Blessed Solstice 2024

Solstice Altar

The beauty of Winter Solstice is courage in itself. It is the courage to know that to be new is not necessarily going to be accepted by those expecting the commonplace. … a new you is ready … that will carry you through the new cycle. … Solstice is the time when you give up what you have and accept what is being born as the new power within you, the awareness within you, the new person within you. Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)

What I would exhort you to, what I would give as a gift to you, what I would lay down a soul for, would be for your awareness to recognize that this is a personal event for your life. It is the time that has been set up on this planet for you and Heaven to be with each other without interference. Gregge Tiffen (The Winter Solstice: Giving To Yourself – December, 2007)

As we move closer to the Winter Solstice Day, I feel myself – my cells – beginning to settle, quieting in preparation for the deep quiet of the longest night. Recognizing that here in the northern hemisphere, a cycle is complete, and a new one will follow, while our friends in the southern hemisphere are at the midway point of their journey.

This is a time for going within to ‘be with Heaven without interference’ provided I can tune out the internal noise that all too often interferes with being fully present in the moment. As a time of completion and preparing the way for new beginnings, Solstice is a time for releasing everything. Farewell wishes and wants. Adios pain, worries, discomfort, and the stories that accompany them. Goodbye fears, hopes, and judgments, as well as all who have crossed my path whether in peace or discord.

I release all with deep peace and with knowing that which serves and all that is aligned with my Being and higher consciousness is always accessible to return when called.

As I write, I feel the gates opening for this release along with a hint of receptivity to the new, to what will emerge in this cycle to come. And I notice that this opens me to a Solstice Prayer …

May we release all that is not service to Life. May I.

May we each know peace within so as to walk in the world as peaceful Beings. May I.

May each of our paths be lighted with Truth, inspiration, and guidance to restore harmony among ourselves (and our cells) and respectful relationship with all of Nature and the cosmos beyond.

May we follow our paths to create a world is Life generating and Life enhancing. May I.

May we hospice and release all systems that are not in service to Life as we co-create new systems that honor and respect ALL Life.

May ALL Beings awaken to the Truth of who we BE.

Moonrise Over the Sangres

A Taste of Winter - A Time to Receive

Snow Cones

And don’t think the garden loses its ecstasy in winter. It’s quiet, but the roots down there are riotous. Rumi

All of heaven and all of earth coordinate at the Winter Solstice. Gregge Tiffen (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)

What I would exhort you to, what I would give as a gift to you, what I would lay down a soul for, would be for your awareness to recognize that this is a personal event for your life. It is the time that has been set up on this planet for you and Heaven to be with each other without interference. Gregge Tiffen (The Winter Solstice: Giving To Yourself – December, 2007)

Snow! Cold! Yay! We experienced a taste of winter here in the Sangres this week. I feel Gaia singing gratitude for the moisture to quench the thirst of the ‘riotous roots’ underground. I sing gratitude for the beauty and unique quiet I experience when snow is on the ground.

Solstice is coming, and I’m easing into this divine time of Heaven and Nature singing with Solstice reflections from Pivot’s past as they continue to seem relevant and resonant to this time.

With the daylight shortening as we move toward the Winter Solstice here in the northern hemisphere, the longer nights seem to reflect the darkness of violence and discord around the globe. It’s good to remember that our friends to the south are experiencing the longest light of their year. As much of humanity is expressing itself in dark ways, there is also much light, much love, much joy, and much hope for a brighter tomorrow.

It seems that we’ve forgotten what this season is about. …the time … for you and Heaven to be with each other without interference. Breathe that in for just a moment. Breathe a breath of gratitude for the gift. Be with Heaven if only for a moment.

As I enter this Solstice time, I feel deeply blessed to not be engaged in much of the busyness that has come to define this holiday season. I’m grateful that on cold mornings I sit by the fire and look to the woods out back through the eyes of a heart that knows no separation from my tree relatives, from the rock beings, the winged ones, or from the four-legged creatures of all sizes that dwell or pass through this sacred place. My heart knows this as surely as it knows my oneness with the unseen Life that thrives here.

