Present In the Flow of Life

The Labyrinth in the Woods Out Back Awaits …

Scattered thoughts like a herd stampeding go nowhere, fast.

The Eyes of the Future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.  Terry Tempest Williams, Red: Passion and Patience in the Desert

Muse wasn’t successful getting my attention in the early morning quiet that is typically ‘our’ time. I’d been thinking about regeneration and, wanting that to be this week’s focus, decided to do more reading online. Now, after our morning walk and breaking fast, I find myself challenged to engage Muse. Reminded I am of a ditty penned in a workshop 33 years ago - Scattered thoughts like a herd stampeding go nowhere, fast - for this morning finds my thoughts scattered from the macro of mostly discouraging world events and exciting possibilities of designing life in alignment with regenerative principles to the micro of life’s daily details. Today those ‘details’ are focused on preparing for Zadie Byrd’s second eye surgery tomorrow.

Somewhere between the two – yet very present this day – is a deep sadness that runs from micro to macro, from me and my cells to Mother Earth, Nature and ALL her beings. I choose not to let it be the driver of this (and hopefully any) day while recognizing that on another day grief and sadness may need to be tended.

Writing this thought, I’m reminded of a story shared by author, activist Terry Tempest Williams in a recent talk. In conversation with three rather powerful men (think Presidential cabinet types) she asked where their grief lived. Two responded sincerely about their deep feelings of concern. The third replied that he wanted to ‘keep the conversation positive’ and said to Terry, “You are married to sorrow.” She replied, “No. I choose not to look away.”

Her response highlights for me one of the strengths of the Feminine: choosing not to deny, to look away from the degradation of Nature, of Mother Earth, of one another; yet not getting entangled in the muck. A tricky and delicate dance this is, a dance that calls forth a key element of Divine Feminine energy, aka ‘Love’: seeking, finding, as well as creating new paths forward individually and collectively. Love acknowledges. Love questions. Love collaborates. Love co-creates. Love acts. This love is not gender specific, found only in the female form, etc. The love of the Divine Feminine simply IS.

Muse chuckles noting that these thoughts don’t seem ‘scattered’ at all, and I’m aware that my earlier sadness has lifted. Zadie Byrd, back in her ‘cone of courage’, sleeps nearby, her way of preparing for tomorrow. The wind has calmed and the labyrinth in the woods out back awaits my presence.

This 454th (yes, I’m counting) post has found its way to the page, the page of my journal and the pages of my life. Regeneration in action on a micro scale! Engaging Muse is a journey into the unknown, taking the first step, writing that first word, and discovering where the flow will lead. Present to the present while holding curiosity and wonder about what we can create for the time beyond.

Sleeping is the Best …

Pivot to Inspirations and Provocations

I call this ‘Painting What You See’ (found image, unknown source)

In the greatest cultures of the ancient world there was a stairway between the human and the divine. The Earth and the cosmos were addressed as "thou," not "it". People felt they participated in a great cosmic mystery of which they were a part. People experienced the divine as imminent in the material world. Nature and the cosmos were ensouled with divine presence. Ceremonies like those performed at Stonehenge ... connected Earth with heaven and strengthened the sense of participation in a divine reality.  Anne Baring

What if I really believed everything is in divine order? Quanita Roberson

Over the past week or so I’ve intentionally put my attention on that which informs, inspires, and provokes me to reflect. I’m not ignoring the multiplicity of crises that we are each a part of. And I’m doing my best not to feed the fear and separation from which our crises arise. Not looking to be distracted or entertained, but rather to be informed and guided more deeply to understand and act in ways that honor Nature, humanity, and the divine.

I wonder how I can live more fully into my instinctive knowing that Nature, humanity, and the divine are not separate. Isn’t that what maturity is? How can I grow up?

The exploration has taken me on several tracks, discovering new (to me) voices profound in their wisdom, reminding me that way back in college days (decades ago!) I wondered what it would be like to become a philosopher. Perhaps that’s a seed now breaking through the soil of my life.

Early this morning as I wandered over the week’s landscape and began to wonder (in truth, I felt quite unclear and a bit worried) where Muse and I would go with today’s post, Muse directed, “just sit down and WRITE!”. Ah, yes, pick up the pen and allow the words to come. To flow. Allow the joy of discovery that rises when I step into the unknown.

