Amazement: Reclaiming the Brilliance of Wonder

By Mims Driscoll

The word would travel from foreign lands. It would be spoken by hundreds upon hundreds.

One word translated into a phrase of four words, translated into lives being changed.

None of that was known in Gore, Virginia. No, in Gore, Virginia it was just about one person hearing one word and catching the heartbeat. Something about that word wanted to be spoken.

It had crossed the oceans, now translating across the spectrum from home to office to classroom to marketplace; it would make its mark. Whether the individual was 2 or 102, the reality of AMAZEMENT would be known.

Mangaliso, You are an Amazement, comes together touching yoga, yoga healing, spiritual direction, understanding and growth of intuition; empowering groups and individuals to recover, discover, explore, express, and expand into the amazing realities that surround us every day.

It is time to know just how utterly amazing you are! Touch Amazement. You are an amazement. We are Living Mangaliso.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jun 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781543903959

Book preview

© 2017 Mims Driscoll. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. ISBN Print (978-1-54390-3874) Ebook (978-1-54390-3881)

The book is written.

The story is told.

I just pushed everything down one page so that I could write these words.

Dedication?

Perhaps.

My heart and mind go to so many, throughout the decades of my becoming. How does one start telling a few? How does one start expressing gratitude to some, knowing that there are others that are always going to go unnamed?

For me there are three groups that I must acknowledge.

The detractors! Thank you, you are first. Thank you, for your honesty. Thank you, for saying what you wanted to say. Thank you, for your prayers. Thank you, because of you, I came by what I came by honestly. I had to fight for it. I had to claim what I wanted to claim. I had to be forged. I had to find myself. I couldn’t allow your opinions to dictate or determine the path, but I could grant to them just enough space to keep me honest. I granted enough space to your thoughts, and in so doing, I found my own. You taught me the most important lesson. If I wanted my articulation, I had to allow for yours. Not in an angry way, but in a way that could see each of us as human. You being in my life, gave me that gift. I will always be grateful.

The kids! Thank you. I start weeping as I write these words. I was the least likely to ever have you, let alone work with you. First, my own. I will not name you individually. That wouldn’t be a blessing to you, much more of a horror. What I will say is this . . . from the oldest of you to the youngest of you, there aren’t words to express to any of you the fullness of what my eyes see within you and what my heart feels within me. You are amazing. Amazement comes alive when I think upon you. To all the kids, to those who aren’t mine, but to those who have captivated my senses and pushed me to be more—thank you. You show up as you can, how you can, and you inspire. You are the amazement. I just am so honored to partake in that journey.

The kindred spirits (some of the super kind)! What words could ever be written that could express to you the immensity of your impact. You have touched and transformed my life. Your beauty and immensity shower upon me a life I never thought I would ever live. You astonish me daily with your courage. From the moments that cross paths, to those that have emerged, I am a better version of myself because of you. Your gentle strength and wisdom showed me how to navigate the lands of jabberwocky. I’ve become a slayer of terrors; much of that becoming was because we held on forever. Hand in hand in hand, forever.

Those of you who know me, know that your lives one way or another helped fashion and form mine. I am richer for knowing all of you. Thank you.

Then, I must say. The process of amazement would bring me closer to one, who has always inspired. That one would time and time again pick me up, dust me off, and kick me in my ass. Thank you, SMG. Thank you!

Knowing The Sequence And Flow Of Things . . . Aka, The Table Of Contents

Words Like Vast And Other Important Introductions

Hi

Greetings

Welcome

Take A Seat!

Preface

Introduction

Second Dates

Chapter I: Life Before The Word:

When Giants Rule Our Lives

Chapter II: Life As The Word Gets Closer And Closer -

A Little Bit More About Me

Chapter III: The Four Modalities: Yoga, Yoga Healing,

Spiritual Direction, And Understanding And Growth

Of Intuition (A Particular Sense)

Chapter IV: Yoga (Body, Breath, Awareness)

Chapter V: Yoga And Yoga Healing

Chapter VI: Kids’ Yoga

Chapter VII: Spiritual Direction

Chapter VIII: Understanding And Growth Of Intuition

Chapter IX: The Five Lenses: Recovery (Reclaiming),

Discovery, Exploration, Expression, Expansion

Chapter X: X Does Actually Mark The Spot! Living

Amazement, Living Life With The Word!

