Feedback

A Message from Robin (Bali)

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:55:50 -0800

Dear Rolf and Karina,

You guys have blessed me SOOOOOO much today with your beautiful blog which I have just read. Your transparency and honesty are spellbinding...I found myself crying as I was there with you. And smiling when you smiled, afraid when you were afraid. I also loved your descriptions of your ayahuasca journeys and your experimentation with other intimate relationships. Wow, I am pretty much speechless. Reading your blog woke me back up today. I was feeling sort of blase about life and it was like your blog was this intense infusion of light....something that was real and reminded me that I don't have to settle for superficial.

I love you both and am grateful for your sharing of the conscious loving manner in which you confront all aspects of yourselves and the process of ending of your relationship.

This is going to be one amazing book. Don't stop now. Please continue your blog about what its like to move on and to begin to create separate lives while remaining loving and caring towards each other and even the yucky stuff that might come up in the process. The world (I) so need this. Your blog may be the first real account of the inside of a relationship.

Huge hug with immense gratitude for you both...
Love,
Robin

www.robinsparks.com

David (Hawaii), in Response to Pregnancy Announcement

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 22:54:37 -0800

Congratulations you crazy kids!!!!

I am feeling a deep sense of healing from reading your letter...

A brief story: When I turned 21, my parents took me to dinner and toasted me. The toast was "I've always said, you do more good by accident than you ever do on purpose." (My father made the toast). I understood immediately what he meant, and was not surprised. It was more of a confirmation at a conscious level of something that I knew down deep. I've always figured that he knew that I knew at some level and wanted me to be clear. He was wise that way. All was good...

Fast forward a zillion years to last year when I followed up a 10-day Master Cleanse with my first Ayahuasca experience. In the deepest moments of the journey, I saw a couple making love. The first flash was kinda raunchy sex and when I looked I saw it was my parents. The first look they were in their old bodies as I saw them in their later years, but as soon as I realized who it was they transformed into their young bodies and I realized I was witnessing my conception. A Voice told me that it was my opportunity to re-create my conception any way that I wanted it to be, whereupon it became a beautiful act of conscious lovemaking.

I never got the depth of how important this was to me, until I read your story. Your child is very blessed indeed to be your off-spring. I thank you for sharing your beautiful story and your loving selves.

Peace, peace, peace,

David

________________________

Below is the group email we sent out to our families and friends.

Dear Friends,

Today is another beautiful day in Goa, where Karina and I have a little rented house near the beach for the next few months. As some of you know, in the Spring we talked about moving to New York City, to start a big weekly dance there. After a few visits, our urban vision began to feel more like a heroic cause than a nourishing living environment, and we readjusted our bearings. Summer was spent in California, where we still took on a few too many projects, and the stress began to outweigh the benefits. So we took some time to go hiking in the mountains and find clarity about what it was we wanted to experience next. Our new direction was to find an inexpensive and warm place near the ocean, where we could slow everything down, take our time to enjoy ourselves, be healthy, and focus on our own creativity. Rolf had been to this part of India, five years ago, during his 10,000 mile motorcycle tour, and had often wondered about coming back for an extended period.

We are in Mandrem, a little village in the north of Goa, where a quiet river meets the ocean at a beautiful white sand beach, where one can walk or run for five miles without interruption. We found a little building standing alone in a quiet garden, with two separate rooms for rent. We took them both, for a few hundred dollars a month, so we have one space for sleeping and relaxing, and the other for working on the computer, cooking and eating. Each day, when we wake up, we meditate in the morning stillness, and then go to the beach, where Karina does yoga, and Rolf goes running and does push-ups, before swimming together in the gentle waves. Then we shower and eat a big breakfast. The hottest part of the day is spent indoors, working on the computer and writing. When the light gets beautiful again, around 4pm, we go back out to the beach until sunset, where we take photos, dance, build sandcastles and meet other people.

After moving around continuously for so long, we have thousands and thousands of new photos to work with. In payment for a recent photography assignment for Conscious Dancer magazine, we have an advertisement for our book "Cameras at Breakfast" coming out in a couple weeks. So we decided to use this deadline to put together an updated version of the book. When the ideas started flowing, however, we found that the new version will be completely different -- in fact, it will be a whole new book, with a new title and a different cover. After receiving so many questions about our relationship from people who saw the first book, the new one will include text about the agreements and practices that have helped to make our relationship work so well. The book will offer ideas and insights for finding love and creating more conscious loving partnerships, using photography to illustrate and create a more sensual experience. We look forward to letting you all know when it is ready.

