"Living Color" ©Dr. Penny in Skagit County Washington

It is a living color extravaganza!  It happens every April in Skagit County, Washington and this year I got to see it!  I had envisioned bicycling through quiet country roads amongst colorful fields of tulips.  But the secret of this amazing opportunity is out.  For two weeks straight, cars line the country roads.  Thousands of people from all over the world come to visit a handful of farms.  At this festival there are as many nationalities and dialects of people to see as colors of tulips. 

"Joy of All Ages, Color & Size" ©Dr. Penny, Skagit County, WA

The farms do an amazing job to accommodate busloads of senior citizens arriving alongside laughing and screaming toddlers.  Children race, yell, and jump in mud puddles.  Other kids, dressed like fashion models, eventually get tired of posing for parents with huge cameras and tripods. Wheelchairs get stuck in the mud.  Adults with special needs, clap their hands with glee.  Workers wave flags at people trampling fields to sneak a better photo.  People come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, just like the tulips. 

Color is something more than just pretty to look at.  Color is a form of visible light of electromagnetic energy.  Each color has its own frequency and vibration, which can help restore our own.  All colors carry their own unique healing properties.  Together with a delicate fragrance, appealing shape and soft spring breeze, you have the living dancing color extravaganza of a field of tulips. 

"Reaching For The Sky" ©Dr. Penny, Skagit County, WA

From our own experience, we know that colors affect us in certain ways.  It is how we choose the clothes we wear and the colors we paint our rooms.  Green is known to evoke harmony, relaxation, balance and healing.  Red is the longest wavelength and lowest vibration of visible light and stimulates our adrenal glands.  It brings vitality, power, confidence, and strength.  Pink carries a sense of affectionate nurturing, calmness, and safety that opens our hearts.  Yellow is cheerful and happy, boosting alertness and concentration. Orange gets the energetic, resourceful, creative juices flowing.  White is fresh, pure, clean, and tranquil.  Purple induces a heightened sense of beauty, insight and inspiration.  Blue conveys serenity, calm and comfort -  like our favorite pair of jeans. 

"Farming Color" ©Dr. Penny, Skagit County, WA

That’s what colors have been known to do.  But what about an entire field of tulips?  Put together poise, a certain shade of brilliant color, intricate shape, delicate fragrance, dancing gaily for you in a soft spring breeze – now that is a masterpiece of living color that can only be experienced.  

3 GAMES TO PLAY WITH TULIPS

It is great to see so many people interested in some aspect of nature.  With all the chaos and festivities, I wonder how many people experience the hush of “tiptoeing through the tulips”?  How many people pause to feel the brilliant color of poised friendly waving tulips wash through them?  

1. SILENT TULIP – Give yourself at least 5 minutes to play this game.  Resist the urge to talk about the tulips.  Instead, notice what you feel inside as you look at the tulips.  If you are not sure, stand in front of a field and close your eyes for a minute and check how you feel inside.  Scan your body from head to toe.  Then open your eyes and check again while you look at the tulips.
   

   "Beaming Beauty" ©Dr. Penny, Skagit County, WA

    
2. BEAM BEAUTY – Smell the air.  Look at the color and shape.  Watch the tulips dance in the wind, and feel inside at the same time.  Put your full attention on sensing and feeling – not thinking and talking.  In this way, let the feeling grow.  When you are full of delicious feeling, beam it without saying a word, just like a tulip does.

3.  CHOOSE YOUR COLOR – Forget if you already have a favorite color.  Start fresh.  Quickly scan all the tulip fields and see if there is one shade of color that makes you leap inside.  Then, after your preliminary scan, study one color at a time.  Look at the entire field.  Also study the intricate detail of individual flowers.  Notice everything you can.  Observe what you feel inside and where while you enjoy.  Take your time.  No rushing.  Switch from one color to another.  Does it feel different?  How?  Where?  Is one better than another or just different?  Which one holds your interest the longest?  Do you have one new best color friend or several? 

“Sunshine Through a Flower” ©Dr. Penny, Skagit County, WA

"Putting in Time" ©Dr. Penny, Sam & Lila

Annoyed, I glanced down at my watch.  Anxious, I checked the street.  It was not like my friend to be late.  My stomach was in knots.  It was my day off.  I had a list a mile long to get through today.  Again, I checked for a cell phone message.  Ah, he was delayed in traffic.  There was nothing to do but wait. 

