Say It With Chocolate - An Invitation!

Nothing like chocolate to bring people and ideas together into a melting pot. Especially in the thick of the current cold wave in my city, hot chocolate keeps hearths and hearts warm. So here goes.

I am back in the saddle after an enforced hiatus (those who follow my social media posts regularly, know about the adventures of latter-day 2025 - I will spare my readers here)

It's a new year, there are new insights and a new mantra that says keep it simple - at least till the weather warms up! So get yourself a mug of your favorite beverage and beat the chill and listen up.

If you look carefully at the picture you'll see a pattern in the background. One in color and the same in a haze beneath the cup, like a watermark. I didn't realize it till I placed the cup down to photograph it. I needed a good background and this was right in front of me even as I was sipping my cocoa and reflecting on the day's walk amid the shifting patterns in nature. What I needed had found me once again. Read on to discover how it can happen for you.

Is there a pattern your life - your situation or your thinking - that you are becoming aware of? Or, are frustratingly unable to fathom except you know something is not going right and has to change? Or are you bursting with a jumble of ideas, thoughts, even rants, and haven't a clue who to tell them to - someone who will just listen patiently and wisely, not judging you, not tossing in their own take on your life?

Chocolate - and patterns

I invite you to try an "Unload" session with me. You have a good chance to identify patterns, untangle the jumble within and tap into your creative resources to rewrite your script.

What happens at a session? You speak just what you feel as you feel it. And I listen with lips sealed - well mostly. You will be surprised at what reveals itself to you (and I say this in a good way), trust me on that. I say what you need will find you (yes that sounds like a blessing and you can take it as one).

What doth the chocolate reveal?

You can come back for more of these should you feel like and there are other kinds of sessions too, more interactive ones that could come after this - of those I'll write another post, perhaps after reporting on another walk in the park!

Get in touch via email: spiritspiralhealing@gmail.com - I'll share details of what you can expect from the session and just how we go about it. It's beyond the scope of this post.

Sessions are over Zoom.

There's a special offer on price (yes 3 digit prices) till this month end. So go for it!

PS: Even if you think everything's perfect this just might open you to some new and wonderful potential. And do follow the channel https://www.youtube.com/@spiritspiralhealing

Patterns In The Light

Happy 2026 and welcome to another Tabula Rasa 

"May the sun always find its way to you" - this message rippled through my mind as I found myself greeted by a shaft of sunlight on a shaded staircase. And with these words I spiral back towards you after ages.  SpiritSpiralHealing is greeting you in the New Year  and inviting you back on the journey. Read on, dance with me through the sunlit patterns from New Year's Eve and come to know what's new from us.

On New Year's Eve I am in the park, soaking up whatever sunshine the branches allow through. The trees have grown tall and the sun is the lowest it will be in sky till 365 days consume us or we consume them and the wheel turns on 2026. Finding a gap in the trees I turn and look into the sun - it feels both the sharpest and the mildest it's been all at once. I thank the sun for shining on me gently and benevolently. The sun reveals. The branches conceal as they reveal.

I pause near each tree and look at the patterns with the naked eye. Then I look at them afresh through the camera lens. I move around, the leaves move gently in the breeze. Shifting patterns. I photograph this tree and its companions. I've played with light and light has played with me.

I come home, I play some more on the images. Gently play around with colors and contrasts to reveal/conceal yet again. Something has shifted in my understanding. Of self, of situations, of others and interconnections. Something is about to change. And from the nascent awakenings emerges the following.

Moving from 2025 to 2026, from the sublime to the down to earth and practical, this invitation writes itself to you from me, an invitation to partake!

I am back in the saddle after an enforced hiatus (those who follow my social media posts regularly, know about the adventures of latter-day 2025)

It's a new year, there are new insights and a new mantra that says keep it simple - at least till the weather warms up! So grab your hot chocolate and beat the chill and listen up.

Is there a pattern your life - your situation or your thinking - that you are becoming aware of? Or, are frustratingly unable to fathom except you know something is not going right and has to change? Or you could be bursting with a jumble of ideas, thoughts, even rants, and haven't a clue who to tell them to - someone who will just listen patiently and wisely, not judging you, not tossing in their own take on your life?