I appreciate tuning in to the sacredness of this time, to the station of Nature’s beauty, to reflections and the bubbling of old and new deep inside. And to those like Rumi and Gregge Tiffen who remind me the true nature of this celebration. I’m inspired and heartened by Gregge’s message below as it gently reminds me of the choices I can make moment to moment in all the days of winter solitude ahead and into the spring beyond:

Prelude (Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story)

There is nothing I can give you which you have not got; but there is much, very much, that while I cannot give it, you can take.

No Heaven can come to us, unless our hearts find rest in today.

Take Heaven

No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present little instant.

Take Peace

The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. There is radiance and glory in the darkness could we but see, and to see, we have only to look, I beseech you,

Look!

In the quiet there is tranquility. May your life move and radiate in that unity and your heart sing the hymn of peace to all mankind.

And so, at this time, I greet you not quite as the world sends greetings, but with profound esteem and with prayer that for now and forever the day breaks, and the shadows flee away.

 This is a time to be receptive. In the Christmas Story, we are told that the inn was full, yet a receptive place for birth was found. And so it is for each of us. We too need to empty and make ourselves receptive to the new. 

Solstice is a time to declare one cycle complete, making way for another to begin. It is a time to embrace the realm of spirit and turn our backs on the material world, if only for a brief time. It is a time to bless and release all who have crossed our path in this cycle, knowing that those who are meant to return will be there in the new one.

And, perhaps most important of all, it is time to let go of who we were in the cycle that is completing.  The ‘you’ of that cycle is complete as well. And a new you of your design and making awaits.

We need not wait for the day of Solstice to take Heaven, to take Peace, and to Look at the radiance in the darkness within and without. Let us take them now and allow the potency of this time to fill us. This is our time to empty. This is our time to embrace seeds of the new; to receive.

As our planet celebrates her birthday, my prayer is that I align with all my relations such that my comfort, my safety, my Life is not at their expense. This is my prayer for Solistice, for the year ahead, for Gaia, for Life. May this be our song of Joy to the World with ALL of Nature singing in harmony with one another and with the Heavens.

Let us honor Mother Earth by taking time to reflect on the gifts of this time when Heaven and Nature sing as one. May we each sing along in our own unique and harmonious way.

Snow Beauty

Tending to Paradise in a Chaotic World

Tree-Heart Wisdom

Is art resistance? Can you plant a garden to stop a war? It depends how you think about time. It depends what you think a seed does, if it’s tossed into fertile soil. But it seems to me that whatever else you do, it’s worth tending to paradise, however you define it and wherever it arises. Olivia Laing

Questions such as this inspire me to deeper observation, reflection, and contemplation. They feed my curiosity, and thus, they feed my soul. As I reflected on Laing’s tending to paradise, I wondered ‘just what is paradise?’. And what does it mean ‘to tend’?

I saw each as having both inside and out aspects. Looking out, the dictionary says ‘paradise’ is “a place of extreme beauty, delight, happiness” and looking in it is “a state of extreme happiness, bliss”. ‘Tending’ is “to look after, watch over, care for, minister to or wait on with service.” We tend to our internal state of being, and we tend to the world where we feel our care is needed.

While much can be said about both, this thought of tending to paradise being a worthy endeavor, beckoned me to notice the many places and ways paradise seems present in our chaotic world where so much seems broken and a far cry from what one might label ‘paradise’. While on some days our world seems like Paradise Lost, I began to observe my choices from the perspective of tending to paradise, inside and out.

If you happen to be thinking ‘bah humbug, there is no paradise in the world today’, I invite you to do as I sometimes find myself doing: seek it out and, if you don’t find it, create paradise from within. Recognize that tending to paradise does not ignore or deny the multiple horrors and crises of our world, nor does it ask us to deny any angst, anger, heartbreak, fear, uncertainty, or other darkness that visits us or that we witness.