Around the time we left Bali, we began feeling ready to have a child together. Karina stopped taking the pill 5 months ago, and for the past two months we have been making love with the intention of having a baby. Nothing the first month, except even more clarity. Last month, we went to Harbin Hot Springs, in California, for a week of baby-making, at some point during which Karina's ovulation would take place, with no other distractions or responsibilities during that special time. We set up our comfortable queen sized air bed, complete with purple sheets and a red goose-down comforter, in the middle of the forest, next to a seasonal creek, where we were visited by deer, squirrels and wild turkey. What a wonderful experience it was to make love, surrounded by the beauty of nature -- and for once, with the clear intention of having a baby! Otherwise, we rested. We soaked in the hot springs, and talked about our desires and intentions for having a child together.

Now we find ourselves on the opposite side of the planet. A few mornings ago, with Karina three weeks late for her period, and her breasts growing amazingly, we finally did a pregnancy test to confirm, and it was positive. She is indeed pregnant. These are still early days. Nevertheless, we are both feeling wonderful and surrendering to life as it comes. To celebrate, Rolf ran the whole length of the beach -- around 5 miles -- for the first time in five years!

Although we have seen a few possible venues for holding dances here, we have not yet felt the urge to get involved in creating community events. As work on our book develops, we anticipate feeling more open to the idea. At the moment, we are dancing alone on the beach with iPods, and would love to shake it with some dancing friends.

With love,

Rolf + Karina

Cherie (San Francisco)

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 22:42:13 -0800

Cherie writes:

Congratulations, you two!
I wish you so much joy and acceptance in the flow through this newest journey of creating life in Karina’s womb.
I love to live through the two of you, while I am traversing graduate school and city life. Not only does it touch some basic need of mine, but it also makes me proud, inspires me, and touches me deeply. I shared your email with a dear sister of mine who is coming to Goa for a month in December/January. Please read the email I sent her. I hope you find each other and dance together!

So much love, and blessings to you both,
Cherie
---------------------------------------------
Forwarded message:

Hello beautiful,
I wanted to forward this message to you from some beautiful friends I met at Esalen during my 5 Rhythms work/scholar month.
They are living in Goa. Find them. Dance with them. Give them my love.
They have a website that is linked at the end of this email. Check it out. Look at their photos. Such beautiful intimacy. I’m completely envious. I invite this in to my life, and I wish this for you. I’m under no illusion, they are human, I’ve seen them have their struggles also, yet when I hear of their adventures together and their journey through love and intimacy, I am so inspired and it gives me such hope of what is still possible for me, and for you.

________________________
Rolf + Karina write:

Below is the group email we sent out to our families and friends.

Dear Friends,

Today is another beautiful day in Goa, where Karina and I have a little rented house near the beach for the next few months. As some of you know, in the Spring we talked about moving to New York City, to start a big weekly dance there. After a few visits, our urban vision began to feel more like a heroic cause than a nourishing living environment, and we readjusted our bearings. Summer was spent in California, where we still took on a few too many projects, and the stress began to outweigh the benefits. So we took some time to go hiking in the mountains and find clarity about what it was we wanted to experience next. Our new direction was to find an inexpensive and warm place near the ocean, where we could slow everything down, take our time to enjoy ourselves, be healthy, and focus on our own creativity. Rolf had been to this part of India, five years ago, during his 10,000 mile motorcycle tour, and had often wondered about coming back for an extended period.

We are in Mandrem, a little village in the north of Goa, where a quiet river meets the ocean at a beautiful white sand beach, where one can walk or run for five miles without interruption. We found a little building standing alone in a quiet garden, with two separate rooms for rent. We took them both, for a few hundred dollars a month, so we have one space for sleeping and relaxing, and the other for working on the computer, cooking and eating. Each day, when we wake up, we meditate in the morning stillness, and then go to the beach, where Karina does yoga, and Rolf goes running and does push-ups, before swimming together in the gentle waves. Then we shower and eat a big breakfast. The hottest part of the day is spent indoors, working on the computer and writing. When the light gets beautiful again, around 4pm, we go back out to the beach until sunset, where we take photos, dance, build sandcastles and meet other people.

