From Flooding to Remembering - Shifting Our Relationship With Water

All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Toni Morrison

Water, what it is and my relationship with it, has been a focus of recent attention and reflection. Unlike the very real, on the ground, drought and ‘abnormally dry’ conditions we’re currently experiencing here the valley, water has been present in my dreams, my prayers (for blessed moisture to fall), in what I’ve read and watched, and in what emerges when my pen meets the blank page of my journal many mornings.

Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink. I think of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner feeling as if I’m swimming in questions that when an answer comes, yet another question arises. Curiosity. Wonder. A sense of change within and without. A thirst not quenched.

Why water? I wonder as I write. Water covers more than 70 percent of Mother Earth’s surface, just as our bodies are 60-70 percent (or more according to some) water. We mirror each other. We ARE each other. There’s no ‘me’ over here and ‘it’ over there. How can I more deeply kindle this truth in me? What will help us remember?

A couple days ago, I read Morrison’s words above twice within a couple hours. Each time quoted by different writers in contexts that were both different and the same. Neither author offered information on the origin which I learned was a talk given at the New York Public Library in 1986 [As I side note, I observe that I’m encountering a number of very resonant pieces from the 80’s … hmmm…] in which Morrison says,

You know, they straightened out the Mississippi River in places, to make room for hourse and livable acreage. Occasionally the river floods these places. "Floods" is the word they use, but in fact it is not flooding; it is remembering. Remembering where it used to be. All water has a perfect memory and is forever trying to get back to where it was. Writers are like that: remembering where we were, that valley we ran through, what the banks were like, the light that was there and the route back to our original place. It is emotional memory--what the nerves and the skin remember as well as how it appeared. And a rush of imagination is our "flooding”. Toni Morrison

Why water? How do the words we create to describe what water may do hold us in the illusion that we are separate? What am I remembering as I walk my path of exploration? What are we remembering?

Could it be that water is guiding us to remember who we are? To step into our memory not just that ‘water is Life’, but the unity of all Life? To know that we are water and water is us?

I think of my second encounter with Morrison’s words, Natalie Diaz narrative poem, The First Body Is The Water:

We carry the river, its body of water, in our body. I do not mean to invoke the Droste effect—this is not a picture of a river within a picture of a river.

I mean river as a verb. A happening. It is moving within me right now.

This is not juxtaposition. Body and water are not two unlike things—they are more than close together or side by side. They are same—body, being, energy, prayer, current, motion, medicine.

The body is beyond six senses. Is sensual. An ecstatic state of energy, always on the verge of praying, or entering any river of movement.

Energy is a moving river moving my moving body. …

Ending with Morrison’s words and:

Back to the body of earth, of flesh, back to the mouth, the throat, back to the womb, back to the heart, to its blood, back to our grief, back back back.

Will we remember from where we’ve come? The water.

And once remembered, will we return to that first water, and in doing so return to ourselves, to each other?

Do you think the water will forget what we have done, what we continue to do?

What is water inviting us to remember? How will we answer Her call?

[Natalie Diaz is a Mojave / Akimel O’odham poet, language activist, educator, and former professional basketball player.]

The Hard Work of Nurturing Peace

Imagine When We All Do This! (From Hartford International University for Religion and Peace)

… although the ideas of “love” and “neighbor” seem self-evident, they are also more complex than we often realize … “love thy neighbor” is hard work, and at times complicated, but is fundamentally important. Joel N. Lohr, President, Hartford International University for Religion and Peace (from a blog posted Oct 12, 2023 – read it here)

Several times this week I’ve been reminded that life here on planet earth is complex, challenging, and, yes, that we humans often make it more so. We do so, it seems to me, as a result of our far too long separation from Nature, forgetting (or ignoring) Her ways, and our separation from one another born out of conflict, fed by the systems of mankind’s win-lose world.

Yep, here I go again, writing about that. I do so not because I’ve figured it out and have a great track record in practicing loving kindness toward those with whom I disagree, but because I haven’t. And my heart tells me that I, and we, must. That this is our evolutionary path, our potential, our true path to freedom.

I write remembering my reaction to an appeal from a local activist group to ‘convince’ those who support the current presidential administration how ‘wrong’, unconstitutional, etc. the administration’s actions are. Having just encountered someone who holds that view that the administration is ‘right’, indeed, “has the guts to change things” and who I experienced as having no openness to dialog, exploration, much less another point of view, I knew that this was not an appeal I could engage in.

