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Watch the Barefoot Sensei in Action

Posted by Pushkara Sally Ashford on June 22, 2010 at 4:30pm

By John Sifferman at "Physical Living"

http://physicalliving.com/watch-the-barefoot-sensei-in-action/

Mick Dodge, a former Marine, is someone that we can all probably learn something from. He’s questioned the conventional model of physical living and found it severely lacking, and he has taken drastic action on that. Mick is someone who has a truly unique perspective on health, movement, and fitness, and I think we would do well to listen to him.

This is a collection of clips shot at a recent “footcamp” seminar he taught on Whidbey Island, WA. As of a couple weeks ago, Mick is walking through Washington into Oregon and California, “stealing shoes” and talking about getting back into one’s senses through being outdoors and also being barefoot. He’s teaching and distributing the Antidote for our modern predicament, which is a set of general principles for healthy living that will increase your vitality, health and exuberance. Watch

Mick in action…


Mick Dodge – The Barefoot Sensei

Some of what Mick says may sound like mumbo-jumbo – you know, connecting your spirit to the land, and all that. But I’ll tell you one thing. Taking your shoes off absolutely makes you PAY ATTENTION. Your general awareness increases and perception sharpens, and with practice it becomes much more than a physical activity. Nothing is performed in isolation, even fitness training. Our physical health and conditioning has a direct correlation to our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. Our entire being is intimately connected – mind, body, and spirit. They cannot be separated, which means they can’t be isolated. I don’t think it’s a stretch at all to say that taking your shoes off will profoundly affect your thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. It sure has rocked my world this past year!


You can learn more about Mick’s journey here:

http://exuberantanimal.com/mick/index.php


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SingPeace! at 2010 NW Folklife Festival

Posted by Pushkara Sally Ashford on June 6, 2010 at 6:00pm
SingPeace! Wagon
Friday through Monday
Folklife Commons


"The SingPeace! Wagon is the realization of a lifelong dream of Pushkara Sally Ashford to have a traveling symbol of communal tranquility and musical harmony. It has traveled to events and gatherings all over the Pacific Northwest and was hand-lovingly constructed by a community of volunteers. Ashford will eventually live in the wagon as she pulls it along throughout the journey she calls 'Sing Peace! Earth Pilgrimage for Peace and Global Harmony.' ”

The SingPeace! wagon was one of 7000 entrants in the 2010 NW Folklife Festival. Now in its 39th year, the festival attracts anywhere from 250,000 to 500,000 visitors each Memorial Day weekend. A full-time staff now administers the festival and 1300 volunteers are on the grounds to support the event.

The concept of the festival is to provide a high-quality public forum where the traditional and ethnic communities and artists of the Northwest Region of the National Park Service (Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Western Montana) can present their music, dance performances and crafts. All performers were asked to contribute their participation in an event with no admission charge as an opportunity for community celebration and sharing. As such, it is the largest such festival in the country.

As one of the founders of Seattle Folklore Society, the first producer of Folklife, I performed and conducted workshops in the 70's. When I lost my voice in 1979, I dropped out of the "folk scene." Except for the "25th Coffeehouse Singers Reunion" in 2003, I'd not been on hand for over 30 years.

The inspiration in 2008 to share "Songs for a Culture of Peace," put me in mind of a lifetime of singing and performing folk music. I enrolled in the course in "How to Build a Gypsy Wagon," at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking in May 2009, where I designed and commissioned the building of the vardo or gypsy wagon. At the same time, a team of singers and song weavers from around the region began forming around the SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage. Some spoke of it as a "movement." I was reassured by their response that this journey would not have to depend upon my singing voice for its success. Emailing old friends still active in the Seattle Folklore Society, I was greeted by a warm welcome. They bridged the gap for my application to NW Folklife.

Laurence Cole and Deborah Shomer, both from Port Townsend, WA, Rob Tobias from Eugene, OR, Sara Tone from Portland, OR, and myself formed the core of our team. These folks generously shared a repertoire of songs that powerfully reflect the culture of peace that we wish to see and be in the world, songs that honor Mother Earth and reminding us of our essential unity and commonality. Mick Dodge, the Barefoot Sensei, added the dimension of the "Earth Pilgrimage," pointing the way to activism: walkable communities, land and old growth conservation, tree planting, barefooting, exuberant play and Earth Gym activities.

A pilgrimage is a quest. It begins with a question. It assumes an attitude of innocence, of not knowing. Indeed, life itself is a pilgrimage. Undertaken consciously, with humility, honor and humor, a pilgrimage is a process of revelation and discovery.