After moving around continuously for so long, we have thousands and thousands of new photos to work with. In payment for a recent photography assignment for Conscious Dancer magazine, we have an advertisement for our book "Cameras at Breakfast" coming out in a couple weeks. So we decided to use this deadline to put together an updated version of the book. When the ideas started flowing, however, we found that the new version will be completely different -- in fact, it will be a whole new book, with a new title and a different cover. After receiving so many questions about our relationship from people who saw the first book, the new one will include text about the agreements and practices that have helped to make our relationship work so well. The book will offer ideas and insights for finding love and creating more conscious loving partnerships, using photography to illustrate and create a more sensual experience. We look forward to letting you all know when it is ready.

Around the time we left Bali, we began feeling ready to have a child together. Karina stopped taking the pill 5 months ago, and for the past two months we have been making love with the intention of having a baby. Nothing the first month, except even more clarity. Last month, we went to Harbin Hot Springs, in California, for a week of baby-making, at some point during which Karina's ovulation would take place, with no other distractions or responsibilities during that special time. We set up our comfortable queen sized air bed, complete with purple sheets and a red goose-down comforter, in the middle of the forest, next to a seasonal creek, where we were visited by deer, squirrels and wild turkey. What a wonderful experience it was to make love, surrounded by the beauty of nature -- and for once, with the clear intention of having a baby! Otherwise, we rested. We soaked in the hot springs, and talked about our desires and intentions for having a child together.

Now we find ourselves on the opposite side of the planet. A few mornings ago, with Karina three weeks late for her period, and her breasts growing amazingly, we finally did a pregnancy test to confirm, and it was positive. She is indeed pregnant. These are still early days. Nevertheless, we are both feeling wonderful and surrendering to life as it comes. To celebrate, Rolf ran the whole length of the beach -- around 5 miles -- for the first time in five years!

Although we have seen a few possible venues for holding dances here, we have not yet felt the urge to get involved in creating community events. As work on our book develops, we anticipate feeling more open to the idea. At the moment, we are dancing alone on the beach with iPods, and would love to shake it with some dancing friends.

With love,

Rolf + Karina

Kate (California), on the Recorded Conversations

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:56:06 -0700

I LOVE YOUR RECORDED CONVERSATIONS> i want more.

i cried, i laughed, i realized, i remembered, i loved. seriously. thank you. i loved the stillness and the spaciousness around what you both shared, and i loved the open honesty. i loved your questions and the depth of heart from which you answered. i was reminded of my own thirst for that kind of intimacy with myself, lovers, friends, strangers. thank you. i would love more. i didnt get to finished listening before you took some off and i have to say my heart sank a little when i went back for my daily listening and the ones i hadn't listened to yet were gone. i dont know how many i missed, maybe just the last couple new moon intentions.

where are you at with the blog? its been such a beautiful thing for me in many ways and i check it at least once a day to see if there are any new entries....and i also hear what you've have been experiencing in terms of feeling identified and held back by it in certain ways. i completely support the entirety of the process, even if that means no more blog. i appreciate the honesty and clarity that radiates through your words both written and spoken.

oh, the other thing your conversations rekindled is my love for backpacking, and i am planning a long spring excursion, somewhere.

love to you both, wherever you are in body and heart.

always in touch,

kate

Some Beautiful Words from Amy (Bali)

Tue, 5 May 2009 04:46:21 -0700

Sitting in circle together after the ecstasy of any ecstatic dance, I was powerfully moved by Rolf's tender openness and vulnerability as he expressed "all I want to do is love" - the beauty and truth his heart came forth with was not only healing and opening for me, it also shows what true strength is in a man, and a person in general. Thank you Rolf for helping me to feel those depths by you honestly and openly revealing yourself.

May this state remain....

Love, Amy

Feedback from Rachel (New Jersey)

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 01:36:37 -0700

I am wildly inspired by your commitments, and want to thank you for one especially: I also have struggled with waking up in the morning, and something about the way Karina spoke of her intention to wake up to an alarm, to be energized and renewed... this really re-framed something for me, and I set my alarm last night, set my intention,and was up at seven this morning. Ready to wake up, enjoy the morning, and feeling really good about my direction. It's so important to feel that each new day will offer only newness.

I felt strange wanting to write to you, but the only "why nots" come from fear. So I guess there's no why not.

I am a photographer who has not picked up a camera in 6 years. Thank you for the reminder of what it is to notice, to witness, to see, to appreciate, to love.

Truly,
Rachel

Feedback from Christiene (California)

Sun, 4 Jan 2009 19:06:56 -0800

I was inspired yesterday experiencing rolfandkarina.com ~ it gave me a beautiful nudge towards some ways and desires, helping to create even more alignment with what is close to my heart and soul, deriving first and foremost from an inner state of growing well-being and acceptance.