Convincing ‘the other’ that you are ‘right’ is its own form of conflict. Sadly, we don’t recognize how it furthers separation, seeking to ‘win’ so that ‘they’ will ‘lose’. Convincing puts conditions on love.

How, I wonder, do I hold true to my values without feeding the fruitless fray of separation? It’s not a new question for me or for The Pivot. It’s a question that as I ‘be’ with it, exploring possibilities, embracing the mystery of unknown expressions of me that seek to come forth, I touch that place in that knows the answer is love.

How do we love new ways, new awareness, new connection, new tolerance and acceptance into form? Into becoming how we live? How do I? Asking, wondering opens me to an awareness of my deep desire to nurture peace into the experience of life. Peace within. Peace in the world. I remember the invitation to ‘Love thy neighbor as thy self’ that is held and spoken in most every religion. Common ground that sounds oh so simple and makes me wonder how it is expressed in these different traditions.

A quick search gives me that information and more: the essay quoted above which reminds me that the work of finding common ground and nurturing peace is deep, hard, hearty work. Worthy work. Work that requires commitment and consistency. I honor my many friends and associates who walk this path. I honor those whom I know of, who do the same. They are the way-showers, and I bow in gratitude to them for their commitment.

Sitting with the Sun gently kissing my face as it rose over the mountains this morning, it occurred to that when we truly love ourselves, our true, capital ‘S’ Self, not the small self of the personality and the ego, it will be impossible to not love another, indeed to love all sentient beings, including Mother Earth herself.

As we call a new world into being, may that love be integral to our path.

Robin Visits Calling in New Growth

Sacred Relationship with What Is

Sacred Mountain, Sacred Snow, Sacred Light, Sacred Life

‘This is how I see my life,’ my friend … says, gesturing at the trees and parts of trees in front of us. Just ahead of our feet, off the side of the path, lie metre-long segments of a felled beech tree. Solid and lifeless, not yet decaying or on their way, yet possessed with an air of regency. Rising behind and around them are other beeches in their prime, releasing gold and brown leaves in great drifts with each gust of new wind. … ‘I have to carry both of these realities now,’ she explains. Ruth Allen, Weathering: How the earth’s deep wisdom can help us endure life’s storms

Although I’m in a different rhythm and flow this blog day, I began my morning as I do in winter and early spring when there’s still a chill in the house. Lighting a fire in the woodstove, gazing in with gratitude, then quiet, reflective time with a mug of warm liquid.

Today I realize that soon this part of my morning routine will shift. No fire to light and tend, my reflective time will be gazing into the woods greeting the sunlight, feeling gratitude for the sun’s warmth, for the beauty and sacred Life that is ‘the woods out back’. Today, as I often do, I bring with me a few current favorite books from the reading stack. I wonder what might catch my eye that will pull together or shed new light on the wild ride of observations, experiences, and reflections of this week past.

I think about what will rise to be shared, and I wonder if you too have experienced a roller coaster week.

Smiling, I return to the stack, finding Ruth Allen’s Weathering answers the call with Allen describing her elder, recently retired friend’s reflections as she observed both old life and new as they began a hike. Her description felt sacred to me and, as I reflected, the story deepens the sacredness I experience in these woods as I observe tiny pinon seedlings sprouting near older mature pines, as well as downed trees and branches, seemingly lifeless, some decaying, yet sacred still. When I take a closer look, these downed beings are teeming with Life, offering shelter and nutrition for a variety of other dwellers in these woods.

Allen beautifully shares her elder friend’s reflection of how she holds the ‘both and’, the newness and freshness of retirement along with whatever realities accompany her as she add years to her life. The beginning of Life and the waning of Life, perhaps not as death, but as preparedness for changing from one form of life to another system in the ongoing cycles of Life. Sacred holding that somehow reflects how I hold this chapter in my own life. Sacred holding as I observe the world, old dissolving, new emerging.

Sacred relationship that feels important to bring to awareness. Sacred awareness that invites us to examine our relationship to all that is.

I wonder in this time of chaos, turmoil, dissolution and destruction, polarization how we might invite the sacredness of what is into the activities of daily life? And, when we do each in our own way, how that might shift how we navigate and dance with this world?

