GIFT A DAD
6/15/24
Dear Everybody,
THE SHORT: Last month we gifted the moms.
This month, it’s DAD SEASON!! This weekend only purchase a craniosacral session for a DAD in your life for 50% off my usual rate because dads need nurturing and I’m here to help you give it.
(Attn: Dads: you can also book yourself a session at this 50% off rate!). Discount code: DADLOVE
purchase 50% off session/gift certificate
Moms and Dads out there: I SEE YOU. I am in awe of you! I honor all that you give, the way you love, and the full spectrum nature of your parenthood journey.
I really love holding space and offering care to those who show up so much for others. This weekend, we’ll honor the fathers who show up in a good way and give ‘em some TLC.
Let’s do this! Gift A Dad! (discount code: DADLOVE)
Last month I shared how my mom was my original teacher in The Art Of Nurturance & Nourishment. (flower gardener, hostess of women’s gatherings, and the ever flowing heart of our family).
This month, I’ll share with you what I’ve learned from my LEGEND of a dad. He’s an anomaly but only those closest to him really get to see him in the fullness of his character.
One of my favorite stories he’s shared with me is what he experienced when he hitchhiked to the commune in upstate NY where he ended up meeting my mom.
He had grown up just outside of NYC and had been studying pre-med on his way to becoming a doctor. He was just a few credits away from graduating, when he had some sort of spiritual emergence/emergency, dropped out and let go of the path he’d been on.
This was in the ‘70s. Hippies were hippie-ing! and my dad was INTO IT!
He met a group of hippies in an NYC park, dug their vibe, and decided to go visit them where they were living upstate.
He hitchhiked 4 hours north, was dropped off in the middle of nowhere and started walking the mile(s) up a big hill to the property where the commune was communing.
He’d grown up in the city, and now, he’s standing there, in the middle of a dirt road, surrounded by pristine forest. His backpack drops to the ground and he meets: Perhaps The Most Spiritual Experience Of His Life.
It was like nothing he’d ever experienced before. Profound, Sacred, Magnificent, and Mystical. An experience of Arriving. Landing. Connection. Belonging. Aliveness.
He has been in a deep and reverent relationship with Nature ever since.
FOR THE RECORD- he hasn’t told me this story in years, and I’m putting ALL of these words into his mouth (only few of which he would use himself, but he says the same stuff in his own way). I love how vividly this image remains in my own mind, of him in his mid 20’s, surrounded only by nature for his first time.
I can see it, I can feel it, and I know it in myself…cuz about 10 years later, I was born in the house my dad built with his own hands and best friends, out in the country surrounded by trees.
He’s a real wood guy, man of the woods. It goes like this: Mom’s Garden, Dad’s Woods.
He is a woodworker (cabinet maker turned woodturner (wooden bowls are his thing). He sells and mills specialty lumber. He chops all of the firewood that keeps them warm all winter long in upstate NY. If you go for a walk with him, he’s mostly looking up, checking out the trees.
mom’s garden/dad’s woods, through my childhood bedroom window
He is a daily meditator, morning + night. He exercises every day (running the country roads + lifting weights in his makeshift woodshop gym), has his daily “yoga routine” (stretching), and his extracurricular activities include river kayaking, chopping wood, playing piano and eating chocolate chip cookies.
He has modeled for me a way of life that includes consistent devotional practice for body mind and spirit. (the spirit is in the cookies)
We have a lot of humor and play in our relationship and it’s sweet. He may have a *low bandwidth* for talking about emotions, but I do my best to torment him when I go home with “LET’S TALK ABOUT FEEEEELINGS” statements that are either (but not both) playful or annoyed…. but you know what, we do the best we can and it works.
One final thing: It’s so hard to explain….but although he doesn’t like to TALK about feelings, THIS MAN CAN HOLD SPACE.
The quality of his presence is incredibly stable, grounded and spacious.
This is likely the greatest gift he’s given me, and I feel so deeply how his zen presence has helped me cultivate this in myself to offer to others as they explore their experience of being.
Anytime he writes a note, he draws an infinity symbol at the bottom, it’s kind of like his signature. I have never asked him why, but I guarantee he would say “it’s just something I’ve been doing for a long time” and not make a big deal out of it.
NO PROBLEM - cuz I was born to make a big deal of things!!!!!
So this weekend I am making a BIG DEAL about the infinitetransmissions I’ve received from my cool dude dad and sharing them with The Dads Of Our Lives.
purchase 50% off session/gift certificate
(Discount code for dads: DADLOVE)
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY
Much Love,
Mari
♡