Easing into 2022 with Rest

A White Christmas Labyrinth!

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then rest afterwards. Proverb

The only real rest comes when you’re alone with God. Rumi

As I began to update what has become my ‘Auld Lang Syne’ final post of the year, the online countdown clock indicated that it’s 2 days, 14 hours, 41 minutes, 56 seconds until the new year is rung in here in the Colorado Rockies. But, hey, ‘who’s counting?’ wonders the Muse.

As was the case at the end of 2020, many – perhaps most – await the turning of the clock to 2022 with bated breath, wishing to bid adieu to another tumultuous year. We want to turn the page. We long to dive deeply into the fresh start that began with the Solstice promise of our personal newness and culminates as we replace our 2021 calendars with new pages of promise and possibility that the coming year has the potential to bring forth.

It is, as always, up to us – individually and collectively – to bring promise, possibility, and potential to fruition. As sure as the sun’s light is returning day by day here in the northern hemisphere, we will have opportunities to do just that in the hours, days, weeks, and months ahead. What if we trusted the opportunities to come forth at just the right divine time rather than pushing to ‘make’ them happen?

While this year held much tragedy and darkness, lights of love continued to be shined in dark corners needing our attention and care.  May we each be a part of shining the light of love in all the days ahead. May we tap into the countless sources of light available beyond the chaos of the mainstream and its ways. May we receive whatever light we need as we add our unique rays to loving constellations of light and life.

Although the onset of a new year signals the end of the holiday season in our culture, Winter has only just begun. The dark, the cold invites me inward (more snow would help the cause!). The Muse smiles a happy, knowing smile. The season that began fewer than 10 days ago has a 12-week run before it gives way to Spring. Yet our cultural habit of a new year is to make plans and spring into action with goals and commitments to DO more.

What if we took more time for rest and renewal as Nature does in the season of cold? Inward to rest, to renew. Inward to commune with the sacred and to gather all that is necessary to burst forth in Spring. While certainly there is life and livelihood to maintain, jobs to go to, businesses to tend, political action to be voiced, stories to be told, I wonder how the world might be if we began the calendar year in greater alignment with Nature?

What might be possible for us individually and collectively if our first goal for the new year was intending rest and renewal of body, mind, and spirit?

As I reflect on saying ‘Goodbye’ and refrain from saying ‘good riddance’, my year end reflections first written at the end of 2016 seem as apropos (with a few additions) today as they did five years ago.

At year end, we tend to look back on joys, sorrows, what we accomplished, where we may have fallen short. Hopefully our review list includes acknowledging all that we discovered about ourselves and learned from the opportunities and events life presented.

As 2021 ends, many will breathe a sigh of relief that it is finally over along with a breath of hope for better days in the year ahead.  The world we live in is chaotic and uncertain. It IS! Those who put attention on that world forgetting that it is the world we live IN, NOT the world we are OF may look ahead with dread or fear.

That need not be.

Within each of us is a seed of understanding who we truly are. Nurturing that seed grows our faith in our capacity to be resilient in the face of the world’s chaos. In this year ahead, I have a sense that we will need to tap into our spiritual strength in ways we may not have done before.

This seed of faith is within us all. It is not faith in anything outside of us. Rather it is faith in who we are, each as an individual, integral part of an intelligent Universe. It is a reminder that life is so much more than we experience and observe in our daily routines.

As you ring in 2022, I invite you to join me in nourishing your seed of faith in each of the 365 days ahead and to remember how important your presence and your ray of light is at this moment on the planet.

With that intention top of mind and heart, I’ll be participating in a global event 7 Days of Rest and Sacred Renewal during the first week of the new year. The event’s introductory words drew me in with their reminder of the power of intention and clarity and the potent possibility that alignment and collective action call forth:

7 Days of Rest is an annual, open co-creative event inviting individuals and groups around the world to initiate and join local and online events for the healing and thriving of Earth and all her inhabitants. During the first 7 Days of 2022, we unite in seeding the New Year with a sacred field of intention and blessing for a thriving world for all of Life.​ Together we co-create a collective space for renewing ourselves and our sacred bonds with each other and with all of Life. Through rest, deep listening, wisdom sharing and compassionate action we amplify the emerging global culture of peace, health, cooperation and wise governance.

I’m deeply grateful for this discovery/resource (the website -click here - is chock full of nourishing offerings daily!) and I’m looking forward to diving in daily with each of the daily themes. Join me in whatever way best fits your schedule, your life, and your intentions for the year ahead.

Happy New Year!

I hope you’ll join me in participating in this global gathering!

Flowing with Nature in the Season’s Glow

Solstice Hike to the Ziggurat on a Colorado Blue Sky Day

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. … You accept rejection from humankind. You accept rejection from your family and those around you. You move yourself to where there is no rejection: which is the reality of nature all around you. Gregge Tiffen – Winter Solstice: The Christmas Story

So it was with Mary and Joseph. Rejected by the mundane world of the inn, they were offered Nature … Rejoice! In rejection is a gift of direction, of invitation.