Feedback from Tamara (California)

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 18:00:46 -0800

Hi Rolf and Karina.
Dave and I sometimes say what we are grateful for when we go to bed. Often we forget though, and sometimes it feels a bit forced and not always connected to emotion for me. I like your version of favorite moment, or moments, of the day, as it is very current, grounded, exact, and based in experience. I will recommend it to Dave. I’m sure he will be up for this.

My mind can always use more training toward the positive. There are so many well worn negative and hopeless grooves that were practiced for decades before I learned there is another way. I am more joyful than I have ever been in my life, but still many times falling into the old ways. This is a great tool.

Thanks. Tam

This feedback is in response to a blog entry from Rolf:

Our intentions for this moon cycle are: To look for things to feel good about -- or, if feeling good is emotionally beyond our reach, then to at least make the effort to look for things we can feel better about -- no matter where we are, what we are doing, or who we are with.

This has been an empowering practice, for which I am already grateful. I am loving the way the full moon bath is a way to revisit and remember our intentions, and to absorb them fully.

As part of this practice, every night, before we fall asleep, Karina and I ask each other about our favorite moments of the day. This has been a powerful way to train our minds to focus on the positive aspects of our daily experience. It has also been resulting in more enjoyable dreams, and a better frame of mind upon awakening in the morning. We shall continue!

Feedback from Todd (California)

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 18:38:27 -0800

I've enjoyed sharing dance space with you for quite a while now, off and on for several years ... but now seeing your photographs and reading your Web site adds a whole new dimension to my knowing of you.

Your joint commitment to waking up—and waking up together—touches me deeply, moves me, inspires me.

So does the courage of the transparency with which you are sharing your journey with us (and enlisting us in that adventure and dance with you!) ... that is a beautiful thing.

Somehow you capture that sense of wider community in your photographs of each other and your lives together; despite how deeply intimate and personal so many of the photos are, they don't evoke any sense of voyeur-ship for me ... no sense of being on an "outside", looking "in", but rather a sense of being included as part of the inside.

Your commitment to waking up, and the commitment to waking up together as the central commitment of your relationship ... I thank you for reminding me of values that are at the center of my life but that I so often lose contact with. I've often dreamt of a partnership with as deep and constant a conversation (verbal and nonverbal) as you've sustained over the past few years. (And it's also interesting to read how things are shifting now that you're settling, at least for a while, into a home and community, so that you're not quite as constantly together.)

You two inspire me to renew my intention to my own commitment to waking up—and you also remind me of the depth of my desire for a partner in that enterprise.

Love and light,
Todd

A Poem from Amity (California) -- written after meeting Rolf + Karina

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 16:56:37 -0700

The Sword of Clarity Initiates Me into A Wise Discerning Woman

Here between the worlds, an Initiation is about to unfurl:
so I step into the chamber of Isis, Goddess of the mystery,
where she beckons me to shatter my shell on her marble floor
Filled with illusions of younger self who struggles to preserve and control,
Ouch, I throw the glass willingly, offer my essence in a million tiny shards

Crack! Ego pieces scatter, & go travel the continuum of infinity,
its pieces gathered, transforming as consumed by a fire’s purple flames
into the clear perfection of one amethyst flame --
like crystal nexus of a polished Sword that reflects
my naked form, surrendered in the snow, now rebirthed as elder One.

And in her chamber a white Lotus emerges fully, also One with
her Lover in whose Love,, she’s making mysteries above ordinary understanding;
As he’s lifting me to freedom, I initiate myself into skies of sophistry, past gates of knowing where I meet Isis, from whose deep eyes I learn to unshroud the Truth:
Gaia asks for reflections from the deep recesses of our Souls delivered through the heart,
a radical action to bring lost, shattered parts forth, to open ourselves wholly to the world.

So, it’s this truth, told from a mountain-top that makes Coyote scream with pleasure:
Halleluja, He laughs, At long last, you’re becoming an elder, yet we’re already Old,
gazing into the eyes of She who awakened long ago: as all primal beings Know,
Mother Earth’s midwifes, these Goddesses incarnate will birth me into Cronedom:
Crack: Open the womb-like vessel, pour from the Divine Chalice
into a Heart-Cup of our Divine Goddess; we from snake Mawu, She who birthed us first.
Here between the worlds, an initiation into a new stage unfurled.