I wondered: "What is a culture of peace? Is it attainable? Is it inevitable?" During my lifetime, the world has seen many wars. Armed conflict as a way of life is intensifying in every corner of the globe. Collectively, we have arrived at the brink of annihilation. With the potent impressions of war, violence and abuse written on the mitochondria, the cellular memory of the body, of nearly every being on the planet, would we recognize and respond to a different drumbeat?

The "Singing Revolution" that took place in war-torn Estonia, occupied during WWII by both the Germans and the Soviets, suggested to me that we may also have an ancestral memory of peace and that singing may be a way to access it. The Estonians had not forgotten their cultural heritage. Without raising a fist or aiming a weapon, they took back their country and their lives, even after decades of violent oppression.

Neuroscience tells us that music and singing stimulates the hemisphere of the brain that recognizes the joy and unity in all things. Words - the songs' lyrics - we know, form sentences and outlooks that shape our attitudes and life experience. Our team's shared a vision of local and regional gatherings - "singing villages" - could, perhaps, bring communities together to collaborate and co-create "Songs for a Culture of Peace."

In the months leading up to the NW Folklife Festival, the SingPeace! gypsy wagon became a meeting place and staging area for such gatherings. Though distant, at times, in hours and miles, we moved in tandem toward learning and strengthening a common repertoire that we would share when we met at Folklife. Our efforts gained momentum as we met in Cosmopolis at Singing Alive, in Port Townsend for the inaugural of the SingPeace! wagon, at the Seattle Folklore Society Song Circle and at Seattle's Interfaith Community Church, at the SFS Song Circle's Rainy Camp in Carnation, at the Yoga Lodge, on Earth Day and for the "Trees and Memories" Trillium Land Purchase arts gala produced by butoh dancer,Maureen Freehill, all on Whidbey Island.

By the time we reached Folklife, our numbers had increased and were enhanced by Melanie Rios and Janice Medvin, Eugene, Yana Viniko, Seattle, Sharon Abreu and Mike Hurwicz, Orcas Island, Dinah Stinson, Seattle, Rick Aydelotte, somewhere up north, as well as, several members of the Port Townsend Songlines Choir, among them, Laura Martin, Gretchen Sleicher and Deanna Pumplin. They are pictured in the NW Folklife Festival photos at the SingPeace! website, along with other folks who happened along - including Dr. Peter Keating and his children who played fiddle and cello on a Russian gypsy song.

At each location, the SingPeace! wagon has seen a steady stream of visitors. This "tiny green home" piques the imagination and brings smiles to everyone's faces. Its small footprint, 12-volt solar voltaic panel, LED lighting, composting toilet and on-demand propane water heating systems suggest a simple, yet, gracious way of life. I keep the names and contact information for those who want to stay in touch and in some way contribute their support to the mission of the SingPeace! Earth Pilgrimage. They will be hearing from me, soon.

I wish to honor and thank Jim Tolpin and Steve Habersetzer, who taught the course, and Steve, who beautifully crafted the wagon to my specifications, Laurence Cole who did the carving, Don Tiller who did the painting, Stan Price and his team at Covenant Glass for the stained and etched glass art, and to Susan Leinbach, seamstress, and Jeanne Moore, Potpourri, both of whom helped with the interior furnishings.

The challenge of towing and moving the SingPeace! wagon about the region has been willingly met by several friends, folks with big trucks who are also competent drivers. Offering a low and grateful bow to Steve Habersetzer, Richard Epstein and his crew person, Gary, to Kevin Rio Kipur and to Steve Swalwell. Hugs, too, to friends Rob Adamson and Jan Swalwell for their loving and playful support!

The SingPeace! wagon awaits alternative technology in a tow vehicle consistent with its "green" message. This is doubly and triply true since the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. As I mentioned, for the time being, we are concentrating locally on foot camps and walkable communities. More of this focus in future blogposts.

The SingPeace! website is a place where we can meet and share songs, photos, videos, blogs and event information. I encourage you to join us there and participate in future events.

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Snag or a Sign?

Posted by Pushkara Sally Ashford on June 3, 2010 at 10:33am

SingPeace! is stalled. The wagon and journey are in limbo following 4 days at the 2010 NW Folklife Festival over Memorial Day weekend.

No mistaking the intention for the earth pilgrimage for peace and global harmony; it remains strong. The "old woman," grandmother Pushkara Sally Ashford, is keen to carry on.

