I was on the table yesterday under the hands of an extraordinary body worker. Nancy and I have gone to Maria Luisa Harmel of Isla Mujeres, Mexico, for years, and every massage is an adventure.First Maria Luisa does away with the modesty sheet, so I am totally exposed. (She would use a sheet if I wanted one, but let me tell you, it is fabulous to do without!) Then she puts eucalyptus oil on her hands and holds them under my nose so I can breathe in the strong vapors of this medicinal plant. She rubs my scalp vigorously and then moves to the rest of my body.
For over an hour, Maria Luisa slathers on different oils for various areas of my body and rubs and kneads, vibrates and bends, stretches and pulls. As her hands fly from my shoulders to my ankles, I feel as if I were a piano and Maria Luisa the genius musician.
During her massages I almost always have a deep sense of my soul being just a resident in my body. My mind seems to zoom to the outer galaxies and I look back at this little speck of dust called Earth I feel so much love and joy for this home and for the physical form I am inhabiting for such a short time.
Not only do I walk (stagger) away from the massage totally relaxed, the knots rubbed out, the energy points revitalized, and my skin aglow, I also have a sense of profound spiritual wellbeing.
On that little rectangle of a table, my soul experiences a connection to the Infinite.
Becky
P.S. Maria Luisa's email address is mlydogs@hotmail.com.
1 comment:
I appreciate Becky’s putting into words our extraordinary massages on Isla Mujeres. She mentioned that Maria Luisa does away with the modesty sheet, which allows the tropical breeze to caress us while her hands are finding sore muscles and working at just the right depth. Another advantage of no sheet it that she can work on our whole body, rather than uncovering and then re-covering one part at a time. Her hands roam freely, continually integrating all parts of our body, a rare experience.
Becky also mentioned that Maria Luisa began the massage with eucalyptus oil. During the rest of the session, she uses a variety of essential oils, as she says, “like water,” in other words, freely and liberally. To end our massages that day, she combined lavender and cinnamon, an exquisite mixture that would never have occurred to me. Of course, the scent of the lavender reminded me of Becky’s experience the day of Diane’s death – which her “Gift of Lavender” chapter so poignantly describes in our book Living Consciously, Dying Gracefully.
Nancy Manahan
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