After pacing back and forth a few more times, I settled on a bench outside the restaurant.  Gradually I set aside my “to do” list and started to notice my surroundings.  Even though it was past noon, I hadn’t yet noticed what a beautiful spring day it was.  The sun was shining.  The birds were chirping.  The air was lightly scented with lilac.  A dog was staring at me with a gently thumping tail.  Leashed to a post in front of the restaurant, he too was waiting. 

I began to notice people as they arrived for brunch.  First there was a couple dressed in business suits.  Deep in thought, they were oblivious to their surroundings – as I had been only a few moments before.  Eyebrows furrowed, they talked loudly over each other, each trying to drive home their point.  As they whisked by, the dog lay motionless with his head between his front legs.  He lifted a brow when one person quit talking briefly to search for the doorknob.  They entered the restaurant not seeing the dog or I. 

A few minutes later, the dog stood up.  He shook, ran a circle and began a whole body wag.  I followed his gaze to see a young couple getting out of their car.  The man slung an arm around her shoulder and they threw back their heads laughing.  Pointing out the dog, the girl clapped her hands.  The dog danced on his hind legs, grinning widely.  Like long-lost friends, they hugged and smothered each other with sloppy wet kisses before entering the restaurant.  The dog lay back down with his head between his legs.  

Next, an elderly couple drove up.  The gentleman slowly straightened a stiff spine, and smoothed his suit jacket.  Then he shuffled over to open the door of the immaculate old Cadillac.  Out stepped a tiny old lady in a pink floral dress.  Her cloudy eyes twinkled as soon as she saw the dog.  The man gave a wide toothless grin.  The dog was once again on his feet, tail wagging.  When the lady reached out a white-gloved hand, the dog held very still.  The dog watched the couple safely into the restaurant before lying down.  

The dog met each person differently – appropriate for that individual.  Everyone fussed over the dog and paid no attention to me.  Then along came a little girl, skipping while holding Mom’s hand.  In her other hand she merrily twirled two tiny satin shoes.  Hair in a bun, she had on a ruffled purple dress.  Instead of looking at the dog, she kept shyly glancing at me.  Taking the cue, I asked about her pretty shoes.  Peaking out from behind Mom’s skirt, she proudly stated she had just taken her first ballet class.  After a brief chat, gaining confidence, the little girl led the way prancing into the restaurant.  My heart felt lovely warm. 

Just then my friend walked up.  I welcomed him with a relaxed grin.  Captivated by the moment, I had forgotten I was even waiting.  All earlier tension was gone.  I took a moment before entering the restaurant – to say thanks to the dog that had just taught me the best way to put in time.

“MEET HALF WAY” SKILL –

We are so accustomed to just doing stuff to animals.  Humans are almost always on “talking doing output” mode, instead of “listening being input” mode.  Next time, instead of just absently patting your dog or cat  - meet them half way.  Turn it into a 2 way conversation. 

Instead of automatically imposing some action on them, take a second to pause.  Stop thinking about other stuff.  Drop your attention from your head space down to your heart space.  While you focus on them, pause and listen inside you.  Open a gap to receive (input). 

When you decide to say “hi” (output), try it from your heart  space, instead of with your voice or by touching.  Then pause to receive.  What you receive may come as a sensation, visual image, smell, or impression.

Meeting half way means listening half time.  You might be pleasantly surprised to find out what a loving glance from a cat can say to your heart, if you listen.  And what a simple lick on the hand from a dog can convey, if you are open to receiving.

"Healing Energy" ©Dr. Penny with equine friend at dusk in CO

When I first started doing acupuncture 18 years ago, I wondered what the heck this mysterious and elusive “chi” thing was.  There was supposed to be some kind of “healing energy” in the needle.  At that time I didn’t understand it.  I wasn’t feeling a darn thing.

While interning with other acupuncturists, I had witnessed the use of twitches and tranquilizers to get needles into horses resisting treatment.  There were people who claimed “great chi” whenever a horse freaked out and corkscrewed a needle from jumping around and contracting the muscle in his back.  I thought of the award-winning work of Candace Pert “Molecules of Emotion”.  And questioned whether a treatment applied under duress, releasing fright and flight stress chemicals in an animal’s body, was of much therapeutic value.

There are many acupuncture techniques and mental concepts of chi out there.  I went to an acupuncturist myself ONCE that took pride in placing the needle as close to large nerves as possible.  We all know the hair-raising, electric, burning jolt that occurs when a dentist gets the local anesthetic needle too close to the nerve.  “Good chi” the acupuncturist claimed, as the unpleasant zinger shot down my leg and I jumped off the table.  For me, the stress of treatment outweighed any potential benefit.  I had more knots of tension after, than before.