Rather, tending to paradise asks that we view and navigate the world from a different perspective. Or as Einstein suggested that we solve the world’s problems from thinking that is different from the thinking that created them. For me that begins with how I ‘be’ in my internal world as I view the world out there. As within, so without. As I view the world, so the world is to me.

Tending to paradise asks that we put attention on and care for that which is rising and wants to rise in a broken world, that we tend the sacred in all Life. For me that begins with deepening my sacred connection to place, to home the beauty of the paradise that I am blessed to inhabit. Home is a foundation from which I can reach beyond the artificial boundaries of property to community, to what is needed, what is rising, and what wants to rise. And in reaching to ask, ‘what is mine to do?’ in contribution to this.

As I reflect and observe, I begin to see that I tend to paradise with curiosity, harmony, and serenity, much like the stability of a three-legged stool. Each supports and feeds the others, not in equilibrium, but in the measured flow of life.

Curiosity often takes the lead carrying me to explore diverse topics from the relationship between soil health and the health of our bodies (and how to restore both!) to current commentaries of astrologers, cosmologists, and mystics about this time we have chosen to inhabit. My curiosity seeks to discover new possibilities, opportunities, and connections, and has only passing interest in the drama of so-called ‘current events’. My curiosity looks to ancient wisdom and to the wisdom of Nature in the woods out back to inform how to tend to paradise.

As I bring I new ideas and information, I observe what feels resonant and what does not. What feels harmonious in my being? What aligns with my values? To call forth and maintain serenity, I set aside that which isn’t resonant, harmonious, or values aligned. At the same time, I engage curiosity in inquiring whether I may be resisting something that is asking me to pay attention.

I aim to view Life in a larger, cosmic context, recognizing that this world I live in, observe, and must navigate is but a ‘blip’ in timeless time and spaceless space and that all events are part of something much greater than I can grok. For me, this perspective helps maintain serenity, especially in those times when this world’s horrors pierce my tender heart.

As I reflect more deeply on this idea of ‘tending paradise’ as a worthy pursuit, it seems simply to be an approach to this experiment call life, an approach we can each choose. Or not.

Unlike a short vacation to a tropical paradise or other place of beauty, ‘tending paradise’ is a choice we make moment to moment, day to day as our way of navigating a chaotic world where old ways are dissolving, giving way to the new. Whether that new is paradise depends on us, individually and collectively.

What do YOU think a seed does?

Paradise in the Sangres

My Thanksgiving Prayer 2024

Early Morning Sky

The power of giving thanks gives life its vitality! The power of giving thanks comes through your awareness that you are always in a position to receive all the elements the Universe has to offer. Everything is available to you.  Gregge Tiffen (The Power of Giving Thanks, November 2007)

As I do most every morning, I felt grateful when I woke (being ‘woke’ still seems a good thing to me!) this day before Thanksgiving here in the U.S. A crescent moon was hanging over the woods out back as I fired up the wood stove and cozied in with my journal to discover what reflections would begin my day.

This morning as I read the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, Greetings to the Natural World I reflected once again that, while it is good to have a special day to give thanks, the irony of Thanksgiving’s origins in this country deserves us to pause for thoughtful consideration. As you give thanks, I’ll leave that consideration to your heart and soul. I’m grateful that as a society we are beginning to acknowledge, understand, and hopefully, move beyond the dark choices that haunt our past.

These days I put much of my attention and focus on the positive and good that is emerging in our world. On possibilities for a bright future and on those who are actively calling it forth. Despite the disgust and sadness I feel for the atrocities we force upon one another and on our dear planet, I’m grateful for this life and for the opportunities to learn and grow that are ever present.  Despite the irony of the holiday’s origins, I celebrate, grateful for my conviction that, despite history and the current chaos and cruelty worldwide, justice and light will prevail.