For surely, we are in a time when we are called to make peace with the unknown. Befriend her. Perhaps even embrace her with our hint of ‘knowing’ that we are co-creating the story, not observers or victims on the journey. How am I participating in this co-creation?

How will the disparate thought threads from my exploration weave together? Heck, will they?

Something has shifted in my awareness about our language: that so much of it is formed around the masculine. The scales of language today are weighted with the yang energy favored in our culture. Is it any wonder that conflict and war continue to prevail? How can we balance the scales, perhaps even tip them toward yin energy? The feminine? The caring of the Great Mother?

This awareness has me want to be care-filled rather than habitual in choosing the words I write and speak for surely my habits of language were all too often curated by the prevailing energy.

That means slowing down. Discerning what is mine to do, to say. Letting go of all that is not. Perhaps some of the disparate threads don’t belong in this weave. Perhaps they are not mine to weave. Release and trust the wind to carry them where they need to be. They will return if meant to be.

It means that my habits need new curators, mid-wives for birthing new words, new ways, new habits, new stories that we so long for. Perhaps my explorations are indeed a search for impassioned, caring voices of The New to inspire, provoke, and to share when Muse and I settle in to write. Muse nods in agreement, reminding me that the above quotes are from new (to me) sage women each with deep connection to the divine and each taking care in the words they speak. I discovered them listening in to an amazing Humanity Rising panel discussion on feminism and democracy (click here to listen). I’m adding both of them to my curator team.

Likewise it means observing and listening to Zadie Byrd with expanded senses. She seems aligned with this direction, as she indicated to our animal communicator in a session this morning, sharing that she doesn’t care for the energy of the traditional veterinarian who did her eyelid surgery and has been doing the follow-up to clear her eye of what seems to be some sort of infection. “I want to see the ‘herbal vet’,” she said. “I like her energy. It’s freer.” Seems Ms. Byrd is to be on the curator team as well, perhaps as mascot.

Life and learning continue to unfold. Moment to moment we choose where to put our attention and what to paint from where that attention lands. I feel the divine as I grok and aim to live more fully into being part of ‘a great cosmic mystery’.

What if I really believed that everything is in divine order?

Snowy Peaks! Blessed Moisture! Grateful Heart!

Call of the Rising Feminine

Joyful Hummers Feeding Out Back

Everything is operating on behalf of everything else. Myra Jackson

Everyone has their story. We are all different. We are all the same. Gregge Tiffen

I have frequently said that those things – people, actions, ideas, beliefs, etc. – that we rail against or criticize have a purpose in the unfoldment of life – individually and collectively. I’m reminded of this principle daily (and some days hourly) when my ‘critical eye’ reacts to something or someone in the world or even to me with a quick judgement.

This is not to suggest that we set aside our opinions, beliefs, and such but rather that we recognize that the opinion of other has value to whole. Everything is operating on behalf of everything else.

As the muse and I were putting those words on the page this morning, the melody and some of the lyrics of Pete Seeger’s Turn, Turn, Turn based on verses from Ecclesiastes (3: 1-8). I easily found The Byrds recording that made the song a hit back when I was sweet-16. I rocked along listening for a bit, then discovered a softer version, more suited to my mood, possibly my age (smile!), and more aligned with today’s journey with the muse (click here to listen).

Just as everything is operating on behalf of everything else, so too there is a time and a place for everything – EVERY purpose under heaven. Our world – its ways and its systems built primarily on the masculine story of separation – are crumbling. That world is in its final acts as our planet calls our attention to the reality that this way has had its time and is no longer sustainable. A new way is calling.

Feminine wisdom is calling for us to listen differently, to put our attention not on the crumbling of the old, but to the potent possibility of a future built on feminine principles, including principles and practices of ancient wisdom and the caring that comes with that wisdom.

What are you listening to? Who are you listening to? What are you listening for?

I’m listening to and for those whose work and words support this shift – individually and collectively – for it is only through shifting our focus and attention that the life conditions of this time will be met in ways that sustain life – ALL life. I’m listening not to the mainstream with its doom, gloom, conquest, and competition, but for paths of forging a different future. The projects, people, and possibilities available for us to tap into with ease are right there – like the water we believe will be there when we turn on that tap.

