Wow, what a journey! I filled my soul with your words today, not only because it’s been a while and I’ve missed you, not only because I intentionally wanted to start the morning with your wisdom as soon as I saw that you had put out a stack, but also because as soon as I saw the title, I knew the universe was about to offer the insights I most needed right now through its adventurous child that goes by Mary. You brave and curious wonder. Yes, the epiphanies don’t come from thinking but through the suffering! A reminder that needs daily repeating. Looking forward to part 2. And I’d love to see some more photos!
Wow, I'm blushing. Thanks, Tonika... and I'm SO GLAD the universe delivered the goods to you through me. It's funny, I would describe you in the exact same way -- brave and curious! Must be why we're friends. 👯 And more photos will come, I'm certain. xox
Nov 12, 2023·edited Nov 12, 2023Liked by Mary Poindexter McLaughlin
How wonderful Mary!I
We so so need to get beyond thinking. A difficult balance sometimes, because thinking exists for a reason, and we should use it. But too much attachment to it is perhaps the number one ill of the modern world! It is well that there are still some shamans in the world to show us another way!
Also glad that you are managing to find such a rich, diverse life amidst the adversity being hurled upon us. I do think that going out and doing that is one of the ways that we must fight the madness.
I so, so agree. Did you ever see "Death at a Funeral"? My favorite quote is when the grieving, somewhat melodramatic widow says to her daughter-in-law (who has just kindly offered her a cup of tea): "Tea is lovely, Jane, but it won't bring back the dead." It always makes me laugh. And I think of the brain that way: "Our intellect is lovely, Michael, but it won't save us in the end." 😂
Yes, it's true. And so many people at present seem to think it will. Not only that, but many great thinkers are monsters.
James Hillman, who I'm often fond of quoting, warned that an education system obssessed with intellect and facts "may produce a nation of achieving high school graduates who are also psycopaths".
And G.K.Chesterton wrote "A madman is not a man who has lost his reason. He is a man who has lost everything except his reason". (Forgive the gender imbalance in that one, but it was 100 years ago!)
Thank you, Mary, for sharing this and I so look forward to part 2. What an experience and deep reconnect with Earth!
I always know when I open one of your posts that a mix of vulnerability, honest self-reflection, intelligence and wisdom will present. You just being you, I guess.😊
Welcome back! Thank you so much for sharing your experience, it’s so very powerful. It sounds like The Mountain accepted you and shared some of her secrets with you. ❤️ I’ve experienced her through a friend who visited same as you. One day I will experience her in person. ❤️ I’m looking forward to hearing more about your adventures.
Thanks so much! It is good to be home. I did feel as though I connected with Pachamama in a way I never had. Reading about something just can't replace personal experience. To that end, I hope you DO get to experience her; she's waiting for you...
Thankyou for your raw story telling Mary. I don't think humanity has ever been forced to confront and negotiate such an acute discomfort: take the last 3 or so years, and now add the viral circulation of footage and images of blown up children. What comes after this I have no idea (except for a highly regulated and censored internet, which now seems inevitable) but the collective transformation we are undergoing can't be anything except profound.
Nov 12, 2023·edited Nov 12, 2023Liked by Mary Poindexter McLaughlin
Couldn't help think how the human spirit is indeed mysterious as are mysterious ways of old (yup, they'ze mysterious too!) --an' "observin' " the workin's of such mystery is sort've breathtakin' even from afar! As you describe it so vividly Mary, I feel like it's a story of a "brave" enterin' a new phase in life, learnin' ta face fears or some sort of rubicon ya gotta cross to reach the next step of knowledge. Now, me, I'm more've an armchair-body when it comes to such explorin' (you'll git me ta poke around ruins, moo-seums, an' any his-torick kinda place with objects of old... but otherwayz even yoga is a too-far reach fer me, hence my long-distance appreciation!) One day mebbe I'll relate my own experience with a sauna! (it wuz a gift from a friend, a fellow actress, but in brief I skeadaddled outta there faster than roaches once the light's on!) So yer fortitude an' determination ta make it work are purdy inspirin'!