Several years back, sitting quietly by the fire on a cold morning, I began to write in my journal. The words that came surprised me and took me to an unexpected place: gratitude for being me.  As I ease into Thanksgiving Day 2024, I remember all that I’m grateful for and my words then inspire my prayer of thanks for 2024:

 I’m grateful for how I live my life, the choices I make, the insight and curiosity I experience, my love of quiet and of Nature’s beauty. I’m grateful that I take reasonably good care of myself. I’m grateful that I take time to ease into the day and enjoy the morning quiet. I’m grateful for introspection and for how I see the world unfolding perfectly in this human experiment despite events that are horrific beyond my understanding. I’m grateful for this year’s events and for those individuals whose actions continue to challenge me to hold this light.

 I’m grateful for all the beings who are holding light in the midst of darkness.

 I’m grateful for the challenges and changes this year has thrust upon me personally and on all of us as a community of humans. I’m grateful for the experience of abundance and that I’m able to share in my community and beyond. I’m grateful for those in my community and beyond who toil daily to produce nutritious food and enrich the soil.

 I remain grateful for nine years with Cool Hand Luke Skywalker and for all that he taught me about patience, forgiveness, rest, play, listening and so much more. I’m grateful for Zadie Byrd carrying the torch of being my canine companion and teacher for four years. Their ongoing presence, though not in their furry bodies, reminds me that life is a continuum not a finite event.

I’m grateful for how I’ve faced the challenges in my life, even those where in hindsight I saw a different way for me to be. Each offered a gift, and I did my best to accept it.

 I’m especially grateful that I enjoy my own company as well as the company of others. Both are so very important, yet we humans so very often shun being alone for fear of being lonely, forgetting that in our aloneness we hear Your voice and feel Your presence.

 Thank You for always being with me/in me. Thank YOU for allowing and guiding me to be me. I feel so close You, God, in these quiet moments and I am so very grateful.

When we give thanks for being who we are, we tap into the vitality of life. Wherever this week finds you, may you feel a depth of gratitude that goes deeper and further than any you have felt in your past.

Ziggurat on a Colorado Blue Sky Day

Dancing with Denial and Despair

Morning Sun and Grasses

Denial is deeply underestimated as a state of being. Denial is an ever-present and even splendid thing when seen in the light of its merciful and elemental powers to cradle and hold an identity until it is ready to move on. David Whyte (Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words)

Despair takes us in when we have nowhere else to go: when we feel our heart cannot break any more, when our world or our loved ones disappear … Despair is a haven with its own temporary form of strange beauty and self-compassion; it is the invitation we accept when we want to remove ourselves from hurt. … a necessary and seasonal state of repair … the last bastion of hope. … The antidote to despair is not to be found in the brave attempt to cheer ourselves up with happy abstracts, but in paying profound and courageous attention to the body and the breath, independent of our imprisoning thoughts and stories, even, surprisingly, in paying attention to despair itself … David Whyte (Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words)

Ah. Once again David Whyte imbues words I often deny as dance partners with a depth that invites me to acknowledge and, even, embrace them as companions on life’s journey.

I’ve been wondering ‘what does one write in a time such as this?’ as I consider where The Pivot may go in the future. The question joins last week’s Now What? question: What is mine to do?

Such questions come and go as I engage in the daily ‘doing’ of life, but this morning I woke with a touch of dread about writing a post. What is mine to say, to add to the seemingly endless narratives of this time? They feel like questions of the soul rather than ones asking that I simply ‘figure it out’. They ask for my soul’s deepest knowing or at least invite me to explore from that deeper perspective. Perhaps inviting that into my awareness may bring some clarity to this time, its events and choices.

