an example?

Paleontologist Barbie: No, I can’t yet. Not until we publish our peer-reviewed research paper on it!

Hallelujah Truth: I know you found numerous hadrosaur tracks but feel discouraged about doing a study of them. Why?

Paleontologist Barbie: Hadrosaur dinosaurs had three toes on their feet, but most of the tracks we found had only two and sometimes just one. It was frustrating because we knew that hadrosaurs had three toes, so the tracks must have been badly preserved. That means it's much more difficult to do a study of them. Incomplete data—bummer!

Hallelujah Truth: How does your research relate to that of the other paleontologists at Egg Mountain?

Paleontologist Barbie: The paleontologists working at Egg Mountain are trying to figure out which dinosaurs were nesting there and what the environments were like that made them want to nest there. My research connects with theirs' by showing how when you put all of the fossils together with the sedimentology you can totally understand the dinosaur nesting. And I mean totally!

Hallelujah Truth: What was the most challenging thing for you being out in the field?

Paleontologist Barbie: I don’t know how to answer that. The weather is always changing. You had to be ready for it to be hot, cold, windy, or buggy. Or rainy or cloudy. Anything could happen!

Hallelujah Truth: What was the most fun thing about being at Camp Makela?

Paleontologist Barbie: At camp, the people were definitely and absolutely the most fun! I had so many great conversations about the paleontology, geology, science education, food, beer…and even nails (giggles)!

2015 EGG MOUNTAIN CREW. This photo documents only some of the Egg Mountain crew and others who were working on a bone bed near the camp. Volunteers came and exited all during the field season. (Photo by Paleontologist Barbie)

Hallelujah Truth: When will the public start seeing the results of your field work?

Paleontologist Barbie: Well, I hope with this interview they already are! But for the peer-reviewed articles…well, that will have to wait a few years. That is something to look forward to.

Hallelujah Truth: If you could imagine something really wonderful to come of your three weeks of fieldwork, what would that be?

Paleontologist Barbie: (Laughing) Other than being on the cover of Science or Nature? If I had to choose one thing it would be to go on the talk-show circuit and spread the word about how cool paleontology is as a science for younger people—especially girls.

MODERN and PALEO ICHNOLOGY. How awesome to be out in the field with both paleontologists! My husband Tony Martin examines modern tracks of a coyote with his colleague Paleontologist Barbie in the formerly Cretaceous (now modern) sediments of the High Plains. (Photo by Ruth Schowalter, aka, Hallelujah Truth)

COLLABORATORS.  Here we are Hallelujah Truth (aka Ruth Schowalter) and Chiboogamoo (aka Tony Martin), boon companions out in the Montana High Plains. I joined Tony for 10 days of mesmerizing fieldwork in July 2015. We both blogged about our Cretaceous Summer here. We have other blogs about his work with Paleontologist Barbie here. Most of the photos in this interview first appeared on Tony Martin's Facebook page here.

BE THE JOURNEY: Experiencing our souls through “mark” making

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“A creative act is one that invokes imagination, making the invisible visible. It reflects what is inside of us, parts of the self that are more authentically conveyed with images than with words. One could call that an internalized image of oneself, but in its simplest sense, it is as close as we get to seeing our souls.” –Cathy A. Malchiodi, The Soul’s Palette

This moment is THE moment to BE THE JOURNEY. Grab a pencil, pen, marker, brush, or stick and MAKE your mark. Each stroke is THE mirror of you—your SOUL.

Pilgrims! I believe that art making is a great awakening agent. I believe that each of us can awaken and be more present to ourselves and others by generating visual images right NOW.

BE THE JOURNEY means living the PROCESS not because of the eventual outcome or PRODUCT. THE journey is YOU. THE journey is ME. MY SOUL is made visible through my actions—in this case—my art making: MY MARKS. Each and every one. Your marks. Each and every one.

Artistic skill level does not interfere with our ability to communicate through lines, forms, colors, or symbols we can create in the moment!  Messages are present for us, waiting to be deciphered inside of those marks, communication lines from our souls.

Consider the Yellow Brick Road leading Dorothy and her companions to the Wonderful World of Oz. Just as the golden highway to the desired destination is made of many golden bricks, so is each one of our created images.

Let’s suppose that instead of the arrival at Oz being the purpose of our JOURNEY that it is each brick, each step, each mark, and each image that we generate that is the JOURNEY.