Chapter XI: Kids To Corporation And Into The Future

Without Hype, Fad, Or Fancy

Epilogue

Until Our Paths Cross Again

The word would be spoken into the air. I honestly thought she was messing with me. How could a word mean what it did? How could a word sound so beautiful? Those would be the first moments of hearing Mangaliso. The sound would fill the air. I would make my South African friend repeat it dozens of times. I would record her utterance.

In those moments, I had not a clue of the movement that was being birthed. In those moments, I didn’t realize that decades of work and a lifetime of living would be woven together in such an immense way. In those moments, it was just simply and profoundly about one word.

I had had a sensation. My gut was telling me that there was an African word that would mean something like childlikeness. What I did next changed everything. Not just for me but for hundreds, soon to be thousands and beyond. I had a feeling. I sat with it. I looked at my friend. I spoke up. I asked a question. I didn’t have the answer. I acknowledged that. I trusted. I hoped. I listened. Mims, there isn’t a word for childlikeness. That translates more in a phrase. But when I think of this, I think Mangaliso. There you go! There it was! You are an amazement. You will see the reality of how profound even the meaning of the word is as we journey through this story together.

Amazement...

A feeling of great surprise or wonder.

Me being me would mean I would sit with her, the word, Mangaliso. Me being me would mean I wouldn’t rush off to try and build something haphazardly. Me being me knew that she needed space and time to become. I am one who holds seriously to ancient practices. I have seen fad, fashion, and fancy come upon many an industry. I have watched them pedal their wares. I have watched them leave sellers and buyers exhausted, diminished, beaten up, and left by the road side.

That is not true about ancient practices. They don’t do such a thing. They undergird. They lay solid foundations. They have boys beating giants and other fun things.

I would sit with amazement. I would fall in love with Mangaliso. Me being me would hold true to that which I had allowed to be forged, into the depths of my being.

I loved that the word was about others. I had seen too much striving to celebrate a guru, be it pastor or yogi. I had seen too many gurus fall from grace. I had watched too many organizations suffer from the flights of fancy of man. I wanted something different. Amazement would be birthed. Amazement would grow. Upon my being, she would land. Upon my life, she would be formed.

The realities of her gifts, both cascading downward through ranks and populace, as well as creating space as a geyser. As a geyser sprinkling upward from the society, in its arrogance, would call common. No hierarchical patterning. Me being me, would mean that I would find the organic and orbital realities that held the dignity of all humanity within her arms.

Amazement would form out the construct for my eyes, ears, heart, and very being to hold onto the essence of myself. I would no longer squander away this dream, denying the passions of my heart. I would no longer abide by the lack of sight, of others. I would find ground to hold onto as me. I would find space to occupy and even more ground to take.

My paradigm requires hope and sight, as the litmus test for humanity’s amazement. True seeing, true living. As Living Mangaliso would emerge, as she would grow and become strong, so would I. As she found her feet, I would too. A deliberate and expansive celebration of the reality of the vast beauty, of all the human race. I would be granted amazement to champion. Amazement for all, all for amazement.

Amazement for the wounded and those who have known trauma. Amazement for kids, as it was for kids that I had even started upon this new journey. Amazement in the market place, house of worship, school room, living room, and bedroom. How could one reality fit so many places?

Knowing what I know, me being me, and standing, allowing, and believing would create a fluid reality of orbital dynamics. A construct that would be alive, vibrant, organic. We would allow for change. We would enjoy flexibility. We would celebrate, cultivate, and cherish the dignity of all. We would know what we know. We would be who we would be. We would stand, and stand tall.

Amazement...

She sets the world on fire. Not a shooting star, nor a flash forest flame. She becomes the one you can cook upon. She exists as the one who will lend its heat to all that are near and far.

Amazement...

For kids, classrooms, teachers, administrators, janitors, bus drivers, cafeteria help, and the board of education.

Amazement...

For the family, living room, kitchen, dining room, and bedroom. Daily habits, yearly benchmarks and all the likes.

Amazement...

For the sick, marginalized, traumatized, outcast, and unwanted. For those that learn differently, those that have letters and labels and those who don’t.

Amazement...

For the business place, market place, board room, CEO, secretary, and mail room intern.

Amazement...

Yes! For all and in all places.

How?

Well, that’s the journey you are embarking upon. We promise one thing—it is not for the faint in heart.

We invite you into amazement. We invite you into Mangaliso. We invite you into life. We invite you to Living Mangaliso!