Last evening as I began to think about blog time, I randomly opened Whyte’s Consolations to his essay, Denial. Hmm. His thoughtful framing led me to read the essay that followed, Despair. This morning as I read them again, I felt a familiarity with both, a recognition that in my mostly positive, upbeat dance with life, I deny both denial and despair their rightful and necessary places on the dance floor.

Fearing despair may take up long term residence, I unconsciously avoid allowing despair in for a visit, a turn on the dance floor in a dance that might just hold a clue to the soul’s quest.

As so Whyte often does whether I’m musing to write or simply musing to muse, these essays opened me to a deeper place, one that I’ve been unconsciously dancing around rather than consciously choosing to dance with.

With this awareness and Whyte’s wise words I can pivot, allowing myself to dance paying ‘profound and courageous attention’ to body, to breath, and to the deepest desires of heart and soul. Laying aside thoughts and old stories, I can call forth compassion and give despair its rightful voice and season. If, like me, you find yourself in denial of despair, consider inviting her in to discover just what wisdom she may have to offer.  

There is hope after despair and many suns after darkness. Rumi

Sunset

Now What?

A Moment of Peace & Beauty in the Flow of Life

In the course of history, there comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness, to reach a higher moral ground. A time when we have to shed our fear and give hope to each other. That time is now.  Wangari Maathai

Life cannot be captured in a few axioms. And that is just what I keep trying to do. But it won't work, for life is full of endless nuances and cannot be captured in just a few formulae. Etty Hillesum

Today’s quotes crossed my feed from different sources this week, each one aligned and active co-creating a world that’s different from the one we are currently experiencing. They come from women of different generations, times, and places that were challenging as is the time we are in. If you aren’t familiar with them, here’s a bit about each.

Wangarĩ Maathai (1940-2011) was a Kenyan social, environmental, and political activist who founded the Green Belt Movement, an environmental non-governmental organization focused on the planting of trees, environmental conservation, and women's rights. In 2004 she became the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. (Wikipedia)

Esther Hillesum (15 January 1914 – 30 November 1943) was a Dutch Jewish author of confessional letters and diaries which describe both her religious awakening and the persecutions of Jewish people in Amsterdam during the German occupation. In 1943, she was deported and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp. (Wikipedia)

Their words have remained alive in my awareness in the wake of last week’s election here in the (not so) United States as I have danced with my deeply felt reactions and responses and observed the reactions and responses of others, and as I consider the question: what is mine to do in this time?

I reminded myself of what I wrote in last week’s post hours before the polls closed: …‘no matter what’ the outcome of today’s votes my job is to breathe, to be present, to be clear and grounded, to trust. For indeed while the stakes of this election seem monumental (and, I believe, that they are), there is something greater at play in our world. I trust that the hand of the divine is present, no matter the outcome.’ No matter what, we must end our reactivity to the world, to others, indeed even our reactivity to ourselves. Reactivity separates us from one another, from ourselves, and from Source. No matter what envision a future where we move beyond the reactivity of fear into the mindful choice of calm abiding peace, compassion, and love.

Personally, I’m challenged to maintain that level of peace and consciousness moment to moment, not just as I minimally follow the unfolding news, but in my interactions with others. I’ve found myself triggered by so-called ‘little things’ which I’m (mostly) choosing to see as opportunities to look deeper, to what real fear or concern may be hidden. I’m asking, ‘what wants to surface from the depths of being to heal and release?’ Then I look to how those fit into the larger picture of our world and the even grander realm of the cosmos. For me, this kind of reflection is helpful as it brings me back to my belief that there is something greater at play in our world.

It would be oh so convenient to find a few axioms to explain our politics and our world today so that, with sense made of it, we could ‘get on with life’ or, as we said in Covid days, ‘back to normal’. But that is not the nature of this time, of our world, of our individual and collective selves, or of our evolutionary path. Our world has become increasingly complex in our systems of control, domination, and separation. Our individual selves are asked to choose sides and perpetuate the false divide that we are separate from one another, from our planet home, and from the cosmos. Social media makes it easy to make our choices known in ways that further illusion that we are separate. We/I forget that everything is energy.