In other words, instead of anticipating an outcome, an arrival, a conclusion to the pilgrimage, we might LIVE our lives in a heightened way of being during which each action and result holds significance. In such a way, the destination lessens in importance and the journeying itself becomes primary.

The act of making marks is a process of taking incremental steps that become THE DANCE…and the DANCE (or journey) of life is such a vital matter!

That’s Coffee with Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and share your “being the journey” with me.

BE THE JOURNEY. This image is built on the outline of one square and several circles I traced on the paper before beginning the image generation. I’ve been craving structure in my drawing and have in the past few months started an image with building blocks of squares and circles. I am finding such satisfaction in “seeing” images emerge within the foundations of these geometrical compositions. I invited the familiar characters (Wandjina, Mother Mystery, Wallaby, Turtle, and others from my psyche to join me. They come from the “Cosmosof Hallelujah” (see here for an explanation). I find great comfort in repetition and then emerging discovery. For this image I used watercolor pencil, micron pens, India inks. I crave being present to my life right now. This image holds that intention for me. (art by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)

FORGIVENESS PRACTICE: Breathing-in & Breathing-out feelings and thoughts as a way to heal and live

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FORGIVING PRACTICE. Hallelujah for the practice of forgiveness for its healing powers and as a way of guiding one's words and deeds. (art by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)

Hallelujah for FORGIVENESS…hallelujah for finding out how fabulously vast this human act of “cancelling” what occurred IS!

Dear readers, I believe it is possible to change ourselves right down to our cellular level through repeated acts of FORGIVENESS.

As a novice at this practice of asking for FORGIVENESS and accepting apologies, I feel slightly presumptuous writing about it. However, I’m well into my second year of practicing FORGIVENESS every day.

HALLELUJAH TRUTH ASKING FOR FORGIVENESS.

Each day, I breathe in and exhale four times to apologize to someone I feel or know that I have harmed:

Breathe-in-Breathe-out (BIBO): “___________, I’m sorry I made you suffer. 
BIBO: Please forgive me.
BIBO: I love you.
BIBO: I thank you.

Even though this FORGIVENESS practice is done in the privacy of my home or mind, I have discovered several things occurring as a result. 

First, the “energy” of a harmful act or hurt relationship is gently nudged and moves. Instead of staying static—immoveable—the negative energy of the thought "pulses," creating the possibility of change and possible release of that thought or feeling.

Second, through this daily FORGIVENESS practice, I am also now more likely to ask someone for forgiveness face-to-face, ready to acknowledge my wrong doing or being the catalyst of a negative reaction. I have cultivated a ready path to the act of apologizing and developed a “forgiveness” vocabulary. 

And, third, slowly, I have come to realize that I am learning to forgive myself for all that I fail to do, all that I don’t execute correctly, for all that I fall short of in my expectations.

DAILY PRACTICE OF FORGIVENESS

FORGIVENESS is a possible WAY of living my life more fully, richly, and deeply. 

I pause now reflecting more than ever before if my word or deed will hurt someone. "How can I phrase my thought or perform an action that causes the least harm?" is something I might remember to ask myself now. Living my life much more consciously is a result of this FORGIVENESS practice.

…STILL…I hunger for a deeper way of knowing about FORGIVENESS, how to forgive, and how to be forgiven. I suspect that this pathway of forgiveness will lead me to new behaviors—manifesting new ways of supporting and playing with myself and my friends. Perhaps, forgiveness will show me a sweeter way of being human and accepting my humanity.

FORGIVENESS BRINGS US INTO DEPTH OF OUR BEINGS

The other day (June 23, 2015), I was fortunate enough to meet with an elder in my community who has deep experience in leading FORGIVENESS workshops, and he introduced me to a five-step forgiveness practice. He skillfully guided me through the steps that were profound for me in their simplicity. I hope to learn this five-step process and to have the opportunity to implement it as a regular practice in my life.

That's Coffee With Hallelujah! SOUL BLOG with me and share what you know about FORGIVENESS.

InterPlay Lift: Taking off into the mystery of play in community with you

INTERPLAY LIFT. Imagine playing on a Friday night and finding the unexpected in yourself, a release, a light-heartedness, something fun. These hot air balloons are what I imagined when thinking about creating a new InterPlay Atlanta drop-in class. I began with the image, explored it through artmaking, and then developed the words to accompany the idea of "take-off" and "lift" and "perspective." (image by Ruth Schowalter, aka Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for the MYSTERY and bowing before it! Launching a boat into the unknown and sailing off into the golden seas of our lives. Hallelujah for faith and spirit to journey into one's life. This is my practice. This is my life. I am a Spiritual Art Pilgrim!