Amity, Fall Equinox 2008

Kate’s Question & Our Answer (California)

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:35:10 -0700

rolf and karina
your radiance of love and light have held me so many times. thank you for the open hearts i felt from you at Burning Man.
i would love to be more interactive through this blog. thank you for the space to share with an open heart.
here is a question i have for you. and of course any response is up to you, and no response is ok. here it is:
in your path of deepening love with one another, what is your practice of open honesty? how do you hold each other's truths. and how do you hold your own. i am interested in hearing about the practice of it, in a true, living, and thriving relationship.
love you guys.
Kate

Karina writes:

(For those of you who don’t know, Kate is a friend that was also at Esalen when Rolf and I first met each other two and a half years ago. She was very supportive of our getting together, at the time, and we feel pleased and grateful to be in touch with her again.)

Thank you, Kate, for your question. We are not sure to have understood exactly, but we’ll try this answer, and you can let us know if we are on track.

Since the beginning, Rolf and I have practiced being as fully transparent as possible with each other. To make this possible, we have an agreement that each of us is completely free, we are responsible for our own feelings, and neither could ever do anything “wrong.”

We check in with each other constantly, to make sure we are on the same page. We are writing this text together, for example. One could say, our relationship is itself an Agreement, one that is constantly being revised.

It seems we have not yet had the experience of having fundamentally different truths about anything that would create separation between us. As we spend a large percentage of our time together, our conversation is mostly continuous. This does not leave much time to develop separate stories or truths.

Here is another practice we love; whenever one of us feels a clear sense of direction, it is understood that the other will follow, willingly. In this way, we feel that we benefit from the other’s clarity, and it works both ways. It’s like the geese; the strongest flies in front, and is replaced when another is ready to lead. So, we are both constantly practicing either leading, and trusting our own intuition, or letting-go, to follow and trust the other’s vision.

We also acknowledge that our truths are only true for that moment, and prefer to place our focus on feeling connected -- with ourselves, and each other -- rather than who might be right or wrong about something transient. The stories keep changing, and so do our desires and truths. We give each other permission to continually update our preferences.

Please let us know if this answers your question.

With our love,

Karina and Rolf

Tamara’s Comment (California)

Fri, 5 Sep 2008 15:22:20 -0700

Well, I just spoke with Rolf on the phone and told him that I felt leaving a comment was like writing something in someone else's diary. He assured me that he and Karina really want this to be interactive... so here's a comment... and I would love to hear from R&K's other friends as well....

While our life from the outside looks different than yours (my husband, Dave, and I)--jobs, home, not much travel, and choosing a monogamous relationship, I believe we are all working on the same thing-- how to stay in compassion, connection, and increasing our capacity for intimacy as we move through life. We have been together for twenty-five years and married for twenty. We can honestly say though we have so much yet to learn, we have had the best year of our relationship this past year. The commitment to working on your own stuff, taking responsibility for your own actions and beliefs does pay off in the long run, and sometimes in the short run too.

Enjoy Mexico, and we are happy to have you park "the womb" in our driveway and visit next time you are in the Bay Area.

Sincerely, Tamara

Acqua’s Message of Gratitude (Mexico)

Wed, 3 Sep 2008 15:38:16 -0700

Hi you guys...
I have been receiving your e-mails...keeping me in touch with all the gorgeous and inspiring things you are doing.
Thank you!
I just wanted to share that I have been so moved by both of you... and not just on the dance floor :)...
By your commitment to truth... documenting the love and the beauty that you seek in your relationship with each other, and life.
It is so refreshing...and so needed.
I just left my sweet husband/partner of 23 years to follow MY heart...
I sold almost everything I own, and am embarking on a journey of trust and true delight.
Choosing things...people...places...experiences...
that cultivate joy, love and creativity.
Your model of BEING helped to show me something different...
and entice me off of my island of safety..
I send you huge hugs and waves of gratitude and love.

Acqua

Graham's thank you email (London)

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:27:28 -0700

Hi Rolf and Karina,

I have just received your book "Cameras at Breakfast" and feel that I have to write to you both and thank you for creating such a beautifully produced body of work, and for allowing others to share it.

I am a photographer in the UK. I also collect fine art photography books. As soon as I saw the first few pages of your book on Blurb I knew that I was going to enjoy it. Now I have seen the book I am overwhelmed. Not only by the powerful personal pictures inside, but also of the stunning landscapes taken throughout your travels. The quality of photography is of the highest level.

I wish you every success in the Photography Book Now contest and I am hoping that you will produce further books in time to come.

Thanks again and my best wishes to you both.

Graham

London UK