None of us are immune. My angst and momentary judgement when I see a post about the ‘fools’, ‘idiots’, or worse is its own form of othering, of separation. Yet, beyond my own moments of separation, my heart seeks to understand so that I can maintain and be grounded in the consciousness that knows we are One, and that I choose to act from that place.

Just as there are no few axioms to ‘capture life’ and give us this understanding, there is no one way, one formula, one path to shift our consciousness. The beauty is that there are many paths that hold the potential to lead us to Oneness. The challenge for each of us is to find our path and follow it, step by step, day by day, course correcting and forgiving ourselves and others all along the way. Simple. Not easy. Back to the essence, to the core of our Being as we grapple with the very real fears, concerns, injustices, and suffering in our world.

In building a new story, I/we must hold both: the horrors and fears being experienced by so many AND the potent possibility, indeed opportunity, to create a new world.

This is the place from which we can co-create and build a new story for ourselves and the greater whole of which we are a part. I deeply believe that we are witnessing the last desperate gasps of a culture of domination and that a new and ancient culture of community, cooperation, justice, and sovereignty is rising around the globe. It’s been said often that it is always darkest before the dawn. Let us put our attention on bringing that dawn to the full light of day rather than exhausting our energy in maintaining the fear and separation of the dark. Let us hospice that which does not serve and support all Life and give birth to that more beautiful world our hearts know is possible. Let us sing that new story into Being with the gifted Jenny Bird (click here for We Need a New Story).

Take care of yourselves and one another!

Padasambava Stupa Down the Road

No Matter What ...

Padmasambava Stupa - A Place of Peace - No Matter What

It’s a radical act to stop. Thich Nhat Hanh

The clouds come and they go. … We need to practice to be aligned with these times. … Nurture that which is constructive not destructive. … We practice to release the reactivity that results in more polarization. Cynthia Jurs (pre-election meditation practice)

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
There is a field. I'll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
The world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase each other
Doesn't make any sense. Rumi

We, the people,
The ancestors of our great, great grandchildren
Call forth the deepest wisdom
And the highest compassion
From the heart and soul of America
For the benefit of the entire Earth community
And the next seven generations
May Wisdom Prevail in the USA
May Peace Prevail on Earth. (Wise USA)

Election day has arrived here in the U.S., and I felt guided to pivot to a Tuesday post before election results begin to roll in rather than wait until tomorrow/Wednesday when results are known whether final or not. No matter what, I pray that today and the days ahead be peaceful, individually and collectively and that no matter who wins we begin to repair the fabric of our ideals and values torn asunder by a crumbling system that has seemed to thrive on polarization. Costly polarization to each and every one of us.

As election day neared, I have been present to the deep wisdom being called forth, not by the conflict profiteers of mainstream media, but by the vast networks of communities engaged in the deep work of raising consciousness. I have been uplifted and inspired by their words and invitations to participate in conversations, meditations, and sharing. They remind me that the peace I desire in our country and around the globe begins right here with me, for without peace within, there can be no peace beyond.

Wisdom from many traditions, many avenues both spiritual and political. Wise words to calm and center our over-anxious selves at a time of change, dissolution, and uncertainty. This is what I seek out just a few hours away from polls beginning to close on the Eastern seaboard of the US this election day 2024.

These are the voices that remind me that ‘no matter what’ the outcome of today’s votes my job is to breathe, to be present, to be clear and grounded, to trust. For indeed while the stakes of this election seem monumental (and, I believe, that they are), there is something greater at play in our world. I trust that the hand of the divine is present, no matter the outcome.’

No matter what, we must end our reactivity to the world, to others, indeed even our reactivity to ourselves. Reactivity separates us from one another, from ourselves, and from Source. No matter what envision a future where we move beyond the reactivity of fear into the mindful choice of calm abiding peace, compassion, and love.