InterPlay Lift

Yet here, instead of my pilgrim's boat, is a hot air balloon lifting off into the skies of opportunity, the lightness in the way of being, the place where birds fly and the spirit soars. 

This is my concept for my new InterPlay class--InterPlay Lift: Taking off into the adventure of your body, mind, heart, & spirit

Get the big view from play, seeing and finding more ease and joy in your life.

It is my desire to offer an InterPlay evening class once a month on Fridays that will give participants a chance to rest and re-imagine their weekends!

 

TAKE-OFF to LIGHT HEARTEDNESS. Engaging in play with others in our community allows us the opportunity to relax and practice release from being a serious person.

Here is the description that I crafted to announce "InterPlay Lift"

Are you craving a different way of being in your life? Need a different perspective? Why not try laughing, moving, telling stories, experimenting with your voice, finding stillness, and connecting with yourself and others? Even if you are tired, come to rest, play, and find a new outlook in community. Everyone can do InterPlay!

Once a month on a Friday night, “InterPlay Lift” – led by Ruth Schowalter – offers you the opportunity to explore “having it all.” InterPlay is an improvisational system that uses all of your physical information while including your spirit, intellect, and feelings. Part of having it all is reclaiming your inner authority, the part of you that knows who you are, what you like, what you want, and what you know, in ways that honor your own life and experiences.

Guided gently and respectfully, you will be given choices about moving, topics to talk about, how to play, and when to stop and be still. No previous experience is required. You will witness and be witnessed, practice noticing and affirming the good, and think about how to find more peace and less stress in your life.

The InterPlay system accepts who you are right now—that you are enough! In this way, you are invited to experiment and play with expanding your range and seeing what you might discover. Even if you discover nothing, that’s OK, too.

PATH WAY TO TAKE OFF--InterPlay Lift

InterPlay Lift is about gaining perspective easefully and joyfully. To understand InterPlay, you must do InterPlay. Come and find out how InterPlay might lift you up and give you a new outlook on life.

Cost: $12 to $15, but please pay what you can afford. No one will be turned away because of a lack of funds

Decatur First Christian Church, 601 West Ponce De Leon Avenue, Decatur, Georgia, 30030

Friday 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm on the following dates: July 24^th, August 28^th, September 25^th, October 23^rd, November 20^th, and December 18^th.

Parking is available in the church parking lot or across the street at the Decatur Post Office. Come in the first door from the parking lot (where the InterPlay sign is located) and go to the second floor to the Jerusalem Room.

Contact Ruth Schowalter at ruthtruth@mindspring.com or 404/580-2392. 

That's Coffee with Hallelujah. Taking off into my life. Seeing what I can discover. Will you join me and SOUL BLOG with me about what you are willing to do to find play and light-heartedness in your life?

I FALL DOWN, I GET BACK UP: Embodying the Rise-n-Fall of Life!

GROWING THE SOUL. The Rise-n-Fall of Life, the daily resurrections can be embodied. (art by Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for spiritual practices! Hallelujah for practicing FALLING…and GETTING BACK UP again, again, and again! Hallelujah for finding a “kinesthetic” way to embody the perpetual Rise-n-Fall of Life.

Like breathing—breathe in and breathe out—the Rise-n-Fall of Life is an integral part of our being alive. Consider all of the mini-deaths we experience daily. We fail at communicating our intent. We don’t succeed in cleaning out any of that closet. The enterprise we envision is not manifesting.  We go over our calorie count, consume too much sodium and fat, and do not execute doctors’ orders. Over and over again, we seem to exhaust possibilities, to malinger, to die, to

F

A

L

L

D

O

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And all we need to do is practice, getting back up! Yes, we can practice falling and getting back up with a dance—a physical movement!

Practicing falling and getting back is one of the many dances that Cynthia Winton-Henry offers us in her book, Dance—the Sacred Art: The Joy of Movement as a Spiritual Practice. I had the surprising experience of this rising-n-falling dance with Cynthia during her online Monday night class, Dancing the Ruby Way.