How might it be if we embrace the sacredness of what is at the same time, we either protest or embrace it? How will it be when we restore our sacred connection with all Life and discover the common ground we share in the sacred? 

Sacred Mountain, Sacred Melt, Sacred Life

Restoring Connection to ALL Life

Spring Snow on the Peaks Yesterday …

Snowflakes fall to quench the thirst of Mother Earth as Robin sings its song of Spring and I write contentedly by the fire with a full and grateful heart.

Restoring our connection with All Life and its Source is first developing a way of BEing from which new choices of doing offer themselves and rise.

This morning I’m happily snuggled by the fire as snowflakes fall to quench the thirst of Mother Earth and as Robin sings its song of Spring and I write contentedly by the fire with a full and grateful heart. While Robin harkens the coming of spring weather, winter snowflakes invite me deep within. I reflect on the conditions of Life on our planet and especially in the country that is my home, while recognizing that Gaia knows no such manmade boundaries of place. I ask ‘what is mine to do in the year ahead?’.

Earlier I was thinking about how so many of our habitual patterns are reinforced by the world’s systems. We’re guided away from spontaneity and the flow of life by such things as cheaper airfare and lodging when we forego the right to cancel or change our plans without penalty or forfeiture. While I understand the ‘business’ case of these systems, my heart observes tenacles reaching out from the power over paradigm. One more way in which we are habituated to disregard the flow of Life.

It is also part of the nature of our extractive, exploitive ways. In our relationship with the Earth and sometimes in our relationships with one another we have forgotten to ask and wait to be answered, to give gratitude, and to reciprocate.

Forgetting that She is a living, breathing Being, without permission we poke holes in Mother Earth to extract her life blood in support of our ways of living. All too often far too many of us don’t give thanks to Gaia, and even less frequently do we reciprocate. Our systems fail to include these important aspects of relationships. And, as a result, we have lost touch with Life, its Flow, and its Source.

While I often remember to say, ‘thank you!’ when I turn on the tap or drink a glass of water, I can’t recall a time when I’ve done the same as I pumped fuel into the gas tank or when I light the propane stove daily to prepare a meal. I do give thanks each time I build a fire in the woodstove for the wood that warms my home. Sometimes I even wonder how the tree beings in the woods out back feel about me burning their kin. I suspect that they are more in touch with and honor the cycles of life and death than do I.

Coming home last evening to a surprisingly darkened neighborhood that had apparently lost power in the brief time I was away, I thanked the Sun for providing energy stored in a battery that kept the porch light burning on a dark, though starry, night and that powered the few lights needed to make my way to getting under the covers. But rarely, if ever, do I thank the other sources that also power the lights and appliances in my grid-connected home and that keep me connected to the world beyond these woods.

Rarely do I fully acknowledge all that Mother Earth provides that supports my well-being, my comfort, and, indeed, my convenience.

I claim to ‘steward’ this land and these woods that I am privileged to occupy. And, while I do regularly offer my thanks as well as small gifts to the trees and the other Beings that dwell and traverse here, rarely do I remember to ask permission and wait to be answered before I barge in for a visit.

It occurs to me that I (and we) can use the disruption of systems in this time as catalysts to examine my (our) choices, our habits, our ways of life. As the systems we’ve grown accustomed to are crumbling, opportunities to ask and listen to our planet home, to Mother Earth’s wisdom, abound. As I examine and re-examine my habitual ways, I aim to ask and listen more and to set aside acting as if I already know the answer.

Restoring our connection with All Life and its Source is first developing a way of BEing from which new choices of doing offer themselves and rise. I long to more clearly hear the gentle whispers and loud roars of the Ancestors offering their wisdom to guide me. I hear the voices of the children and those yet to inhabit physical bodies on this earth plane asking me (and us) to listen. I listen for the voices of the Mother Trees and their offspring, of the flowing creeks, and the land. I listen, longing to hear more clearly, the guidance of Mother Earth and all the Great Mothers of our cosmos.

As I begin a new trip around the Sun, the first of a new quarter century of such journeys in this physical vehicle, this is my prayer as I/we seek to co-create new ways forward, new habits, deeper alignment with and appreciation for Gaia and the cosmos that is Home.

… And Here in the Woods this Morning!