I’ve suggested some of these resources in previous posts (Yes! Magazine, Non-violence News and Pace e Bene, HeartMath, the Shift Network, the practice of Feldenkrais for support embodying change – to name a few). Today, I invite you explore another, Humanity Rising’s Global Solutions Summit and, in particular, to a presentation (their 294th!) earlier this week: Feminine Intelligence for a Regenerative Future (click here to watch– start around minute 8 if you want to skip the preamble and brief centering meditation).

Here you will hear five inspiring women who have answered the call of the feminine and are calling on others to join in bringing the intelligence of the feminine forward. Among them is Lynne Twist (author of The Soul of Money and a co-founder of the Pachamama Alliance) who shared the news, unlikely to be found in the mainstream (and it will delight me if you do!), that a small number of billionaires from both ends of the political spectrum (evangelicals on the right, spiritual folks on the left) have been in dialogue around their shared concern for the future.

This is an example of dialog across vast divides that I’ve envisioned for many years. It is a sign of change, of hope, and of the emergence of awareness that more of the same is not an option on which to build a future world that works for all.

We can do this! Indeed we must!

Stairway to Heaven (Ziggurat) from the Woods Out Back

Pivoting to the Feminine

The Beauty and Softness of a Winter Morning

Western women will save the world. His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

Several threads woven through my week focus on the idea, the necessity really, of integrating feminine principles and energy fully into our culture. Wikipedia lists the following as traits of the feminine:  nurturance, sensitivity, sweetness, supportiveness, gentleness, warmth, passivity, cooperativeness, expressiveness, modesty, humility, empathy, affection, tenderness, and being emotional, kind, helpful, devoted, and understanding. Who among us would not agree that more expressions of these qualities will make the world a better place?

Women as well as expressions of these principles were, from my perspective, front and center in both the Inauguration of President Biden last week and in the new President’s first week of executive actions and his communication with we the people.  I found that refreshing, inspiring, and hopeful.

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama is famously quoted for saying that 'Western women would save the world' at the Vancouver Peace Summit in 2009. He went on to say "Some people may call me a feminist...But we need more effort to promote basic human values — human compassion, human affection. And in that respect, females have more sensitivity for others' pain and suffering."

Those words came to mind instantly when Alice Walker’s poem 'Calling All Grand Mothers' published in 2010 landed in my inbox, giving further voice to the urgency of this pivot. 

Calling All Grand Mothers

We have to live
differently
 
or we
will die
in the same
 
old ways.
 
Therefore
I call on all Grand Mothers
everywhere
on the planet
to rise
and take your place
in the leadership
of the world ….

You can read the rest of this timely, poignant poem from Hard Times Require Furious Dancing here:

The feminine is not solely about what we DO, but rather how and who we BE.  It is not about gender or sexual preference. Men, women, LGBT, straight, all of us have access to the energy that is feminine. 

It is about the perspectives we hold in life and the beliefs and actions that follow. A few days ago a Facebook post shared by a friend related a conversation between two men talking over a beer. One got up saying he was going to go 'wash the dishes'. The other seemed surprised and said "I don't help my wife." The man going to wash the dishes replied that he wasn't 'helping his wife', that he lived in the home and had a responsibility to participate in its care. That represents collaboration, cooperation, empathy and so many other feminine principles in action!

A deep knowing that ‘we have to live differently’ has long been a theme running through these weekly muses and my life in general.  I often ask myself ‘what do I need to shift to be a better partner on and to the planet?’.  Powerfully weaving more feminine threads into my expressions of life seems to be an element of the answer. Join me?

Zadie Byrd’s New Friend

Tapping Into Essence

Morning Trail - Heading for Home

Within any amount of knowledge is essence. It is the essence that produces wisdom, and it is wisdom that registers in consciousness. You are worth more than you or I can ever describe in human terms. You are irrepressible and invincible. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: The Nature of Feminine Truth – March, 2011)

Gregge’s quote has been with me since yesterday morning when its wisdom leapt off the page and pulled me into the muse. (Yikes! “It’s only Wednesday”, I thought.)