I went to other acupuncturists where there were only pleasant tingling and warmth radiating from the needle.  I was able to relax and embrace treatment and felt a wonderful peaceful glow afterwards.  This was the experience I wished to bring to horses and dogs.  Unlike people, animals have limited ability to reason that “I will feel better tomorrow if I endure this discomfort right now.”  To an animal, it must feel good in the moment to make sense.  So I continued looking for ways to make the treatment as pleasant as possible, rather than resort to force and restraint.

The animals began to clue me into what chi really was.  There came a day when I felt a tiny squeak in the needle.  It felt like the squeak when you run your hands through your hair when it is wet.  I was so excited to finally feel something in the needle, that I immediately lost the sensation.  But over time I began to feel it more frequently and stronger.  It was not just the squeak in the needle that was so thrilling.  It was the simultaneous response of the horse.  Whenever I felt the squeak, eyelids would droop and heads would drop.  The horses looked like they were tranquilized, as they zoned in and embraced treatment.  Sometimes the chi in the needle would build and be so strong that I could let clients twirl the needle and feel it too. 

Over the years, I practiced.  Gradually I honed my ability to focus and allow the chi to build (without my excited mind jumping in to break it off).  The horses became my reliable chi barometers.  The instant I felt chi in the needle, the animals would freeze.  They would stop any fidgeting and go inwards, drawing me deeper and deeper with them.

For many years, it was all or nothing.  I could talk and think.  Or I could quiet my mind, focus on the sensation and let chi build.  I could only build chi while I was in silent focus.  When a client would start talking, I would have to climb out of a deep well of being, and then enter my mind to talk.  The connection to the animal would be broken.  After talking, I would go back to twirling needles and chi.  But gradually, I learned to talk without losing the connection completely.  Day after day for years I practiced the “acupuncture gap between talking with client” meditation. 

The day came when I felt chi while I was doing chiropractic.  An acupuncture needle was not necessary to run chi.  I was massaging the sacrotuberous ligament of a horse and felt the familiar sensation in my hand.  I focussed on it and let it build and soon it was spreading up my arm and into my core.  It felt like a cat purring in my heart.  It was a peaceful, still time out – a break from the strain and turmoil and push and pull of daily living.  The horse and I rested together in the sweet breeze of renewal and revitalization.

One day I met a very grumpy, don’t you dare touch me, very fed up with having things forced on her, brilliant mare teacher.  She reminded me that (duh!) connection before touching was the natural order of things.  I had to find the cat purring in my heart BEFORE she would let me touch her.  For this mare, a semi-quiet mind was not good enough.  She demanded more.  Once a certain degree of connection was present, she let me work on her.  If I lost it, she went back to being grumpy and resistant.  She held me to a new standard.  Every time I found the deeper levels of my current limits, her eyes would glaze over.  Every time I lost it, her eyes would harden.  This new level was challenging to maintain.

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.  Over the years, I have had a steady stream of brilliant animal teachers.  Teaching me flexibility.  Teaching me to listen.  Teaching innovation.  Teaching focus.  Teaching allowing.  Teaching being.  Teaching connection.  Teaching deepening from there.  Some gently patiently request.  Others insistently demand.  Most animals have great tolerance for mechanical detached treatment.  But each of them know exactly where we are in our learning curve and request a little bit more every time we see them.

The animals continue to teach.  A heart centered connection takes a concentration different from the mind chatter we are more accustomed to.  But when the connection is there it is like simultaneous warm tea pouring into the heart.  Both the animals and I look forward to the day when all humans walk the earth with the chi of warm tea – the gap between the words – flowing through our heart as our predominant state of being.

CHI GAME – (ADVANCED SKILL LEVEL so don’t get discouraged)

Pick an acupressure point or spot that your animal enjoys being rubbed.  Keep part of your focus on how the animal is responding to what you are doing, and part of your focus on the sensation in your hand.  Then, if you can manage it, also put part of your focus on how your heart space feels inside. 

At first concentrating on 3 things at the same time will be a bit uncoordinated – like patting your head and rubbing your stomach.  But gradually as you relax into it, instead of jumping from one to the next, you will be able to have an awareness of all 3 at the same time.   Use how you feel inside as part of your feedback on how much the animal is enjoying what you are doing.  Change what you are doing a bit and check the response.  Play around.

BONUS – If you happen to feel a pleasant sensation building in your hand, this is chi.  Let it build by lightly paying attention to it.  Enjoy.  Eventually movement becomes a flowing delicious extension through you from your center. 