The Heart's Call to Action

A Quiet Colorado Blue Sky Afternoon at the Stupa …

Don't apologize for the sorrow, grief, and rage you feel. It is a measure of your humanity and your maturity. It is a measure of your open heart, and as your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal. That is what is happening as we see people honestly confronting the sorrows of our time. … You don't need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough. … The wave of the future is on the local level. … Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into e imagination. … We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts. Joanna Macy

In this time, we are being called to go deep within to the quiet place inside that knows the Truth and is called co-create a new world from that place of knowing. Let’s create a steady flow of traffic, co-creating with one another and that which Sources Life. Let’s LIVE! The Pivot 3-19-25

I begin where I began and where I ended last week’s Pivot. The deep dive I’ve been in, the explorations and listening I’ve engaged in, beginning to hone in on and bring clarity to my heart’s call, to what I cherish that is mine to do, to co-create right here at home. To what I can imagine and dream: healthy soil, healthy people, happy community in this sacred high alpine valley as more farmers and ranchers pivot from soil-depleting, dirt and dust creating practices to listening to the land and engaging in regenerative practices that over time will transform dirt to healthy, nutrient rich soil.

The vision has been stirring deep in me for some time, occasionally surfacing in conversation then all too quickly put aside for whatever seemed more important and doable at the time. I didn’t know where to begin. So, I didn’t. The dream seemed too daunting. So, I avoided stepping into the unknown.

But my time in the metaphorical kiva, the spaciousness in my life to explore inner and outer planes, along with this week’s heart-wrenching, heart-opening listening to those directly impacted by the chaos and discord (not to mention the devastation and destruction of lives in the war-torn world) has awakened me more deeply to the suffering not just of my fellow human Beings, but to the suffering of all Beings and, indeed, of the planetary Being herself. And to the need to be in action on behalf of all Life. NOW!

Feeling this sense of urgency, I asked, “what is mine to do?”. An answer came. Clear, concise, starting point guidance:

Ø  Listen to the land.

Ø  Honor the land.

Ø  Support strengthening community to protect and restore the land.

Ø  Trust. The land will show the way and will care for all Life.

Ø  Act. One step each day.

The guidance was affirmed yesterday as I sat quietly at the nearby Padmasambhava Stupa shortly after listening to a Montana farmer speak about the uncertainty she and her husband are navigating on their organic, regenerative wheat farm/cattle ranch with changes in federal policies and programs and cancellation of commitments adding to the uncertainty that is already the very nature of farming itself. Her story, echoed by that of a local rancher heard later in the day, reminded me of Macy’s call to local community, to local action. From the heart. Now.

As illusions of certainty continue to vanish, I’m deepening my connection to the certainty of that which sources Life. I’m listening to the land herself and to those who work with her daily, 24/7 to grow food.

I’m examining my food choices with an eye toward even greater support for the local farmers and ranchers on whose shoulders my health and well-being and that of my community depend. As our local food hub says, “you have three votes every day!” I’m voting local!

And I’m mitigating the personal impact of the world’s uncertainty by listening to and following the certainty of my heart. Trusting its lead to guide the next step. And the next.

… and the Ziggurat Nearby

From the Inside Out - Heart Speaks Its Knowing

Into the Kiva …

Don't apologize for the sorrow, grief, and rage you feel. It is a measure of your humanity and your maturity. It is a measure of your open heart, and as your heart breaks open there will be room for the world to heal. That is what is happening as we see people honestly confronting the sorrows of our time. … You don't need to do everything. Do what calls your heart; effective action comes from love. It is unstoppable, and it is enough. … The wave of the future is on the local level. … Out of this darkness a new world can arise, not to be constructed by our minds so much as to emerge from our dreams. Even though we cannot see clearly how it's going to turn out, we are still called to let the future into our imagination.

We will never be able to build what we have not first cherished in our hearts. Joanna Macy

My pen flowed across the journal page this cold morning as I settled in by the fire. A stream of ink forming words, thoughts, sentences from somewhere beyond my (so-called) rational mind, that part of me too long trained to ‘figure things out’ rather than to create, or rather co-create, with Source.

I was in the inside-out dance of a particular astrological event on this day before the Spring Equinox. For those curious, today Neptune, representing the inner, is conjunct the Sun, outer expression. Experimental Generative AI popped up in a quick search of what ‘the world’ has to say about such events, informing (tongue in cheek) me that the event marks “… a time when reality blurs and illusions thrive, encouraging intuition and exploration of fantasies.”