‘No matter what.’ These three words have resonated deep within me over this past week in the wake of an experience which led me to write a lengthy ‘no matter what’ letter to a family member to communicate the love I felt for them, no matter what they had done. As events unfolded over several days, I was present to maintaining a sense of calm despite moments of worry. I felt the power of being at choice rather than falling into the trap of reactivity lurking in such situations.

The depth of love and compassion I felt writing presenced the power of these three simple words, ‘no matter what’ as an opening to less reactivity and more mindful, thoughtful response. I realized that no matter what the outcome of this election is, we need that mindfulness, that thoughtfulness, that compassion and care more than ever in this evolutionary moment of choice. No matter what, we are invited to make our way into Rumi’s field beyond right and wrong, the field where peace abides, and a new world is waiting to be born.

No matter what, let us join together to co-create that field and to romp joyfully in the Oneness that is.

Labyrinth in the Woods Out Back

The Eagle & The Raven - Magic in My Midst

Nature and the Flow of Life …

May we listen to everything the earth teaches us and trust it to lead us onward in our efforts of expression and growth. Jacqueline Suskin (A Year In Practice: Seasonal Rituals and Prompts to Awaken Cycles of Creative Expression)

We must tune in to our ability to see beyond the physical reality that surrounds us, and awaken to the vast unseen world that exists. Then we can begin to see beyond sight and to hear beyond sound. We see the underlying structures that support our world, and life begins to take on new shape, new meaning. When we live as multisensory beings. Sherri Mitchell

May we listen to our Mother, the Mother we share, Mother Earth and all of her wisdom.

Yesterday on the road to one of the larger towns nearby, a friend and I witnessed a sight that neither of us had seen before: an eagle and a raven perched side by side on a powerline post. It felt magical, a metaphor for what is possible. Illumination of the deeper truths of our being. Healing wounds of past and present divisions. Creation and the magic of a new world coming to light. What, we wondered, might those two majestic beings be chatting about?

The question is especially poignant for me, as I’ve been intentional in my curiosity, focus, and desire to align more deeply with Gaia. I’ve been particularly offering my attention to the land that I’m blessed to occupy and to the abundant life all around these woods. I’ve asked and reflected on questions aiming toward aligning more fully with Nature. To learn what Nature offers to teach me as I relearn what we in this culture have lost: the deep knowledge and wisdom of our connection to Mother Earth. The wisdom of the ancients carried forth in indigenous traditions who still hold this knowledge today. The wisdom of the plants, the animals, the soil, and the life that lives beneath the ground on which we walk.

The ways of Nature are our ways. We are not separate from the birds, the bees, the trees, the grasses, the soil and the unseen life below. Although different in form, we are the same in essence. Each and all part of a greater whole: Mother Earth, our planet home.

As I listen more deeply and intentionally, I’m discovering that aligning with Nature encompasses all the choices that I make in life. The choices extend beyond choosing what I eat and my sources for food and other consumables. I’m taken to the very core of my being physically, emotionally, and spiritually and the choices that I make in caring for and tending to each.

I’m becoming aware that as the earth changes – for indeed Gaia is changing, adapting to conditions created by we humans and to the energy streams in and movement through the galaxy – my physical body must adapt and change.

This new awareness is dawning in me as I experience physical changes and symptoms that are different to me. They seem more than what we’ve come to call the ‘normal process of aging’.  As I listen, I sense that, at least in part, this physical vessel is adapting to and with a changing, adapting planet.

I’m listening with the intention of ‘hearing’ the earth’s teaching through all my senses and beyond them. As I ‘hear’ more clearly, I’m building trust in Mother Earth’s guidance to ‘lead me onward’ in deeper connection with her essence, her knowing, into the Truth of who I am.