ENJOYING THE WORD, VAST!

How can one word, one concept, one component fit so very many vast and different realities?

Great question!

It is the lack of sight that limits. It is the emptiness of heart that sets restrictions.

What helps?

It helps when one can see the fifty-eight-year-old board member with the same eyes that one sees on a five-year-old. Not looking at another as a stepping stone to something else, appreciating the reality of humanity in the one in front of you. Having eyes to see that perhaps that five-year-old actually has more within to help you than that board member—that helps. Given many a set of circumstance, that statement is actually true.

Allowing paradigms and constructs of belief to touch slight adjustments here and there, one can change the course of a life. Allowing for the perhaps, brings entrance into the most amazing realities.

The ability to focus upon the one—the one moment, the right here, the right now—that is the key. It opens the most amazing of doors. There are so many in need. What can you do? Much misunderstanding—what is one to do? Many tasks to be completed—how can it all be accomplished?

The one, touching the one moment right in front of you and being present to that which it holds, that helps. When mountains of paperwork loom, hours of meeting strain, hundreds of kids in need all swirl, what is one to do?

The one, this moment, is what you have. What you do with it, well, is the better question. What do you do with this one moment, one person, one situation that is before you? Do you step into amazement? Do you step away from engagement? Do you shrink back in fear? Do you hesitate with remembrances of loss and pain? What do you need? What do you need to more fully engage with life in the moment—the one person, the one place, the one situation?

Finding those tools is what we are about! Giving you the fishing rod, teaching you to fish, is what we are about! You, you will be about amazement. You are living. You are breathing. You might as well be living amazing.

When one understands the immensity of simple yet ancient practices, it helps. When one sees the dignity of humanity in all, it helps. There are realities that, while complex, can be applied to the two-year-old and the one-hundred-two-year-old and all of us in between.

There is need within each one of us; as human beings, we hunger and thirst for belonging, acceptance, safety, love. It gets drowned out. The space gets occupied with very many different things. We wonder why we feel suffocated, alienated, relegated to the sidelines. We exhaust ourselves, our hearts, and our minds striving to find the answers as to why and what is missing.

I can’t tell you what is missing from your life. I can tell you what was missing from mine. It is in taking the reality of an approach that says this is the moment and this is the person that empowers me to sit joyfully across from a two-year-old. It is in taking that reality of an approach that empowers me to sit wisely across from a fifty- or sixty-year-old. The uniqueness of each story. The dignity of each one. Allowing that to grip my heart with a tenacity that would not let go, would change my heart and mind.

You will hear me say more times than you want, that the simplicity of the practices is that they are what they are. We want them to be more profound. We want them to be exclusive. We want something regal, complicated, worthy of our stature: methodology. We want an us and a them. The us and them profit immensely. We are ignorant. In our pride, we cut off our nose despite our face.

There was an ancient king who was given a message from one who spoke of mystery and times and other places. The king was suffering from an illness. Based on the words of one who spoke, there was a healer who had traveled to a foreign land. The mystery speaker wouldn’t, himself, step out to speak to the king. He sent a messenger of his own. The utterance was for the king to wash himself in a common river. The king went away, appalled that the answer for healing wasn’t given in a spectacular fashion. Furious that the speaker of mysteries hadn’t come out and performed some fanciful service, he arrogantly stepped away. It would be his own entourage that would encourage him to do the simple task, dip into the waters of this muddy, foreign river. The king turned and went back to the waters, and seven times he lowered himself into the waters per the message. He emerged whole. Leprosy gone.

There isn’t the need for a mystery speaker, fanciful trinkets, or fantastical and elaborate displays. There is potency in the simplicity of what the ancients knew. Common places, muddy waters, foreign places that are unfamiliar (not a river of his own home land) come together, holding out an invitation, come touch healing. It is simple. It is common. It does not regard stature nor does it see humanity, one no more than the other. It sees, it knows, it holds out hope for all.

The stillness that surrounds and embeds upon a kindergartener is the same stillness that will reverberate and settle into the executive. The silence and the pause that births creativity and peace into the heart of the administrator is the same silence and pause that flows down upon the teachers, the aids, and the students.

We are all human.

There is a common and shared ancestry.

While there are vast differences and unique qualities in each one, there is a shared reality that desires a truer articulation. The soul, the essence of us, will not rest. It will not rest until it rests within. Does that sound too woo-woo for you? Simply put, you will touch anxiety, angst, exhaustion until you allow for the truth (that is as true as the law of gravity) that worked into our construct of being. There is a need for rest, quiet, returning, trust, stillness, silence.