This blog day after the Winter Solstice finds me immersed in Solstice newness. Fully present in this moment, I’m tingling to discover what ‘Santa’ will bring forth as opportunity emergent from the chaos of our crumbling mundane world in this new cycle. I’m grateful for the Solstice reminder of courage.

Living life not as a series of goals to be achieved and tasks to be checked off a list, but as the flow of energy, clear with intention and presence in each moment NOW.

The Muse, silent, smiles. ‘Savor this’. The Muse’ silence speaks loudly. It needs no words or deeds in this moment. Savor the quiet. Be still. Turn away from the world and dwell in ‘your’ world. Sing. Dance. Play. With Creation. Embrace open-hearted fullness and satisfaction. Satisfied not that all is how I would have it be, but that I am.

Love.                  

The Great Sand Dunes, Blanca Peak, and the vast Wildlife Refuge — Nature’s Beauty Glows from the Ziggurat

Preparing for Solstice 2021

A Blustery Morning and SNOW on the Peaks

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)

The Muse is challenged to settle me down to focus this blustery morning. With sustained winds exceeding 15 miles per hour and gusts into the 50-mph range, Zadie Byrd and I were challenged to get in a short walk so she could take care of her morning business. It’s not a day for walking in the woods or grounding myself with a labyrinth walk. One close call with a falling tree is enough for this life.

I have other year-end distractions as well, opportunities and projects that warrant my attention and a promise to myself to finalize personal decisions around financial and health matters – the paperwork our legal system demands in order for our wishes to be followed. So, the Muse suggested we revisit Solstice posts past and see what might be relevant to where I find myself today. Good call Muse!

Six years ago, amidst a community controversy in which I was involved I wrote this:  I’ve felt out of sync with the season and out of sorts with myself.  I want to stop. I want to stop not just for a few minutes to catch my breath, center myself and move on to the next task or conversation, but I want to STOP and BE the winter. Quiet. Still. Peaceful. Yes, yes, YES!

I continued: My time for that will come. I feel her on the horizon. Until then, there are ‘miles to go before I sleep’ in these last days of autumn before that moment when heaven and earth synchronize at the Winter Solstice. I know without a doubt that I will be there.

I know too that I alone am responsible for choosing how I walk through the tasks along those miles. I choose calm, confident, clear, kind as my foundation. These are grounded in love.  My choice is simple; implementation, not always easy. Often when I’m challenged, fear interrupts and invites me to its prickly path of tension, harshness, unkind words spoken and not. Too much of the world is on that path. I don’t want to be a part of that crowd. And so, I pause.

The divisiveness and angst in our world have intensified seemingly exponentially in the six years since I wrote those words. So too have the opportunities for personal growth and evolution, individually and collectively. It is on those opportunities that I want to focus my attention this Solstice time.

Just as I did then, I turn to Gregge Tiffen’s writings about this sacred time. I find this message perfect to remind me of the choices I can make now and moment to moment. Before my time of winter solitude and beyond winter into the spring:

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.

I need not wait for the Solstice to take Heaven, to take Peace, and to Look at the radiance in the darkness within and without. I take them now and allow the potency of this time to fill me. Yes, my time for the quiet of Solstice is on the horizon. That is my time to empty. That is my time to embrace the seeds of the new. To be receptive. 

In the Christmas Story, we are told that the inn was full. And, yet a receptive place for the birth was found. 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 your 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.

As our planet celebrates her birthday, let us honor her by taking time to reflect this gift of the time when heaven and nature sing as one. May we each sing along in our own unique and harmonious way. JOY to Our World … WE Have Come!

… Just Sayin’…

Bigger Than My Small Self

Zadie Byrd & Me - Our Bigger Selves

How exactly to act in particular situations is a matter of waiting on God. The answer comes straight in response to prayer from the heart. Such prayer carries with it the anguish of the soul. Gandhi (December 8, 2021 quote from This Nonviolent Life: Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey - Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service)

THIS clay is mine to mold. Mine is not to mold another into what I wish they would do or be. Mine is to sculpt me.

Gandhi’s quote leapt off the screen this morning, immediately resonating as part of an answered prayer I found myself speaking this past week. It feels a bit like the icing on a cake, an added breath of fresh air, and a reminder that there is more to unfold in my awareness if only I ask AND (the hard part for me) patiently allow the unfolding in its own divine time.

So simple. And, not so easy. The Muse nudges me move along and share a disappointment that I experienced this week …

The event reminded me of the importance of being aware of my expectations, especially what I expect of others, and of distinguishing expectations from promises. My initial response was not of the highest order. Yes Muse. Yes, I reacted. And in my reaction, I discovered a gift: a desire to be ‘bigger than my small self’. That was, indeed is, my prayer.