Consider these beginning instructions from Cynthia’s book on the restorative movement of Rising-n-Falling:

Find a “friendly” floor, soft couch, or bed. Seated, gently fall in different ways, slowly to the side, to the back, using your arms in different ways. (Do this exercise where you will be safe. You don’t want to add to your fear of falling.)

Having fallen, lie on the floor, couch, or bed for a minute, noticing how it holds you. Notice what it’s like to get up, to rise again….

Now put on music and practice falling, resting, rising to honor—instead of trying to resist—gravity. (p 76, Dance the Sacred Art)

I was delighted with this physical practice of repeated Falling-n-Rising! And, I also got to witness Cynthia doing it with me in California from the small screen of my Ipad, next to me on the floor in Georgia. Having a community of others falling-n-rising expands the effectiveness of this exercise!

My discovery? Finding out that my body knows how to fall, and it knows how to get back up! Hurray!

So here is a list of a few of my falls and my recoveries:

FALLING

For a handful of weeks, I stopped exercising my persona, Hallelujah Truth, on my blog, “Coffee with Hallelujah.” I thought, “I will never blog again. It’s over.”

GETTING BACK UP

I’m blogging today. Right now.

FALLING

I am attempting to be an entrepreneur now for the third time. The previous two times came to nought. Wah! I failed. I will fail again. I keep getting stymied, befuddled, delayed, and detoured by the details.

GETTING BACK UP

I made a phone call to paypal to find out how clients can pay me online (my paypal account is already established). Yay! I created a Facebook page to offer my services: InterPlay Art & Soul Creativity Coaching. I met with my website builder to discuss where we were and what I needed to do resulting in making an InterPlay logo for part of my business. Yay! Thus far, I have attended each two-hour online InterPlay Entrepreneur course and done most of my assignments. I “get up” each morning prepared to take an incremental step toward establishing my business. The InterPlay Entrepreneur course encourages to perform three tasks a day towards our business.

FALLING

I struggle to eat correctly and to exercise regularly so I can keep a weight that is right for my health, including maintaining a low blood pressure.

GETTING BACK UP

Today, I ate a salad for lunch. I walked almost two miles this morning while I conducted business on the phone. I’m reading the labels on packages and drinks now for sodium content.

EMBODIED RISING-n-FALLING

Now, instead of just keeping and storing disappointed thoughts in my head and in my body of my “falls” or failures, I move them out of my body, mind, heart, and spirit by physically “getting up”! What a relief!

Getting up is such a relief, I feel that all of us can celebrate our Rise-n-Falls in Life by embodying them. My body now feels the connection between the physical experience of falling and rising and the other events in my life where I fail and need to begin over again. If I can pick myself up from the ground, I can surely pick myself up from this disappointment! Yes! Happy Day! This rising-falling dance is Life!

“It is liberating to breathe, shake, move, balance, fall off balance, tense and release, liberate our wholeness. We don’t have to hide the truth. We can dance it!” –Cynthia Winton-Henry

That’s Coffee with Hallelujah! Soul blog with me about your Rise-n-Falls. Do you dance them out? 

RISING-N-FALLING at INTERPLAY ALCHEMY.  During the four months of Tuesdays that I taught my first series of InterPlay Alchemy classes embodying the magic of the soul, I was able to implement content from Cynthia's online course, "Dancing the Ruby Way. Here the class is celebrating the Rise-n-Fall of Life at the conclusion of embodying falling and rising. It was particularly significant because we did this dance at the Spring Solstice when all that sap was rising from the Earth! Yay!

ENDINGS and AWAKENINGS: Coffee with Hallelujah considering the mystery

BROKEN CUP--AN ENDING?  (photo by Hallelujah Truth, aka Ruth Schowalter)

Hallelujah for AWAKENINGS! Hallelujah for ENDINGS! Hallelujah for the MYSTERY of being alive!

As I approach my 57^th birthday this coming September, I have been experiencing the “ending” of an era and the “awakening” of a new one. What a mysterious process!

The breaking of this clay cup triggered today’s acknowledgement of CHANGE! I purchased this substantial brown-and-blue striped vessel 25 years ago at the family-owned Miller Pottery nestled down the road from the city of Brent, Alabama. It was 1990, and I was the manager of The Village Arbors, a plant nursery in Auburn, Alabama, which grew over 100 herbs and perennials. The two female owners and the rest of us took pride in finding unique pottery for our nursery gift store where we served herbal tea and freshly baked bread with herbed butters to our customers. So I had traveled a distance to visit and purchase clay pots from the Miller family, whose pottery had weight and heft to it due to the Alabama clay that was mined and purified right there on their premises (read about this family of clay artisans here). I succeeded in returning with treasures, some of which became mine.