Anywayz, I used ta work nights back in the day ta pay the bills (cuz Ahart Don't Pay) an' one of my lovely big-hearted an' talented co-workers, a photographer (bread n' butter work wuz catalogue fashion), was passionate 'bout them sweat lodges an' she had a deep personal connection to the chief of that particular tribe (Lakota--Chief Archie!) an' traveled the world with'im--I'm a gonna share the link to some of her fine pix from that work she did as I think ya might like 'em -- here ya go!
Challenges are challenges, no? I think about the hell you've gone through in your house in the past year and feel LUCKY to have done a sweat lodge instead!! If there's anyone I know who's tougher than nails as a result of facing adversity, it's YOU, Daisy.
Love the artwork of your friend; such beauty! Thanks for sharing it with me...xox
Your writing is magical, it carries me along with you even to where I don't want to go! feel I touched the experience of that heat and was tearful afterwards. Amazing... and how open and courageous and generous you are...
Fiona, what a kind comment! Thank you for riding along with me, and for letting me know the effect of the journey. I'm very grateful for your presence.
Amazing story. I'm hyperventilating reading it. I'm glad you could go into the fire and bring this revelation back for me.
I will await the healing rosacea story. My dance teacher, Guatemalan lizard that she is, loves saunas and heat, heat, heat. And has itchy patches of skin that never go away. Connected?
Thanks, Tereza! Could be connected... my belief about skin issues is that they are almost always an indication that the body is trying to get rid of something: heavy metals, toxins, unresolved emotional stuff, you name it.
Gina created Worldanz, which is capoiera, salsa, samba, hip hop, Senegalese, Afro-beats, Haitian, dancehall, vogue, Ukranian, Russian, bellydance, Bollywood and I'm sure I'm forgetting others. All with a lot of naughty moves and a lot of laughing. Which fools us into staying for 2 hrs of intensive cardio and calisthenics disguised as dance.
She'd be the first to cop to having toxins and unresolved emotional stuff. But I'm not sure which would be harder for her to give up--those or intense heat ;-)
Oh my goodness, Mary. I felt like I was right there with you. I have yet to be in a sweat lodge and always think "Well, I'd have to be next to the door because I'm a champion claustrophobic." And yet, I felt myself being able to endure something like this while reading your words. Remarkable telling. Thank you for sharing. 🔥XO
We are all stronger than we know. My guess is that you've endured things that would make me run for the door! We all rise to the occasion when the time is right. xox
Aw gorsh, so kind've ya Mary--we gals have endured lots, ain't it so? Hardy AND hearty--made of stronger stuff than the current melty snowflake variety, right? Glad ya liked them photos, ditto here! I just wish Veretta had posted more of 'em on her site cuz there are mebbe thousands! Guess she's mostly sharin' her more commercial stuff that brings in the sheckles now but she spent 15 years documentin' the Lakota (livin' with them, the whole 9 yards!) It's all healin' an' it's fascinatin' how ye kin come by such healin' so many ways (tho' the sweat lodge intensity seems a tad hard ta control, like method actin'!, once that horse gits outta the chute, whoa nellie!). I guess here, tho', it's about lettin' go--of pain, personal demons, loss, grief--all fascinatin' stuff fer sure.
Are ye gonna ever do the Wim Hof ice thing? Lordy, I hate the cold like that but all I hear is cheers an' folks sayin' they've never felt better in their lives, more in touch with the universe, all kinda talkin' bout it like it's better n' bacon! (it's temptin' cuz ya don't need ta go to "Darkest Peru" ta try it tho' fer now I'm settlin' with our Amish bacon ;-) Anywho-- I'll be a' lookin' out fer part II of this surprisin' adventure!
I am going to do the other extreme -- it's on the list! My son swam in the ocean off Cape Cod from September through February, and swears by its benefits. Though bacon sounds kinda great, now that you mention it...
lol, wull there ya go! an' yup, feats of endurance (hot, cold, otherwayz expansive) rewire some of our circuits fer the better... they also include fastin' (up ta 5 days fer us grown ups, lordy moses that's a lot...) but then again... fastin' in a word of BACON (pastured) an' cheese ('specially French!) is a'nuther type of challenge entirely! (I firmly bee-lieve that good "fixins" also do a soul good in times've calamity!) either way... we humans have a lotta untapped potential much've it un-discovered! ;-)
So many things in common with you, Mary, including a daughter named Madeleine whose kids attend Waldorf School in Puerto Vallarta; a decision to not have a television available in our house after reading 4 Arguments in the early 80s (we had one in a closet for a rare movie and watched news of the Gulf War on it); and a sweatlodge story as well! Thanks for writing.