As I see it, that world has us all too focused on what we’re told is a reality outside of us, one that we are on this earth to simply navigate. That is the nature of the ‘power over’, domination paradigm that those who seek to control would have us believe in their idea that they know best. Oh, how the systems are designed to keep us ensnared! For, if we believe ‘navigation’ in their system is the Truth, we are caught in its prison, accepting its illusions, its crumbs of freedom, while complying with its ways. Going along to get along.

I do this. You do this. We all do this to some degree because we exist in the system. I use exist deliberately because I believe (and the ‘voice’ which spoke through the pen early this morning seemed to affirm) that this is not the purpose of LIFE. It is not the Truth of who we are, of our interconnectedness with one another and with ALL that is.

What came in the early hours by the fire is not new to me (or to you, if you’ve been with me for a while).

Life is not the busyness of the world! That is why there is such deep anger against systems and the current administration in the (not so) United States as well as corporations, etc. They do not affirm Life.

The choice is not good versus evil. It is Life vs. not life. Reverse evil to LIVE.

Choosing Life is aligning with that which Sources Life, knowing that Life is infinite and that you are a sovereign Being. Life is Living from this knowing, choosing from this knowing, speaking from this knowing. And this can be a lonely road.

It is both a solo journey and, as Joanna Macy suggests, a co-creation with a community of others, each from our inner foundation, our heart. We need a traffic jam on this road of Life, a tipping point that has us deeply know the Truth of our connection with all Life, a Truth that the heart knows. Indeed, a Truth that is buried in our cellular memory across many lifetimes. In this time, we are being called to go deep within to the quiet place inside that knows the Truth and is called co-create a new world from that place of knowing.

Let’s create a steady flow of traffic, co-creating with one another and that which Sources Life. Let’s LIVE!

Into the Kiva II

A Freedom Stream

Flow Like the River - Roaring Fork River - Carbondale, Colorado

This aloneness is worth more than a thousand lives. This freedom is worth more than all the lands on earth. To be one with the truth for just one moment, is worth more than the world and life itself. Rumi

The Gaelic word ‘saoirse’ means freedom – and it’s freedom of a particular type. Saoirse is the freedom to be and to express yourself, the freedom to think and believe what you like; it’s freedom of the spirit and the imagination. Saoirse and ‘aimsir’ – time – are, I believe, the two most valuable things a person can possess. … Both money and institutions are used to strip people of their freedom, and, if they take your mind, they’ve taken everything. Diana Beresford-Kroger, To Speak for the Trees: My Life’s Journey from Ancient Celtic Wisdom to a Healing Vision of the Forest

Sadly, I don’t know much about my Celtic roots, although my grandfather’s last name, Downing, suggests their presence. I wonder what he knew of his ancient roots, as they were never shared around a family gathering table. And yet, based on a keen interest in Celtic practices listening to and honoring the land, I sense my cells ‘know’ something that I have yet to consciously access.

In sharing a particular story about her journey and her work, Beresford-Kroger’s words touched and have been present with me since reading it several days ago. As I reflected on the story and the wisdom that emerged on her path, I saw it woven with Rumi’s ancient wisdom about the nature of freedom itself. And that led to this week’s stream of reflection about the times we’re walking through.

“When we lose our way, we strike out.” These words come as I think about bearing witness to divisiveness, fear, and the expressions that follow in this time. When we lose our way, when we lose our connection, our conscious awareness to that which sources Life. We seek to control and conquer. We create ‘theys’, others, to blame, shame, punish and, at the worst, attempt to eliminate.

As I write this, I’m aware that my words too create ‘theys’, others who in my thinking have lost their way, awareness of their precious connection to Source. As you read, perhaps you’ll see or sense the conundrum too. It seems that the Truth of Oneness is at odds with the ways of our world. Because it is!

Such reflections are not new to my thinking and writing these weekly posts. And, by no means are they breaking new ground. No matter the name, the Truth of Oneness, unity consciousness, inter-being, interconnectedness is a Truth known throughout the ages and passed down in many wisdom forms. It is the essence of our journey as Spiritual Beings expressing ourselves (our cells) in physical bodies, our human experience, our walk on the Earth.