By 2015, many of the pots I had purchased for myself from the Millers have long since broken.  And now this brown-and-blue striped coffee cup which held pens, markers, and pencils for me during my two decades of ESL teaching at Georgia Tech has rendered itself unusable. 

Before today, I could tell that the handle was gradually pulling away from the cup. Perhaps, I should have squeezed glue into the crevices that were emerging where a potter’s finger had smoothed the handle into the cup’s body. Surely that attention would have prevented its demise this morning when the cup took an audible sigh, heaved itself away from the handle clasped in my hand, and just laid back down on the kitchen counter, splashing some coffee over its side.

This separation of handle from cup symbolized an ENDING for me. Since clearing out my office almost two years ago, I have used this cup—really bowl—for my morning coffee. And over the days and months, this clay vessel has begun to represent a myriad of things to me:

Return to another time (pre-ESL teacher)

In the late 80’s, I was turning 30. I wasn’t married and didn’t have a clear idea of what my vocation was going to be. I had dropped out of my second graduate school program. Even though I was a successful graduate student in both English Literature and Journalism with a proclivity for writing and an adoration of ideas, I wasn’t happy in my endeavors. Jumping from job to job, I possessed a life that was interesting and stimulating but quite chaotic. I continuously met new people and kept acquiring skills that enhanced and broadened my worldview.

Once I graduated successfully from my third graduate program and began the treadmill of teaching ESL day-in-and-day-out and year-after-year, I developed a hard focus on getting my classes prepared and taught and papers graded and returned. My colleagues were respected friends, and I adored the ever-changing flow of international students who came through my classroom. Yet somehow I failed to go deeper and wider in my profession, to keep growing. It was time in 2013 to leave to cultivate the self and develop new skills.

But who was I after twenty years? This brown-and-blue striped cup held some memories of that thirty-year-old for me. Such mysteries in this revery of endings and awakenings.

Time for morning reflection

In my mornings of drawing daily, this cup has sat beside me, stalwart and obliging. It is going nowhere and loves to supervise my artistry. I have time to sip coffee and draw. It has relished its role in the life of "Coffee with Hallelujah." What a mystery!

One cup of coffee is enough

Learning to live and make choices from a place of relaxation—and not stress—has been one of my goals since I left my teaching job. I reduced my coffee drinking from one pot a day to one cup a day….yes one BIG cup! Often, I don’t drink all of it, but this wonderful cup loyally guards the remaining coffee, positioned by the kitchen sink until dinner time should I want a sip or two.

Trust in finding what task/employment is next

What a wonderful adventure I had in those years of the great UNKNOWN. I worked for Jeannette and Betty at the Village Arbors for three growing seasons! During that time, I also started my own business teaching English to internationals in an office I rented over a realtor’s office next to the train tracks. I made regular trips out to Sandhill, Alabama, to Buddha Heart Village to edit a book on Buddhism by Dr. James Yhu, an engineering professor at Auburn University and someone I was studying with. Oh! I had the most wonderful friends!

During that time, I struggled to discover what was next in my life. I almost giggle now as I reflect on these years! LIFE was right there happening to me the entire time! LIFE happens every moment! Even now as I work and play to transition to the next stage in my life, I am reminded to TRUST in what is NOW. NOW is next….what a mystery!

 

AN IMAGE OF A NEWBORN--AWAKENINGS? (art by Hallelujah Truth)

….Thus leading to the AWAKENING. Something is over (the cup that runneth over has broken). Something has begun (the child has been born). This image of a newborn baby appeared to me in May. Did she appear because of my performance work with “Embody the Mother”? Or because I was drawing and painting daily? Did she appear because I was dancing every morning and teaching InterPlay Alchemy? Or as a result of this discussion or that discussion? A walk? An embrace? What a mystery!

YES! YES TO ALL of the above! YES! Yes to life! Yes to endings and awakenings! And all that they hold. I am considering repairing the cup….but am also ready to move broken things out of my life and see what may appear next. As Cynthia Winton-Henry says, "more shall be revealed."

That’s Coffee with Hallelujah! What ENDINGS and AWAKENINGS have you experienced recently?