I’m Almost Ready to Fly …
Paying attention is a form of reciprocity with the living world, receiving the gifts with open eyes and open heart. Robin Wall Kimmerer
Whether with awareness or not, we are always paying attention to something, even if it’s no thing.
I woke this morning to news of the powerful earthquake in Russia and the issuance of tsunami warning across the Pacific, to Hawaii and the west coast of the U.S. As the morning unfolds those warning are lifted and warnings now issued along Central and South American coastlines.
I wonder if and how most of us will pay attention to this news. Might we even for a moment allow a curious question to rise for our Mother? Might we ask, “Mother Earth, what is the message you bring us in these events? What is the wisdom you offer, if only we will listen?” Might we put away our childish ways and declare, “I want to hear you. I want to align with your ways, your wisdom.”
This seems to be the path that I have chosen, a path that I didn’t consciously seek, rather one that was right before me when I came to the heart of my senses. When I felt, saw, and heard the call. That call didn’t come in a memorable moment, but over time as I became more present to place and began to hear the gentle voice of my wise Mother, Gaia.
It’s often said that as we get older, our parents become wiser. How old must we be to hear the voice of the Mother that we all share? How old (or young) must we be to listen to her consistent message that everything is connected and that we are all kin? How old must we be to play nice with all Beings, all our kin on this playground where we have landed together? To live in reciprocity with all Life?
Hmmm… What am I paying attention to as for the second week in a row morning coffee suddenly sloshes onto the page? More this week than last, and in all my years of this morning writing practice, I don’t recall many, if any, such spills. Might I be mirroring the ever-increasing intensity of Mother’s Earth’s events?
What am I to see in this? I chuckle as I wonder, taking care not to fall into ponderous, ‘must know because it’s important’ wonder, but to place myself in the childlike curiosity of a four-year old’s wonderous “Why mommy?” inquiry.
“Take that to the woods!” rises from deep within. Perhaps it’s Grandmother Pinon’s voice, calling me to set aside the sadness, worry, and angst that I often bring to the ‘lap’ of her leaning trunk. Oh, such a joy to lean into a hug with her! She often receives my tears as the rising sun warms my back. Or perhaps it’s the voice of the young Violet-Green swallow that took flight after a few days of peeking out from the safety of its booted nest, “Come fly with me! Oh wow!”
Most likely it’s the stirring of my heart asking, “How do I listen with childlike wonder so that I hear all the voices of Gaia guiding my play in service to Life?”
Let my heart skip joyfully through these woods as eyes and feet pay attention to the rocky, prickly terrain. Step by step. Beat by beat. Breath by sacred breath, breathing in deeply the gifts of this place, eyes and heart open. Present to the beauty and wonder of place. Receiving in reciprocity. And Being oh so grateful.
Grandmother Pinon and Her Mountain View