On each walk with Zadie Byrd (yes, ‘Sadie’ has a new name that seems to perfectly fit her essence!) I looked deeply into the mountains, the trees, the rocks, and the vast valley recognizing the beauty that is nature’s essence. A neighbor called with produce to share, the essence of love.

Later ‘essence’ popped into a conversation with a colleague and friend as she updated me on her book, sharing that she is aiming to share the ‘essence’ of the women she’s profiling in the project, not long details of their stories.

Except perhaps when I was focused on organizing info for my tax return, the ‘essence muse’ was with me throughout the day. Perhaps on some unconscious level it was there as well.

In the evening, as I read several chapters of Rivera Sun’s prescient 2013 novel, The Dandelion Insurrection, with its underlying theme of love and the movement’s motto, “Be kind. Be connected. Be Unafraid.”, I saw more clearly than ever that love is the essence that weaves us together as humans on this planet. Indeed, love weaves the fabric of the Universe.

I surrendered to slumber knowing that ‘love is our essence’.  I woke this morning with a deep sense that love is our core. Not just mine, yours, our friends, family and those who share our views, EVERYone’s.

This isn’t a new idea of course, but the muse invited me to feel it more deeply, to embrace love as the essence that breathes worth and value into each of our lives, to more fully BE the love that makes us irrepressible and invincible. The muse reminded me that love is the essence of the Universe of which we are each part and parcel. What is true of the whole is true for its parts. That’s you, me, everything, and EVERYone.

I began to see love even at the core of fear and of hate, but that’s a musing for another day.

For now, look deeply into what you know. Look until you see the love embedded there. Use what you know with the love at its core, the same love that is your core as well. Love is my experiment for the week. Join me?

Zadie Byrd Marching Home with her Antler Find

Reclaiming Softness

Prickly Labyrinth Path

Your voice was meant to be a lullaby giving comfort to the weary and security to the young. Gregge Tiffen (The Journey Continues: Economical Rates of Progress – August, 2010)

The Eco-Heroine’s Journey … is a path to understanding how deeply enmeshed we are in the web of life on this planet. … it is an antidote to the swashbuckling action-adventure that is the Hero’s Journey: it is a woman’s journey, based on a woman’s way of being in the world. Sharon Blackie (If Women Rose Rooted: The Journey to Authenticity and Belonging)

I just finished reading a book. I didn’t want it to end. And, I wanted it to end so I could begin to discover what it will come to mean in my life.

Sharon Blackie’s If Women Rose Rooted changed me – with my permission, my invitation in fact – in ways that today I only sense. I know few, if any, words that would do justice to how this book touched my soul. Read it!

For a while now my muses (surely I must have more than one!) have guided me to reflect on the nature of the feminine, a part (and only a part) of which is the softness so missing in today’s harsh world.  Blackie’s book arrived right on time to deepen that reflection, shining light on ideas I’d not yet considered and deepening my understanding of familiar themes.  

Having a sense of roots in a (geographic) place is a key point woven throughout the beautiful stories Blackie tells. My love this place from the vastness of the valley to the stunning beauty of the 14,000 foot peaks is no secret to anyone. I feel at home here, consistently nurtured by nature, and sometimes challenged by her harshness. From time to time, I’ve had a hunch there was more to know – really know at the deep soul level. Blackie’s book has inspired me to discover not only more of the stories about people and place, but to listen – really listen – to the land, the trees, the furry and feathered inhabitants. Perhaps, an awareness of the unseen, unheard beings in these woods and waterways will grace my knowing.

“Step out of and more deeply into your habits, your routines. Deepen your awareness.” I feel the subtle nudge of this message. And, I respond.

This morning, Cool Hand Luke and I forged a new route on our morning walk. When we returned home I walked the labyrinth as I often do. Today, though, I walked it barefoot. After dozen or so steps, each slow and gentle my feet seeking any softness they could find on ground made prickly with dried pine needles and broken pine cones, I sank first one foot, then the next under the surface. Softness! I found the softness of sand beneath the brambly surface. Softness! Like the crab soft under its hard shell. In the softness of the sand I experienced the softness of crab, symbol for the zodiac sign of Cancer, and this on a day when the moon is transiting that sign. Softness!