Wisdom, creativity, ingenuity, productivity are linked to how well we listen to the cycles of being. None can really afford the time. None can really afford not to take the time. Do I mean hours upon hours of quiet meditation locked away in a room with monks or nuns in robes or habit? No! I do not. That would not be practical.

Let me interject another story here. A man once spoke about the cycles of work and productivity. He spoke about intuition, knowing one’s self. He articulated that often we pressure ourselves toward a task. The need to get something done lands upon our person with weight and reality.

He would share that if we stepped more fully into ourselves we would discover habits and patterns of work. For instance, what I have learned about myself is that I get the most writing done between 4:00 and 10:00 a.m. If I want a day to be productive in writing, then I am going to plan to start before 6:00 a.m. When I do, I can fly through the day with an ease toward finding language and the written expression of my heart. When I don’t start until later, the burden and weight is heavier. At times beyond a waste of time. Knowing that about myself saves me time and energy. I have found the pattern of my work cycle.

This reality is potent to learn.

It once saved the life of a very dear friend. She, too, had heard this gentleman speak. One evening, late at night, she was working. It was around 11:00 p.m. She remembered his words. She could feel she was flowing within the work cycle of productivity. Though late, she thought she could crank out a few more hours.

Which she did, leaving the office at 3:00 a.m.; she did not realize she would never step foot into that office again.

Her phone would ring the following morning. An ex-fiancée calling, a plane had hit her office building. She turned to look out the window, only to catch the horrific sight of the second plane hitting the next tower.

Being tuned into the cycles of her life saved her life.

Tuning in and living within a framework of intentionality cultivates a lifestyle that resembles the inhalation and exhalation of breath. The taking in and the receiving of life, the letting go and releasing of that life. The breath and body serve as immense tutors. The natural rhythm and flow of the breath entering and exiting the body grant to us a beautiful picture. If we hold on to the breath, we perish. If we refuse entrance to the breath, we perish. We must learn to receive and let go.

Allowance, observation of natural rhythms, touching intentionality, and tuning in are stepping stones for you to hold near to you as we begin to journey together.

What is another element?

Rest.

Rest is not inactivity. It is a state of being. Peace is not sitting for hours in stillness and quiet (although it can be). It is a construct of thought and reality. Such are these components that they can be taught to a two-year-old with ADD. Such are these components that they can be taught to a manager. Which one do you think is harder? If you said the adult, you would be right.

We think that gadgets and gizmos are the pathway to ultimate success. If only your new app goes viral, then you will have made it to the national stage. Congratulations! What then? I’m not offering you a moment of glory. Keep walking if that is what you are after. I am offering you a lifetime of amazement. One moment of amazement at a time, that is what I am inviting you to step toward.

You are amazing. Amazing realities will cross your path. There will be times they will be what you want, and there will be times they won’t be. That was amazing. It is a phrase. What was amazing? That one survived their fight with cancer? That the family drew closer as they watched their loved one die? That a company came back from bankruptcy? That a new employee rose through the ranks? That a child, of whom it was thought would not be a functioning reading adult, with love and care and hard work proved everyone wrong?

Remember amazement is a sensation of great surprise or wonder. What gets us there is finding that which is human about us, and that which is super human about us. Something very different than what one may think. What empowers us into life and living, is embracing where we are strong, gifted, talented. What empowers us into life and living, is embracing where we are limited, weak, in need.

There are three qualities that will assist you in the journey. There are many that will help, but these three have a special quality about them. Again, in their simplicity, there is immense complexity involved. These attributes cannot be placed upon oneself with an exterior façade. One will be shown to be likened to the naked emperor, thinking they are clothed in the richest of fabrics and yet are utterly exposed. They are the depths of the realities of humility, mercy (compassion), and justice. What does all that mean? That too, we will get to within our journey together.

For now, I want to leave you with this; it is our working definition of humility. True humility is that you are no more and no less than that which you are. When you can touch the power of that statement, nothing will ever be able to stop you.

You are an amazement.

Welcome to Living Mangaliso.

HI

There was a gentle summer breeze. I had plugged the address into my phone. I was closing in on the home. I pulled off to the side, grabbed the steering wheel with both hands, and allowed a deep breath to fill out my person. With intention I blew it out of my being.

The training was within me.