"Expanded vision" ©Dr. Penny with B & River

I felt cozy and embraced, sitting in the hay pile, with a favorite horse munching on each side of me.  Gazing up at their long heads, necks, and whiskers from below,  I watched them nimbly sift and sort, choose and chew, in a steady soothing rhythm.  Mesmerized, I gradually entered a deeper state of being. 

There was a ruckus in the barn behind us and the horses stopped chewing.  Ears perked in high silent alert in that direction.  We all realized at the same time that it was the dogs wrestling.  The instant we knew what the noise was, the horses relaxed and went back to munching.  But as I sat there, a window opened into the broad surveillance of the world that a prey animal has. 

Horses maintain a constant awareness of their surroundings.  Their eyes are built different from ours.  As predators, our eyes are well equipped to see in front of us.  To aid survival, prey animals can see almost 360 degrees around them.  This I knew from anatomy studies, but had never before actually experienced.  These two horses knew where the bunny rabbit was and where the barn cat was.  They were aware of the breeze fluttering the leaves of the tree and the rock pile.  It went beyond their almost 360-degree vision.  It was an awareness of everything all at once.  It was a bubble of connection extending beyond their physical bodies.  

To my surprise, I could do it too.  I also could keep tabs on everything around me.  And I didn’t need to swivel my head and dart my eyes around to look.  Vision was an aid to augment, but not necessary for a basal level of surveillance.  This awareness of surroundings came from a sensing feeling place inside.  When something of interest arose within the field, one of more of the 5 senses could then zero in for more information.  Like how our ears perked up and attention turned to the dogs wrestling. 

It was the same sensing place where you could feel an impulse arise before the body actually moved.  It was how you could feel that a horse was going to lift a front leg to paw before it happened.  It was not necessary to be in physical contact to feel the muscles of the forelimb contract to initiate movement.  It was actually possible to feel the impulse prior to the muscle contraction. 

This level of attunement was how a flock of birds could take off all at once.  It was how a herd of horses could navigate terrain without falling or bumping into each other.  It was how seemingly chaotic traffic could merge and flow smoothly – without the need for painted lane lines and without accidents. 

It was a fascinating glimpse into a broader way of being – a more connected way of being.  And a state of being which I prepared to drop, when my mind kicked in to remind me of all the chores waiting.  I rose, dusted off my jeans, and headed into the barn to clean stalls. 

But as I left the horses to enter the barn, I came to understand that I had more than an off/on switch.  It was a continuum.  I could be totally lost in my thoughts and oblivious to my surroundings (where most people spend most of their time).  Or I could be totally aware of my surroundings and not thinking much (more like the animals).  Or I could choose somewhere in between. 

Even though the horses were out of direct sight, I could still keep tabs on them from inside me.  The same way I had just experienced while sitting next to them.  The connection from the heart space could stay open while I did chores.  I did not need to see or touch them to maintain the connection.  I could carry the warm connection to my equine friends with me – as long as I chose to focus on it – through maintaining an awareness of my own heart space. 

What incredible perceptive expanding beings we are.  What marvelous sensory apparatuses we have.  Sure I was rusty.  The equipment could be tuned up a bit.  But I had a glimpse of what was possible.  I could be just like a surveillance camera in one room if I wished.  Or I could be like a central surveillance station, monitoring all rooms at once.  Even from a remote location.  All I had to do was choose my focus. 

360 GAME – Sit next to an animal or a tree.  Relax and watch them for a bit.  As you watch, be aware of your own body at the same time.  Shift your focus from your head down to your heart area, while you watch.  Then close your eyes and see if you can still sense them next to you, without actually seeing or touching them.  Is there anything else you can sense around you? 

"Awakening True Power" ©Dr. Penny CO sunrise

For those of you who don’t know, Barbaro (2003-2007), was a Thoroughbred racehorse who was never defeated.  In 2006, he won the Kentucky Derby by over 6 lengths and raised quite a stir as the next possible Triple Crown winner.  The public was horrified when Barbaro broke his leg (in several places) during the Preakness race.  Surgery to repair such a catastrophic fracture  was pretty much unheard of, but was attempted, and was successful.  Thousands of “Get Well” cards and flowers decorated his recovery stall. 

Over the following several months, his condition was reported on daily by news teams.  Just to make it through such a surgery was a miracle.  Then he suffered a very painful complication from an abscess.  Finally the abscess resolved and the fracture was almost healed.  Things were looking good for him to become a breeding stallion.  He was shown on the news, walking proud and well, and we all thought he was going to make it. 