This is the essence of our challenge in this pivotal time: to walk this earth in the Truth of our connection to Source while navigating systems that deny the Truth. It is the opportunity of our time as we move fully into the Age of Aquarius (Yes! That’s a real thing!!), in a dance with Mother Earth and the cosmos. An opportunity that invites us to co-create with Source new systems, structures, communities, and relationships that are guided by, aligned with, and sourced from that which Sources Life. A knowing that this Source is the source of all we strive for – peace, abundance, security, love, and, yes, freedom. The very freedom of which Rumi and Beresford-Kroeger speak.

While governments, institutions, others may attempt to stamp out freedom, they are not the Source of true freedom, the freedom of the Soul to follow its path guided by its keep knowing and abiding in Source. We are free whether we claim it and walk it or not.

Be Deeply Rooted, Stand Tall, Touch the Sky

Spring Snow & Seeking to Understand

Blessed Spring Snow in the Woods Out Back

Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Stephen R. Covey

Ah, Joy! Yesterday morning I woke up to a beautiful four plus inches of wet spring snow, an invitation to sit by the wood stove’s warmth and engage in a favorite activity: inner reflection and (hopefully) deep thought. Sometimes I think that had I been introduced to philosophy much earlier in my college studies, I might have chosen that as my career path. But I digress from what seems to want to be shared this 600th blog day. (Yep, another milestone on the weekly blog journey.)

One morning last week as I opened a friend’s car door to plop my ‘go to the hot springs’ gear in the backseat, a book on the seat grabbed my attention. Without seeing the full title, I knew I was meant to read it, and I asked my friend about it. “Oh, I’m taking it to the used bookstore. I decided not to read it because …” and she invited me to take it with me. Still not knowing why I was meant to read it, I accepted. At the very least, I was curious how the author would weave energy and consciousness into the political realm.

As I began reading a few days later I asked mySelf and Spirit, why? An answer came quickly: You must look into the darkness in order to know the light, a response that I didn’t experience as fully satisfying, as it seemed a bit too simplistic and empty of meaning.

More and more I aim to be mindful and purposeful of where I put my attention and to ask is this aligned with what I care about, with what I need to know, with what I am here to do, and who I am here to BE? Will this contribute to my living more fully aligned with the Truth of Oneness?

As I asked those questions, I sensed that reading would offer information that would support me to come to a better understanding of the current political landscape in the (not so) United States. More specifically, I’m curious about those with whom I’m not politically aligned. What information, world views, etc. do they hold that leads them to the conclusions and choices they make? What are their sources (beyond mainstream media yapping)? Sadly, my own ability and willingness has been lacking as have opportunities to engage in conversations with those at the other end of the political spectrum.

And so, I dove in, seeking to understand, curious about how the information would land, and how it would impact me. Would it make me nauseous or angry? Would it open to me to new possibilities for interpreting and understanding our world? Would it move me to greater understanding and compassion for those with whom I disagree. Would it open me to more deeply look at the dark aspects of history and current events and to remember that, just like you and me, so-called leaders throughout history and today are spiritual beings walking in the experience of being in a human body? Not an easy walk by any means.

In some sense, the book did all of that. Perhaps most importantly, it expanded my willingness and commitment to question the interpretations of others and to listen to those with whom I disagree rather than relying on the interpretations of others, even those with whom I agree and those I trust. In so doing, I feel a sense of taking a big step toward reclaiming my personal power and sovereignty. And with that, a sense of freedom that supports living in Oneness.

My prayer is that I do not seek to understand for the sake of justifying or convincing my ‘small s’ self or, indeed anyone, of what is right or wrong. Rather, that I seek to understand so that I may communicate with others on behalf of all Life and contribute toward building a world that embraces and works for all.

Snow Grass

From What Is to What Can Be

Lichen Heart in the Woods Out Back

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love.  Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Love is the residence of true power.

Power, love, truth, harmony, curiosity and more have been ever present in my dance with Life this week. Opening Hafiz book of poetry The Gift last night, this message landed in my heart and travelled with me in the realms of deep sleep.

Why Aren’t We Screaming Drunks?

Hafiz 

The sun once glimpsed God’s true nature

And has never been the same.

Thus that radiant sphere

Constantly pours its energy

Upon this earth

As does He* from behind

The Veil.

With a wonderful God like that

Why isn’t everyone a screaming drunk?

Hafiz’s guess is this:

Any thought that you are better or less

Than another man**

Quickly

Breaks the wine

Glass. 