Woo hoo! Yikes! and more power to you, girl! You made me hold my breath, and get all tense and nervous reading this saga of the sweat lodge, but I knew you'd emerge victorious. OK, so look, Mary, I just have to mention that I've been with you here since you wrote about the "Ayahuasca retreat", and as I recall that was an intense experience too. So, what I want to know is, "Are you done yet?" I doubt it. This is just what you do, and I admire you for it, you crazy girl! I look forward to hearing about the rest of your adventure. Thanks for sharing the lessons you learned, and I'm glad you made it back all in one piece. XOX
You make me laugh, Rocket! Just to be clear, I wrote about MDMA, not Ayahuasca... but I'm scheming on how to that one, too, so you're actually ahead of the game 😂. I guess this IS what I do, now that you mention it! I only worried once about my ability to return in one piece; that was the mountain climbing adventure in Machu Picchu that freaked me out. It really wasn't that big a deal, but it totally got under my skin. I'm not as good with heights as I thought I was! Though after that experience, I'm a little better. That is how it works, apparently. Happy to be back... XOX
I stand corrected., but I was close. I wanted to go back and reread that other piece, but I had no idea when you posted it. Ahead of the game??? Seriously?? I don't want to know. xox
Wow, what a journey! I filled my soul with your words today, not only because it’s been a while and I’ve missed you, not only because I intentionally wanted to start the morning with your wisdom as soon as I saw that you had put out a stack, but also because as soon as I saw the title, I knew the universe was about to offer the insights I most needed right now through its adventurous child that goes by Mary. You brave and curious wonder. Yes, the epiphanies don’t come from thinking but through the suffering! A reminder that needs daily repeating. Looking forward to part 2. And I’d love to see some more photos!
Wow, I'm blushing. Thanks, Tonika... and I'm SO GLAD the universe delivered the goods to you through me. It's funny, I would describe you in the exact same way -- brave and curious! Must be why we're friends. 👯 And more photos will come, I'm certain. xox
Cosmic sisters. :)
Much better.
This is beautiful, powerful well-cooked wisdom. Thank you, Mary!! I feel the medicine
Thank you, Judith! Lovely to see you here!!
How wonderful Mary!I
We so so need to get beyond thinking. A difficult balance sometimes, because thinking exists for a reason, and we should use it. But too much attachment to it is perhaps the number one ill of the modern world! It is well that there are still some shamans in the world to show us another way!
Also glad that you are managing to find such a rich, diverse life amidst the adversity being hurled upon us. I do think that going out and doing that is one of the ways that we must fight the madness.
I so, so agree. Did you ever see "Death at a Funeral"? My favorite quote is when the grieving, somewhat melodramatic widow says to her daughter-in-law (who has just kindly offered her a cup of tea): "Tea is lovely, Jane, but it won't bring back the dead." It always makes me laugh. And I think of the brain that way: "Our intellect is lovely, Michael, but it won't save us in the end." 😂
Yes, it's true. And so many people at present seem to think it will. Not only that, but many great thinkers are monsters.
James Hillman, who I'm often fond of quoting, warned that an education system obssessed with intellect and facts "may produce a nation of achieving high school graduates who are also psycopaths".
And G.K.Chesterton wrote "A madman is not a man who has lost his reason. He is a man who has lost everything except his reason". (Forgive the gender imbalance in that one, but it was 100 years ago!)
Holy s***, those are some prescient quotes. Yeesh. Brilliant and true and scary as hell.
Thank you, Mary, for sharing this and I so look forward to part 2. What an experience and deep reconnect with Earth!
I always know when I open one of your posts that a mix of vulnerability, honest self-reflection, intelligence and wisdom will present. You just being you, I guess.😊
Aw Kathleen, that's ridiculously kind. Thank you.
Welcome back! Thank you so much for sharing your experience, it’s so very powerful. It sounds like The Mountain accepted you and shared some of her secrets with you. ❤️ I’ve experienced her through a friend who visited same as you. One day I will experience her in person. ❤️ I’m looking forward to hearing more about your adventures.