Two days later, he came down with laminitis (in his front legs) and had to be euthanized.  At the time, I remember being greatly surprised by the number of people (many with no previous interest in horses) who were captivated by his story and mourned his death tremendously.  I was inspired to write this story as a tribute to a phenomena.

It is a world where the heart rules.  Amidst the thunder of hooves, rushing wind through tousled manes, flaring nostrils, bulging muscle, flashing colorful silks, and unleashed spirit – intellectual discussion does not exist.

It is raw…vibrant…visceral.  It is passion.  And it is power.  It is deep inside you.  It is a force beyond and including you.  It is who you really are.  It is being alive – truly alive.

Barbaro is the little girl galloping with her imaginary stick pony.  Barbaro is Tom Cruise feeling the need for speed in Top Gun.  Barbaro is the passion that draws millions of viewers each week to American Idol.  It is the thrill of the ride and the rise of a champion.  It is the best of the best.

Barbaro is the cultivation of raw talent into a timeless creation.  An exquisite physical manifestation that touches all that was, is and can be in an instant.  A masterpiece so beautiful that it suspends us.  And gives us a glimpse of our own potential.

We feel the stirring of embers in our soul igniting a fire – a powerful call to action.  Beckoning each of us to create our own unique beautiful song to sing.  So that we romp to the finish line having given our all – as Barbaro has done.

Some say Barbaro was born to run.  But no, he was born for more than that.  His legacy is not just the rise of a champion.  Perhaps his greatest gifts lie in the fall of a champion, his will to survive, wise grace, and opening of hearts across the nation.  There was no snide kicking of this champion when he was down.  No secret jeering or silent satisfaction that he was out of the race – like might occur in some competitive settings.  He raised us up.  Everyone was rooting for him.

Barbaro was born to bring out the best in people.  He had that special “something”.  He had the eye of a noble champion on and off the racetrack.  In all our human attempts to achieve power, horses give us a glimpse of what true power is.  Fame and fortune do not motivate horses.  They do not run to win the blanket of roses, prize money, or headlines.  The do not win a race because someone told them to.  Champions of this caliber are not coerced.  The exist beyond and despite human ego.

Horses run simply for the fun of it.  They race to experience the joy of being alive.  Prancing, dancing, jigging, cavorting and unleashing joyful energy in a burst of speed.  It is a physical expression of who they are.  Animals do what they do,simply and completely , in every moment of every day.  By fully being who they are, horses raise us up to experience a bit more of all that we are.

Through Barbaro, a world tapped into the heart of a racehorse.  This horse, every horse, can help us to experience true power in human form.  We can transcend our current limitations.  Imagine how a horse prances through life.  Gain a glimpse of equine reality television, if you will.  “Enjoyment” can replace “wanting” as the motivating force behind all of our actions.  Just study a horse to understand and receive this gift.

If watching the Kentucky Derby gives you goose bumps, makes you cry, fills you with awed stillness, leaves you breathless, and inspires you to greatness – you have just tapped into the heart of a racehorse.  In that instant you will feel the power of all the great champions, coursing through your veins.  Anything is possible.  Not only that, but you have the capacity to carry it through.  And this you know with utter certainty.  Like an arrow racing to its target.

For true power does not come from what you do, it flows into what you do.  It enters this world from deep within you.  Practice the vibrant enthusiasm of Barbaro, in all that you do.  Experience the sense of aliveness that comes from fully embracing the moment.  In doing so, connect to the power that lies behind all creation.

Become the horsepower that is Barbaro.  For we are all one.  And Barbaro moved our world one step closer to understanding that.

“HEART OF A CHAMPION” GAME – Go to a horse race or a football game - some form of public event that inspires you.  At the peak of excitement – when your favorite horse is charging down the homestretch – or the home team scores the winning touchdown – take a second to tune into how your body feels.  Before you yell, whistle, stomp, laugh, cry, cut loose and release all that energy coursing through your body – pay attention to the greatness of the moment.  Focus and feel the buzz, the movement, the fullness, the expansion…  the power to move mountains surging through you.  Giving the sensation your full attention even for a millisecond, will imprint it in your brain.  Then the next time you need an energy boost, instead of reaching for a triple espresso, grab a cellular memory.  Your body won’t know the difference between remembering an event or actually being there.  And BONUS, there are no caffeine jitters in the alert true power coursing through the heart of a champion.