The Muscle Within the Muscle

She Is Here

FOREGROUND.

Woodblock image by Kreg Yingst

S H E *    I S     H E R E
 
*the enduring, intersectional, incarnate, in-all-genders, queer, Black & dark, fiercely loving Sacred Feminine.

a n d

I am now accepting new appointments and referrals.

What
1:1 Soul Care and Spiritual Coaching
a.k.a. "Tending the Muscle Within Your Muscle" (see BACKGROUND below)
Repairing * (Re)Membering * "Massaging" * Restoring * Strengthening

Who
People of Spirit/faith/Mystery
People losing/who've lost faith
People who claim no faith/spirituality and are longing for resource and rooting

Where
Online via Zoom

When
Schedule an appointment through my Calendly here
Free introductory/discernment/suss-out calls: 30 minutes
Spiritual Care/Coaching sessions: 60 minutes
Sessions can happen just once or as-needed, monthly (often most preferred), or more frequently, given these times we are in

How
Centering the Sacred while listening to you with care. She Is Here.
Explicitly including your social realities (social location) and ancestral lineages. She Is Incarnate and Intersectional.
Resting in the Familiar: Conversation and silence. She Is Invitational and Intimate.
Gently Opening and decolonizing pathways to the Sacred in your life: Senses/body, music/sound, image/story/poetics. She Is Immanent, Instinctive, Improvisational (emergent) and Incantational
Listening and Noticing together. She Is Inquisitive, Intuitive and Intriguing. She Is Incandescent.

Why
For such a time as this, and Forever: She Is Here
For such a time and world as this: We Are Here
For such a time, world and experience as this: You Are Here. Your life carries a unique and important part of our collective sacred text. You are wanted and needed.

*

BACKGROUND.

Beloved Readers and Subscribers,

It has been more than a minute since publishing my last piece. I’ve missed connecting with you here. During this spell, I’ve been in a kind of descent in the shocking loss of my niece, the rending grief of my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece’s fiancé . . . and how these have woofed, warped and woven through SoCal wildfires (we are fine but others we know are not), and a president + bots, whose appetites for global dominance grow only more ravenous each time their steely boots try to trample our rallying moral compass.

*

Fortunately during this time, I’ve injured my left wrist and hand. Yes, my writing hand. My eating feeding lifting turning opening pressing holding dancing fine-motor left hand.

Fortunately?

Okay. It has been a bit disabling. A lot disabling. And my HMO was unskilled and insufficient. Their approach could’ve caused more damage were it not for a recommendation to Dr. Kim by my super resourceful cousin.

Dr. Kim is the son of the elder Dr. Kim, who learned a particular method of acupuncture done in the mountains of Korea during the Japanese invasion and occupation, when surgery was not an option and indigenous medicine approaches were at risk of criminalization and erasure. He furthered his training and technique in China and the U.S. While related to Dry Needle and Trigger Point acupuncture, their approach goes further.

We will go into the muscle within your muscle.

This is what Dr. Kim, the son, told me. And this is what he has been doing three times a week. Rarely does a session take longer than fifteen minutes; this is what happens. Wait. Pause. Let me back up: Every action Dr. Kim takes is coupled with true kindness, compassion, affirmation, assurance and appreciation. These are medicines too.

In this spirit, he first does a manual evaluation that feels like a sacramental massage. I sometimes want to ask what his hands feel for and what sense he makes of it. He then swipes several areas along my left arm and wrist with cool alcohol. Then he inserts one needle that goes deep. There, he moves it where it momentarily hurts like hell and sometimes catalyzes what feel like waves of electricity moving out toward my fingers. Before I can say Ouch or Yikes or Wow, he’s removed it and is already massaging the area to help the treatment land and do its thing. Then he inserts the next needle. Repeat.

I once asked, “Dr. Kim, what do you mean when you say ‘the muscle within my muscle?’”

“Ah . . . Do you cook and eat radish at home?”

At first I think, “Radish??”

Then, “Oh! We’re both Asian! Daikon Radish!”

Dr. Kim says, “At the very center of the radish there can be a part that’s hard to eat, almost like a string. That’s like the inner part of the muscle fiber we’re trying to reach.”

Then I learned there’s not just daikon, but Korean radish.

Ah. The muscle within the muscle.

Friends, this is a way to think of the Sacred Feminine. Why?

Because of these times where premeditated evil is already on the hunt, harming the lives of the most vulnerable and marginalized. Where those very margins are rapidly expanding, some of us finding ourselves in them, stripped of illusion, unequipped. Where some of us are awakening to the fact that the cries of those we have too often disregarded come from the lives who’ve known what it’s like to be scapegoated and harmed for generations, who’ve thus retained and cultivated deep wisdom practices for surviving and even thriving in the headwinds of hatred’s insanities. Where we are brought to our knees, realizing that our usual ways of coping, connecting, finding our bearings, problem solving and even praying are pleading to be deepened, expanded, turned, transformed. We need the muscle within the muscle. The One we have taken for granted. The One who has survived eons of patriarchy, colonialism and white supremacy culture. The One without whom we cannot function or feel truly human. She Is Here.

*

Earlier I said my bodyspirit went into descent. I want to clarify. This does not mean I went into perpetual collapse. I have been going (or being taken) into the muscle within the muscle of my life and of our times. At this site, I’ve turned (or been turned) to fully face Her, She who has been patiently pursuing me all my life in her many ways and forms. As I receive and retrieve Her, I am also somehow retrieving my strongest self, bringing all my lineages with me, including my faith lineage.

*

FOREGROUND.

I hope to be of assistance to you and yours soon.

S H E *     I S     H E R E

*the enduring, intersectional, incarnate, in-all-genders, queer, Black & dark, fiercely loving Sacred Feminine.

and

I am now accepting new appointments and referrals.

What
1:1 Soul Care and Spiritual Coaching
a.k.a. "Tending the Muscle Within Your Muscle"
Repairing * (Re)Membering * "Massaging" * Restoring * Strengthening

Who
People of Spirit/faith/Mystery
People losing/who've lost faith
People who claim no faith/spirituality and are longing for resource and rooting

Where
Online via Zoom

When
Schedule an appointment through my Calendly here
Free introductory/discernment/suss-out calls: 30 minutes
Spiritual Care/Coaching sessions: 60 minutes
Sessions can happen just once or as-needed, monthly (often most preferred), or more frequently, given these times we are in.

How
Centering the Sacred while listening to you with care. She Is Here.
Explicitly including your social realities (social location) and ancestral lineages. She Is Incarnate and Intersectional.
Resting in the Familiar: Conversation and silence. She Is Invitational and Intimate.
Gently opening and decolonizing pathways to the Sacred in your life: Senses/body, music/sound, image/story/poetics. She Is Immanent, Instinctive, Improvisational (emergent) and Incantational.
Listening and Noticing together. She Is Inquisitive, Intuitive and Intriguing. She Is Incandescent.

Why
For such a time as this and Forever: She Is Here.
For such a time and world as this: We Are Here.
For such a time, world and experience as this: You Are Here. Your life carries a unique and important part of our collective sacred text. You are wanted and needed.

In Her Name ~ She Who is the Muscle Within the Muscle,

Coke