Thanks so much! It is good to be home. I did feel as though I connected with Pachamama in a way I never had. Reading about something just can't replace personal experience. To that end, I hope you DO get to experience her; she's waiting for you...
Thankyou for your raw story telling Mary. I don't think humanity has ever been forced to confront and negotiate such an acute discomfort: take the last 3 or so years, and now add the viral circulation of footage and images of blown up children. What comes after this I have no idea (except for a highly regulated and censored internet, which now seems inevitable) but the collective transformation we are undergoing can't be anything except profound.
Exactly, Isaac. Perfectly said. I may have to quote you!
Couldn't help think how the human spirit is indeed mysterious as are mysterious ways of old (yup, they'ze mysterious too!) --an' "observin' " the workin's of such mystery is sort've breathtakin' even from afar! As you describe it so vividly Mary, I feel like it's a story of a "brave" enterin' a new phase in life, learnin' ta face fears or some sort of rubicon ya gotta cross to reach the next step of knowledge. Now, me, I'm more've an armchair-body when it comes to such explorin' (you'll git me ta poke around ruins, moo-seums, an' any his-torick kinda place with objects of old... but otherwayz even yoga is a too-far reach fer me, hence my long-distance appreciation!) One day mebbe I'll relate my own experience with a sauna! (it wuz a gift from a friend, a fellow actress, but in brief I skeadaddled outta there faster than roaches once the light's on!) So yer fortitude an' determination ta make it work are purdy inspirin'!
Anywayz, I used ta work nights back in the day ta pay the bills (cuz Ahart Don't Pay) an' one of my lovely big-hearted an' talented co-workers, a photographer (bread n' butter work wuz catalogue fashion), was passionate 'bout them sweat lodges an' she had a deep personal connection to the chief of that particular tribe (Lakota--Chief Archie!) an' traveled the world with'im--I'm a gonna share the link to some of her fine pix from that work she did as I think ya might like 'em -- here ya go!
http://www.veretta.com/native-american/p6tqq7dbe7m4k8je7fwpk8us28r8qb
Lookin' forward ta the next install-mint!
Challenges are challenges, no? I think about the hell you've gone through in your house in the past year and feel LUCKY to have done a sweat lodge instead!! If there's anyone I know who's tougher than nails as a result of facing adversity, it's YOU, Daisy.
Love the artwork of your friend; such beauty! Thanks for sharing it with me...xox
Aho Mateo!!! Xoxo
Aho Mateo!! 😊❤️
Your writing is magical, it carries me along with you even to where I don't want to go! feel I touched the experience of that heat and was tearful afterwards. Amazing... and how open and courageous and generous you are...
Fiona, what a kind comment! Thank you for riding along with me, and for letting me know the effect of the journey. I'm very grateful for your presence.
Wow Mary. Tears and chills! More later.. gotta run.. amazing, inspiring writing as always.
Also.. and many levels less important.. but still I hafta say, impressive abs 💪🏼
Thanks, and...😂
Exquisite, Mary. I hope one day I will have the courage you had. I am in tearful admiration.
Vic
Thanks so much, Vic! xox
Amazing story. I'm hyperventilating reading it. I'm glad you could go into the fire and bring this revelation back for me.
I will await the healing rosacea story. My dance teacher, Guatemalan lizard that she is, loves saunas and heat, heat, heat. And has itchy patches of skin that never go away. Connected?
Thanks, Tereza! Could be connected... my belief about skin issues is that they are almost always an indication that the body is trying to get rid of something: heavy metals, toxins, unresolved emotional stuff, you name it.
What kind of dance??💃
Gina created Worldanz, which is capoiera, salsa, samba, hip hop, Senegalese, Afro-beats, Haitian, dancehall, vogue, Ukranian, Russian, bellydance, Bollywood and I'm sure I'm forgetting others. All with a lot of naughty moves and a lot of laughing. Which fools us into staying for 2 hrs of intensive cardio and calisthenics disguised as dance.
