Feldenkrais. In 1994 a physical therapist introduced me to the Feldenkrais somatic education method as part of my rehabilitation from a shoulder injury. An injury that the orthopedist considered irreparable and chronic, from which I had a full recovery thanks to Feldenkrais. My relentless fascination and curiousity with the rather unorthodox physical therapy I received led my therapist after a few sessions to suggest that I check out a local training program. My enthusiasm was off the chart. Off I went on a lark down to Orange County one weekend to check out the 4-year training program just starting. The friend I stood up that weekend has yet to forgive me. I had done no research, investigation, thinking or consulting of any kind. I simply sought more of the experience. One weekend was all it took, rolling around on the floor for hours lulled by the method's movement, touch and poetry. I signed up on the spot! For the first two years I simply put one foot in front of the other and did the next indicated movement lesson, focusing on my own development, without worrying about where any of it would lead. It felt so good. It brought me fully alive. I began to feel things more deeply, physically and emotionally. Eventually I began teaching Awareness Through Movement group classes (ATM) and individual Functional Integration (FI) lessons in my community. People actually showed up! In 1999 I became a guild certified Feldenkrais practitioner. Even when teaching I am always very reserved about my unabashed love for Feldenkrais work lest I scare people off. This work opened me up emotionally, split me wide open in a way I could not even have imagined let alone sought. How could I have asked for that I did not know? The work met my deepest yearning for more. It made so much sense to me. I could feel how much sense it made. Moving while paying attention to what I was feeling on every plane from the most obvious physicality to the most elusive emotion. Moving in this exploratory Feldenkrais way helped me process a lifetime of numbness. Literally it moved things around. Tension, kinks, stuffed feelings, embarrassments, dreams, loves, aspirations. Slowly and gently a hardness in me dissolved and I discovered the possibilities of flexibility, softness, pliability. From brittle hyper alert towards a softer neutral stance. Effortlessness and ease revealed themselves and became accessible in me. What a different place from which to operate, from which to experience life. Never had I felt so fit while vulnerable. Years later it is still difficult to speak and do it justice. It is so precious that I actually avoid talking about it. You'll just have to take my word for it. Or feel it yourself. Today when things get tough and I feel lost, I get on the floor and do Feldenkrais lessons at random into oblivion. For hours, sometimes days. Clarity and ease return and I am once again at home in myself. Care to join me?