In the choices we make each day, may we listen to our Mother, the Mother we share, Mother Earth and all her wisdom. May we adjust and adapt ever gently to align with her more fully, and indeed, more peacefully. May I.

Snow on the Peaks … Winter is on its way!

Co-Evolving with Mother Earth

Over a few years, I became aware that I felt as though these seeds were nourishing me and the food, I was growing was nourishing me differently than the food in the supermarket. … I became aware that the story of the plant … somehow went through me on a cellular level and began to affect who I was. Over the years that has become a key part of my understanding of the value of our heritage seeds … The seeds have taken me on this journey … They have the ability to connect with the life and the soil and the sky … Mother Earth. They have the ability to connect and communicate with the Life and the world around us. And then, they have the ability, if we have a healthy gut, to pass that information on to us. So, we are back in the process of co-evolution. And that process is what reconnects us to ourselves, to the Earth, to who we are; and it gives us a place to stand. So I’ve come to understand that heritage seeds are the only seeds capable of building life on earth and holding everything connected. Kay Baxter, The Koanga Institute

Read that again. Even better listen to the story of Baxter’s 40-year journey with heritage seeds in New Zealand. (you can see it here).

This week is a bit of a pivot for me and The Pivot. I find myself in my own personal process of evolving amidst the chaos of our world and Mother Earth’s evolution, a journey that is inviting me to deep rest for body, mind, and spirit. It’s this trio that collaborate each week to create a musing to share. Today the body says, “please rest”, so I simply wanted to share this element of my journey of exploration. It inspires my interest in local food and its importance even more deeply and has me curious about the seed sources of my favorite farmers and gardeners here in the San Luis Valley.

I share hints of Kay Baxter’s experience of becoming aware, noticing subtle differences between the organic kale in our local natural foods grocery and that from a friend’s local garden or a beloved regenerative farmer nearby. That awareness and the information offered are nourishment for my evolutionary journey and the choices I’m making along the way on a journey to align more deeply with Gaia, our planet home.

Harmony in a Disharmonious World

From the Valley to the Mountains

The bridge from disharmony/fear/worry to harmony and love is trust.

These words landed on the page of my journal yesterday morning as I was reflecting on a reckoning of sorts that I was presented with over the last several days.

I was experiencing disharmony in body, mind, and spirit, recognizing that heart and mind and body were in conflict with one another. Body was making a statement that attention was needed. Not unlike our precious planet and her ever more intense calls for attention and change, I thought. Mind was confused. Heart needed to be heard.

It was an invitation to look at judgements that I’d held and choices I’d made that had served me well in the past. And that might not be serving me now. It was an invitation to harmonize within – body, mind, and spirit. A call from the heart to ask for its wisdom and to set aside choices of the past that no longer serve. I sensed that my experience isn’t unlike the dissolution of so much in our world as we discover choices of the past that no longer serve, individually and collectively. Indeed, I seemed to be a disharmonious fractal in a fractured world mirroring that world. Not the fractal I want to be.

The world’s disharmony it seemed was pointing to my personal disharmony. I saw clearly that when I’m not in harmony I worry. Fear travels with me, and is not a travel companion I want to embrace. In harmony, love is present accompanied by ease, a fractal in a more harmonious world.

I thought about fears in my past, like worrying over not having ‘enough’ money and how over time my disharmony around that was harmonized.  I noticed that the bridge, sometimes a long, winding road with scary curves, was trust. Moving through my fear was grounded in trust. The more I trusted, the stronger my trust grew. Trust in myself. Trust in a loving Universe. Coming more and more to know that the Source of all my good is far beyond the world and its systems.

In remembering that experience I was shown the bridge to shift out of fear, judgements, and stories about the issue at hand and guided to  trust. To cross the bridge from disharmony to harmony, however long and winding that road might be and whatever curves are thrown my way. To trust that I will be shown the path.

May we each find our way to our own bridges to harmony. And may our world be in harmony as we do so.

Yak - At Home on the Range