She'd be the first to cop to having toxins and unresolved emotional stuff. But I'm not sure which would be harder for her to give up--those or intense heat ;-)
Oh my goodness, Mary. I felt like I was right there with you. I have yet to be in a sweat lodge and always think "Well, I'd have to be next to the door because I'm a champion claustrophobic." And yet, I felt myself being able to endure something like this while reading your words. Remarkable telling. Thank you for sharing. 🔥XO
We are all stronger than we know. My guess is that you've endured things that would make me run for the door! We all rise to the occasion when the time is right. xox
Aw gorsh, so kind've ya Mary--we gals have endured lots, ain't it so? Hardy AND hearty--made of stronger stuff than the current melty snowflake variety, right? Glad ya liked them photos, ditto here! I just wish Veretta had posted more of 'em on her site cuz there are mebbe thousands! Guess she's mostly sharin' her more commercial stuff that brings in the sheckles now but she spent 15 years documentin' the Lakota (livin' with them, the whole 9 yards!) It's all healin' an' it's fascinatin' how ye kin come by such healin' so many ways (tho' the sweat lodge intensity seems a tad hard ta control, like method actin'!, once that horse gits outta the chute, whoa nellie!). I guess here, tho', it's about lettin' go--of pain, personal demons, loss, grief--all fascinatin' stuff fer sure.
Are ye gonna ever do the Wim Hof ice thing? Lordy, I hate the cold like that but all I hear is cheers an' folks sayin' they've never felt better in their lives, more in touch with the universe, all kinda talkin' bout it like it's better n' bacon! (it's temptin' cuz ya don't need ta go to "Darkest Peru" ta try it tho' fer now I'm settlin' with our Amish bacon ;-) Anywho-- I'll be a' lookin' out fer part II of this surprisin' adventure!
I am going to do the other extreme -- it's on the list! My son swam in the ocean off Cape Cod from September through February, and swears by its benefits. Though bacon sounds kinda great, now that you mention it...
lol, wull there ya go! an' yup, feats of endurance (hot, cold, otherwayz expansive) rewire some of our circuits fer the better... they also include fastin' (up ta 5 days fer us grown ups, lordy moses that's a lot...) but then again... fastin' in a word of BACON (pastured) an' cheese ('specially French!) is a'nuther type of challenge entirely! (I firmly bee-lieve that good "fixins" also do a soul good in times've calamity!) either way... we humans have a lotta untapped potential much've it un-discovered! ;-)
Yes, fasting in a world of bacon and cheese presents its own adversity! You're hilarious, Daisy.❤️
So many things in common with you, Mary, including a daughter named Madeleine whose kids attend Waldorf School in Puerto Vallarta; a decision to not have a television available in our house after reading 4 Arguments in the early 80s (we had one in a closet for a rare movie and watched news of the Gulf War on it); and a sweatlodge story as well! Thanks for writing.
Whoa! That IS a lot in common, Lindafern! My husband and I almost moved to Puerto Vallarta! The coincidences just keep piling up.
Thanks for your avid readership and for the comment; it's lovely to know you better.
Woo hoo! Yikes! and more power to you, girl! You made me hold my breath, and get all tense and nervous reading this saga of the sweat lodge, but I knew you'd emerge victorious. OK, so look, Mary, I just have to mention that I've been with you here since you wrote about the "Ayahuasca retreat", and as I recall that was an intense experience too. So, what I want to know is, "Are you done yet?" I doubt it. This is just what you do, and I admire you for it, you crazy girl! I look forward to hearing about the rest of your adventure. Thanks for sharing the lessons you learned, and I'm glad you made it back all in one piece. XOX
You make me laugh, Rocket! Just to be clear, I wrote about MDMA, not Ayahuasca... but I'm scheming on how to that one, too, so you're actually ahead of the game 😂. I guess this IS what I do, now that you mention it! I only worried once about my ability to return in one piece; that was the mountain climbing adventure in Machu Picchu that freaked me out. It really wasn't that big a deal, but it totally got under my skin. I'm not as good with heights as I thought I was! Though after that experience, I'm a little better. That is how it works, apparently. Happy to be back... XOX
I stand corrected., but I was close. I wanted to go back and reread that other piece, but I had no idea when you posted it. Ahead of the game??? Seriously?? I don't want to know. xox
😂
I'm glad I make you laugh, Mary. It make my day to be able to do that.
I really like your new photo. Beautiful!
And thanks for that sweet comment you posted on that 'other' substack.
I always knew you knew it was me. xox