My journey continues, reclaiming softness and bringing my soft side more fully into the world. Not a particularly new or different journey, but the path has new illumination. I carry the beam, fueled with gratitude and joy and curiosity for this moment, the next, and beyond.

Come on Mom. It's not that prickly!

Autumnal Celebrations

The planet does not need more successful people. The planet needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers and lovers of all kinds. Dalai Lama

One of the first keys of learning how to get along here unusually well is to remember, whether you like it or not, manifestation is going to occur. Gregge Tiffen (Learning Without Experience Is A Bell Without A Clapper – September, 2008)

Autumn, the season of harvest, is upon us. Fall arrives around 4 pm Eastern time here in the U.S. tomorrow, September 22.  My heart is heavy that much of our harvest is that of natural disasters. When will we come to understand that every thought, word, deed matters in ways far beyond our immediate reach?

What chaff do I need to release in order to contribute only peace to our planet? That is the question I take into my quiet reflection as I welcome the new season. ‘What habits do I carry forward?’ I ask as I walk the labyrinth as the sun rises over the mountains this early morning.

Today is International Peace Day, a day to celebrate the possibility of peace, and first declared by the United Nations in 1981. This year’s theme: Together for Peace: Respect, Safety, Dignity for All. May we harvest peace whenever we can and may we daily plant seeds of peace in our thoughts, our words, our actions. On Tuesday the moon entered a new phase in the sign of Libra, a sign that emphasizes greater cooperation and graciousness. Each new moon represents a time of new beginnings. In the midst of threats of destruction by world leaders, I found the irony of this timing stunning.

This week also finds two of the world’s religions beginning celebrations.  Navrati, the nine-day Hindu celebration of the Goddess Durga, the divine feminine, begins today as does Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, celebrating ‘the head of the year’ with the belief that “just as the head controls the body, our actions on Rosh Hashanah have a tremendous impact on the rest of the year” (Chabad.org).

Religious and spiritual celebrations are important times of reflection. What reflections will you bring to this time of harvest?

Matriot For The Planet

What a difference a day makes ...

Once you acquire planetary loyalty, you are loyal to everybody. You are way out of line if you try being loyal to people before you are totally loyal to the planet.  Gregge Tiffen (The Language of a Mystic: Universality – November, 2009)

It is not for him to pride himself who loveth his own country, but rather for him who loveth the whole world. The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.” Baha’u’llah

Yesterday ... 

Some years ago in a personal musing about the planet and my country I had the idea that we would be better served by embracing being ‘patriots’ for the planet rather than continuing to maintain the unsustainable patriotism that pits one (country or group) against another.  That idea circled back this morning as I considered the universal law of reflection and how I might expand my capacity to express a softer, gentler me and, thus be better able to see the same in others.

I thought that I was creating a new word when ‘matriot’ appeared on the page.  However, a trip to the dictionary quickly revealed its existence and this definition: “Hometown, school, or parish pride or loyalty, as opposed to nationalism or patriotism. Love or celebration of a woman's influence upon society; a women's equivalent to male patriotism. Love of the motherland, as opposed to patriotism as love of the fatherland.” 

I appreciate the first definition, as it reflects what I’ve been aiming for this week: staying close to home, staying present with myself moment to moment and avoiding the fray of ‘what if’ scenarios rampant all around.  It’s a time to not get ahead of myself, to make no plans, and to look to nature first.

The Urban dictionary online offered the meaning that is closest to what I was thinking:  

A person who loves, supports, and defends the earth and its interests with devotion.  Of country, patriot. Of earth, matriot

What occurs to me as I muse to see how the law of reflection fuses with being a matriot for the planet is that we need to nurture the language needed to bring forth the change we seek in the world. This is of course not a new idea. ‘Change your language. Change your life’ is a staple meme in self-development circles.  

Bringing this back home from we to me, how will I nurture new language for me?  The immediate opportunity is carefully observing the language of my thoughts and the words I speak. In taking care with my words, I can nurture and grow the divine feminine within. At the same time, I can be super selective about the language I choose as input, what I listen to and what I read.  That’s a start on growing my capacity to be a Matriot for the Earth.

How about you?  

Sunday Night's Super Moon