After the Storm

Die Eiszeit in Mir | my Ice Age is melting

The winds of approaching spring and their fury against winter are raging now in Weinviertel and most of Austria. Change often needs to be turbulent to get the job done. Tonight is new moon and there is a lot of energy whirling out there, even without Fasching, carneval time.

Yesterday, between storms, I wandered through the forest in a remote area of Waldviertel. Knocked-down trees and broken branches on the ground, like brave soldiers on a battlefield, reminded me that everything is passing. The innate darkness there had given way to something lighter and clearer. The Soul of Place, or genius loci, called me to listen to the stillness, here where the Ancient Ones – huge mystical boulders – commune with plant and sentient beings.

The past year was my personal Ice Age, ushered in by major heart surgery March 1, 2019 in Innsbruck with six hours on the miraculous heart-lung machine – a machine that does the work both of the heart and of the lungs, pumping and oxygenating blood. During this time, my heart was stopped temporarily and body temperature was lowered dramatically so the surgeons could do their life-saving work. I still often have a strange cold shivering sensation that I never experienced before my operation. My arduous journey back to waking life consciousness and learning to breathe again is another story.

Spring is coming and my Ice Age is also coming to a close, like a shell that my new life needed to be nourished and protected by. Now I feel better than ever and am committed to new cardio-fitness, mindfulness and daily meditation practice, thanks to training in Achtsamkeit MBSR (Mindfulness-Based-Stress-Reduction). My heartfelt thanks to Mag. Petra Tschögl for leading me into this invaluable practice. With it, my heart rate has calmed down and I have been able to reduce medications significantly.