The hitch, quite literally, is in the hitch.

Locally, we've been challenged to arrange for a tow vehicle and driver every time we want to move the wagon. SingPeace! doesn't have a heavy-duty vehicle that can pull a couple of tons. We've hitched the wagon to four different trucks and drivers in as many events. And we've had to change out the hitch each time we hitch to a different truck.

Globally, we're looking at the sorry situation in the Gulf. The oil spewing from Mother Earth turns a petty "snag" into a "sign." How can we ignore Her message? How can we go on mindlessly, greedily consuming Her life's blood? And immediately in the face of President Obama's declaration about the necessity and efficacy of off-shore drilling! I guess She told us! There is no minimizing the impact; every life form on earth is affected. It's likely that I will not see a satisfactory resolution to the long-term consequences of this catastrophic spill in my lifetime. I wonder, too, about my grandchildren's lives.

Did I say, yet, that I got locked out of the wagon? With the generous-hearted help of a longtime and dear friend, Steve, who responded to my 11th hour SOS, we delivered the wagon to the NW Folklife Festival on Thursday night. I arrived back at my island home at midnight. I discovered the keys were missing the next day as I unloaded my car at the Seattle Center. I put in a call to another friend, Mick, who scoured my house for them. They'd vanished. Today, I called every lost and found number I could imagine to discover where in the world they'd got to. On Friday, of course, I had to call a locksmith who replaced the locks.

Things like the keys slipping away can and do happen when habits and patterns are in flux, especially for an old girl and event planner with too many details cramming her mind. But in the context of the big picture, taken with the other hitches and delays, I'm taking in the cues and biding my time.

At the moment, the wagon is at the garage, awaiting yet another modification to the hitch (electric, brakes, etc.).

Until an affordable, alternative and renewable truck technology comes along, preferably with a competent driver, it seems likely that we will SingPeace! more locally than regionally or in distant localities.

Mick is encouraging "the old woman in the shoe" to step out of it. He suggests parking the wagon in a strategic location - preferably in range of Tokitae! - the land where the solstice gathering will take place. "Let folks come to you, the grandmother," is Mick's advice. He points out the extent of event planning and costs of each as another good reason to rethink the pilgrimage. He's encouraging me to "use my words," to write and post blogs as a way to draw people to the mission of SingPeace! Mick is a clear mirror reflecting certain realities.

There are others. At Folklife, I received an invitation from a Unity minister in Port Angeles. Another man from the Fellowship of Reconciliation invited me to Olympia, saying, "We have a huge peace movement there and the students at Evergreen State University are going to be very interested in the wagon and in what you do." I met two young men and some elderwise women who are candidates for Mick's Foot Camp. How in the world would these folks find me and us if I were not on the road?

Coming up is an entire calendar of festivals and gatherings we could participate in - with the wagon!

Truth is, I don't know what to do. That's got to be okay, for now. I'm in limbo, awaiting surrender to "what is" and/or clear direction for the changes I feel are coming. Calling to mind the old adage: "When fishermen can't go to sea, they mend their nets."

Laurence asked me to transcribe my new song: "It's Songlines Choir material," he told me. I can do that.

Mick is urging me to write to get my message out.

Thank God for the foot and Earth Gym training as I need prospects for action and being in community. The computer and the isolation of the "ivory tower" have their limitations.

Even with the obvious hitches and delays, the SingPeace! wagon has been greeted by warm and loving hearts. Folks are getting it, rapport is there. I will post photos and details of NW Folklife in a future blog.

In the meantime, SingPeace!
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Solstice Jam Foot Camp with the Barefoot Sensei

Posted by Pushkara Sally Ashford on June 3, 2010 at 6:06am

Welcome to Exuberant Animal

Exuberant Animal is an innovative life philosophy that promotes health, vitality and physical happiness. We offer a comprehensive,
multi-disciplinary approach that's invigorating, liberating and
life-changing.


Exuberant Animal training will transform your body, your organization and your community. By combining the study of human
performance with play-based movement training, Exuberant Animal
provides an experience that's exciting, inspirational and intensely
meaningful.

Our seminars and publications are ideal for

  • physical educators, trainers and PE teachers
  • physical therapists and athletic coaches
  • team leaders, managers and cultural innovators
  • yoga teachers, dance teachers and martial artists

Exuberant Animal is the creation of Frank Forencich, author of Play as
if Your Life Depends on It and Exuberant
Animal.

http://www.exuberantanimal.com/
In partnership with WildFitness wf_log0_300.gif









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