The clients were new.

I was about to do a session of yoga healing. The new clients were two foster girls, teenagers affected by moments that had made their way across the terrain of their lives. Mostly non-verbal and with some restrictions of what poses could be called (so as to not trigger), they would be given an opportunity to move their bodies safely, breathe some deep breaths, and give utterance to life-affirming mantras.

The journey of working with those girls changed my life forever. I continued to see firsthand that the principles and practices of yoga, yoga healing, spiritual direction, and intuition growth and development can come together to form a session that brings life and healing.

They were some of the first clients for whom I had incorporated yoga/yoga healing into my spiritual direction practice. Since that moment, I have stood in awe and amazement. The capacity of humanity to be resilient, the intrinsic reality of the dignity of the human race has captured my heart. I am sold on the need and ability for each one to recover, find restoration, and reclaim for themselves their body, breath, soul, and spirit.

Watching men, women, and kids find the courage to show up, to discover and explore realities of the past, present, and future of their lives, is a humbling gift. It takes so much courage and strength to be human. It takes so much chutzpah. The tenacious audacity to find the expression that makes the utterance in a whisper or a shout, I will try again. The ability of humanity to rise again and again and again is utterly amazing to me.

As I continued to work with all sorts of kids and adults in group and private settings, my eyes began to see patterns. I allowed my heart to watch and my being to learn. What worked? What didn’t? What could I do better? What did people need? Were there common grounds or is that just the arrogance of man to think one system can work for all?

While there are commonalities, the depth of what I would begin to understand would come as I learned to treat each individual client, whether person or corporation, as their own unique self. One entity at a time.

It became evident to me that life and service would not be about any expertise. The expertise was within the client. They were the expert of themselves. My journey, the journey of Living Mangaliso, and the reality of amazement would be to take upon our essence the reality of standing under as to understand. That would become the absolute core vision.

Amazement, is not about any one thing Living Mangaliso would become. Mangaliso truly does mean,You are an amazement. It would be sticking to that reality that would propel us forward. While we are amazing at what we do, the one in front of us was the focus. The one in front of us was the amazement. Empowering that one toward daily amazement would be our heartbeat. Capturing and recapturing, claiming and reclaiming, the utter amazement of humanity’s potential would be the spirit in which we would enter all that we would do.

I have learned much about myself and humanity.

I have been reduced to tears and silence, as well as set on fire with passion. I have watched directees and yoga students take to life, questions, and healing in ways that utterly astound me. I have watched the dreams of CEOs transform their own personhood, along with their business. I have watched after school staff, teachers, and administration stand in the wake of the effects of movement, meditation, and mindful practices. I have watched kids grow, discover, heal, and claim their amazement. I have watched, I have touched amazement. From the old to the very young, I have beheld so much beauty in the primal realities of what truly can happen for humanity, when belief in amazement is what is at hand.

The stories that swirl form a mixture.

Others’ stories merging and dancing with my own.

With client after client, directee after directee, I watch and learn. I recognize and acknowledge that my own path compels me. Their story, my story, your story, the stories of humanity. The stories of amazement.

There were many pieces that would come together. There were many stories. There would be a word. There would be thoughts. There would be the passage of time.

The story of how all these pieces came together is an utter amazement to me. Not one moment exactly, more the culmination of a lifetime. The assimilation of experiences within the constructs of religious service, the breaking out of such constructs, then combined with a tenacious journey toward healing of personal trauma.

Spiritual direction would be a modality very well known to me, but yoga/yoga healing would be the new element. Understanding and growing intuition was like breath and breathing. They would take their place, dance their steps, find the rhythm, and erupt into absolute beauty.

In my gut, in my bones, in the very essence of me, I felt it approaching. I wasn’t always able to recognize what was happening. I could feel the shift of air upon the winds.

I was hungry for change.

There was a stirring for something real.

I had worked enough in the industry of spirituality, to know no longer could the soul be placated by fad or fashion. There was a hunger for depth. Sacred text will say deep cries unto deep. My body and soul were longing. I desired something I couldn’t even name.

Intrinsically something inside of me was on a relentless pursuit for more. The more was illusive. Having known more harm, abuse, and neglect than anything else, there were moments I thought I was done. How was I to know what health, love, gentleness, kindness, wholeness could even be?

I had sat with the broken and downtrodden. I had recognized the broken in body and spirit. I thought I had answers. I watched as those answers came up short. Time