*or she; **or woman or other being in any form

Hafiz words of warning about the dangers of comparison rang deeply true, having earlier ‘received’ a message that bubbled from within: “You must get beyond this patriarchal paradigm of right/wrong, power over thinking and choosing in order to call forth and co-create the new and ancient paradigm of care – the rebirth and restoration of matriarchal ways of being and doing.”

The message, not new, resonated with me in some new way, like an old fire being rekindled. The Truth of Oneness feels alive within me in this time of so much dissonance around the world.

I felt this Truth on an early morning walk, as I was deeply aware of the harmony IN Nature and present to my long-standing desire to live my life in harmony WITH Her. I see this Truth in the seeming small acts of kindness and care in community, choices that loom large in pointing the way forward and co-creating what can be. I see it in the ways of Nature – mothers birthing, feeding, caring, teaching their young. Families of elephants, flocks of birds, schools of fish. Families of trees and plants in the forest and grasses on the plains.

Individually and collectively, the natural world is a teacher and guide for how Life is designed to be on this small blue marble we call home. Gaia. Mother Earth. The power of love abounds in Her beings. I see it in the heart rocks I observe as I walk this territory I call home. Just this morning I saw it in the prints of deer hooves and the pattern of lichen growing on a rock. Clear guidance from our Mother to love.

Somewhere, somehow along our evolutionary path we humans turned away from this natural harmony of our planet’s design. We chose a path of ‘power over’, of violence and war, of win/loose, of control rather than paths of co-creation, collaboration, care. We dared think some are better than others; and that we are at the top. We’ve exploited Gaia’s gifts and one another in unsustainable ways that can no longer stand. We broke the wine glass.

Admirable, well-intentioned efforts to legislate care for humanity and the planetary being into a system of power over have had limited success at best. Sadly, such ideas have become mere pawns in the game, and, as we witness today, are being used to further divide us.

Our evolutionary call is not for more funding, more programs, more crumbs from the ‘power over’ table. Our evolutionary call is for a change of heart, a collective shift in consciousness where the ways of control and power over have no fuel to continue. It is time to go beyond what is and to attend to what can be, to leap to love and co-creation of a new world from the ways of love.

Just as Nature does each and every day. She’s waiting, though not so patiently these days.

Love is the residence of true power. Let’s abandon the noise of the world and listen to our hearts, trusting and following where they lead. Let’s break no more wine glasses. Rather let us sip the rich nectar of Nature’s harmony and follow Her lead.

Hoof Prints of Deer on the Morning Path

Who Will We Be?

A Friend in the Woods Out Back

I’m dancing and swimming in this question of who I will be in this time, this evolutionary blip in the cosmic timeline of all Life. Here’s what came this morning as I put pen to the blank page of my journal:

This morning I rose

mind swirling.

Curiosity.

Flurry of words

not white snowflakes I so long for.

What is needed now?

LOVE

Compassion

Wisdom

Patience, Care

Courage

Simple acts of creation.

Calling forth understanding not from mind and intellect

struggling to make sense of

what we are witness to and a part of

in this fragile, crumbling world

as one age gives rise to another.

Calling forth understanding from the Heart,

the depth and soul of our Being that knows the Truth

no matter what.

Not truth as accurate fact.

This fact or that in order to be ‘right’

and thus, declare the other

‘wrong’.

But Truth as sacred righteousness.

The Knowing held deep inside of us

Now Being called forth to make order from the chaos.

To commune and co-create.

To practice reverence as we regenerate

soil and self.

To fuel our evolutionary leap.

Not in the systems of the old.

But in the ways of the new and ancient wisdom

calling us forth.

Compassion, the word, the feeling courses through my being as I think about the choice point of this moment. Will we navigate this time as one only of crisis and destruction, attempting to forestall inevitable evolution, making choices from our old ways of being and choosing? Will we cling to the way it’s been, the patriarchal system, feeding it our fear through compliance, the very fuel that it needs to survive?

Or will we bravely sever the cords of dependence, embracing the evolutionary moment, stepping into a world view, however vague and foggy it is for us? Will we call on our new and ancient knowing to support the emergence of something new? Will we be the fertile soil from which seeds planted long ago sprout? Will we nourish ourselves so we can nurture and tend this new garden?

Who will I be in this sacred time? Who will we be?

Tree Art Heart