Chocolate - and patterns

I invite you to try an "Unload" session with me. You have a good chance to identify patterns, untangle the jumble within and tap into your creative resources to rewrite your script.

What happens at a session? You speak just what you feel as you feel it. And I listen with lips sealed - well mostly. You will be surprised at what reveals itself to you (and I say this in a good way), trust me on that. I say what you need will find you (yes that sounds like a blessing and you can take it as one).

What doth the chocolate reveal?

You can come back for more of these should you feel like and there are other kinds of sessions too, more interactive ones that could come after this - of those I'll write another post, perhaps after reporting on another walk in the park!

Get in touch via email: spiritspiralhealing@gmail.com - I'll share details of what you can expect from the session and just how we go about it. It's beyond the scope of this post.

Sessions are over Zoom.

There's a special offer on price (yes 3 digit prices) till month end. So go for it!

The above info will also be part of a formal post announcing the bill of fare.

PS: Even if you think everything's perfect this just might open you to some new and wonderful potential. And do follow the channel https://www.youtube.com/@spiritspiralhealing

Of Dance, Departure, Dal ... Waking Up This Space!

A beloved coconut tree that grew to the south west of my home would dance for me in the breeze and shift the patterns of her fronds with the elements. I beheld with joy the flowers turn into green coconuts through the cycles. She was flourishing ... till she was not. I stood before this tree in the park and was reminded of her. This post is dedicated to her. Channel your spirit through these kith and kin, my departed friend. My father loved your kind and was the first one to point out to me the subtle shifts you made as you tuned into the elements.  

 

And thus I introduce my post for what is usually a difficult period as it comes in the wake of New Year's celebrations, and sharing how I'm turning that around. This time I feel the urge again to write. To open up about the personal. So let the ink flow - never leave it unwritten.

Memories of this time of year bring joy and pain tossed together. And nothing brought that out better than yesterday when early morning brought recall of loss even as part of me embraced and celebrated Nataraja's Ananda Tandava (ecstatic dance) that mom would honor year after year with wonder and delight.

This year the festival chose for itself the 3rd of Jan - a day that took my brother across eight years ago.

The time the journey ended (or another journey began) at 5:30 on a bitterly cold dawn - at such times, cold even in a city that delights in its all too fleeting winter, feels bitter - is something father and son shared 26 years apart. Our father went peacefully (no doubt triggered 11 months earlier by a needless health crisis that signaled the countdown to the end) in what felt like old age, though we never have enough of a parent's lifetime. His son went in pain, struggling. Needlessly (yes there is a story) and far too young. It felt poignantly peaceful that it was over - because with the end of life came the end of pain It's strange how 68 and 81 are only 13 years apart, yet each of those evening years is worth several.

There has never been a celebration of my brother's life - that must be the loneliest feeling for a spirit in the sky. And that doesn't feel right for me. Some day I will celebrate - under the stars he loved so much, stars that urban light pollution has denied me a sight of from the very windows he stood at holding my hand and telling me all their names as I gazed in wonder. The stars will choose their time to shine down and they will tell me. And all the world will know about him and smile.

Note to the Lord Of Dance - when I'm done dancing around the mess in this house, I'll make that traditional treat (called kali - pronounced cully) for you. And if enough of you read this and post a comment, I'll come back and edit this post with my mom's recipe.

I rather think my brother would have enjoyed it - he loved any treat with gur (jaggery). Though not sure about the spicy-sour accompaniment (called thalagam and made with sesame seeds, tamarind, spices and desi vegetables) that went with the sweet - I can devour dollops of that. And talking of coconut palms, there's the delectable date palm jaggery that's in season right now and which I have been lapping up.

And that's Nolen Gur (date palm jaggery) in sippable form - make believe and enjoy or look for it online or if you are in Bengal stroll down to the market. These days they sell it even on the streets in plastic containers. Watch out where you source yours though - they aren't all the same. I would love those precious clay pots they came in sealed with a clay lid. While today's plastic jars feel convenient because they're light I want those back.