In hindsight (and, yes, Muse with your help) I see that my prayer rose from deep within. In recognizing my desire to respond differently, I thankfully didn’t go to a self-loathing place of criticism and judgement, but rather, after a few tears, to the realization that I was more disappointed in myself and my reaction than I was in the expectation that hadn’t been met.

Bringing the event and my reaction home to me placed the responsibility right where I needed it to be. THIS clay is mine to mold. Mine is not to mold another into what I wish they would do or be. Mine is to sculpt me.

A slow walk in the labyrinth and a saunter around the woods listening to the quiet settled me like salve on an angry wound. I let go of any desire to keep my disappointment alive as fuel for … for what? Like the fossil fuels we must continue to move away from, the fuels of disappointment, of anger, of hurt are not the energy with which I want to fuel this vehicle in which my soul walks upon Mother Earth. If there is future action to be taken, I will wait, sans expectation, for the Divine to show me the way.

This little event showed me other places where I hold hopes and expectations that others will be a particular way or do a particular thing. It reminded me of the lesson I came to learn on this sojourn: Everyone has their story. We are different. We are all the same. With nudges from the Muse, I see what clay is mine to sculpt and I’m reminded that there is a time and place and guidance for all that I am to sculpt.

May I be bigger than my small self, for when I am, I’m content to wait on God.

Grandmother Moon, Venus, & Orbs in the Early Evening Sky

Alive in the Flow of Life

Good Morning Sun & Moon!

Blow, and you can extinguish a fire. Blow, and you can make a fire. Zen koan found at https://marenschmidt.com/

The idea of paradox has the Muse and me engaged this morning. And as I read the above Zen koan again, I sense what’s underneath each truthful ‘blow’: intention.

Decades ago when I was a college student, a friend nicknamed me her ‘Pet Paradox’. I don’t recall if she ever told me what inspired the moniker, but even in my college year, or perhaps earlier, I could see both sides of most any issue. Sometimes that breed confusion. Other times, clarity. Mostly it led to eventually choosing sides.

Throughout most of my adult life, I’ve expressed a felt sense that ‘holding paradox’ would become an increasingly important life skill. A quick google search offers a treasure trove of ideas, tools, and other musings that I found inspiring to explore.

In a world that seeks to divide in oh so many ways, seeing the whole, singing songs of ‘both and’ as we set aside ‘either or’, and dancing the dances of many rather than choosing sides holds the potential bring into our practice of daily life that which we know deep in our being: WE ARE ONE.

We are interconnected and interdependent with ALL the Beings of Nature, including humanity – those humans whom we love and those whose choices we loath. This is our emerging story as scientific discoveries continue to refute the ideas of separation on which so much of our cultural infrastructure and systems are built. As these discoveries see the light of day beyond the so-called mainstream today’s systems will become less and less relevant. And the creation and emergence of new structures and systems accelerates. This is where the juice, the aliveness of the flow of life, invites us to join and to play.

This is the story of ancients and Indigenous peoples whose aliveness in the flow of life recognized the truth of the unity of all things. Will it be a story that we nurture and grow into realizing the possibility of harmony? Harmony among all peoples. Harmony with Nature, the Earth that provides all that we need.

Each morning as I’ve read the Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address, Greetings to the Natural World, I feel the potency of recognizing this truth. I deeply feel the intention of these words to give thanks to all that we hold in common – our humanity, Mother Earth, the waters, the plants, the animals, Brother Sun, Grandmother Moon, all that gives us life – and to declaring Oneness as they speak “Now our minds are one.”

I dream of what is possible for a world operating from this place. I marvel at the plethora of actions locally and globally that are creating the scaffolding of a new world. I wonder what magic and miracles will come forth. As I dream, I deepen my gratitude. As I deepen my gratitude, I feel the aliveness of life calling me forth to sing and dance and play from this place. And, I pray that all of our children may sing and dance and play with me.

May we extinguish the fires of destruction and kindle the fires that make the way for new, harmonious growth.

Sunset on Another Alive Day!

Gratitude - How Deep?

The Circle of Elders on this overcast wintry day

To be alive in this beautiful, self-organizing universe – to participate in the dance of life with senses to perceive it, lungs that can breathe it, organs that draw nourishment from it – is a wonder beyond words. Joanna Macy

Beyond words indeed! I’m experiencing the absence of adequate words as I continue to explore the new depths of feeling that I shared last week (here if you missed it). With the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday on the horizon and reading Macy’s World as Lover, World as Self, I’m asking a different question around gratitude. ‘How deep is my gratitude?’ I wonder.

I discovered this to be a very different question than ‘what am I grateful for?’. Yet in the long list of what I’m grateful for are clues to gratitude’s depth. I’m aware of how important gratitude has been and is in my life and of the countless challenges that gratitude has seen me through. Not always pretty, but always getting me through to the other side. Right where I need to be.

In this time of potent possibility and even promise is my gratitude of sufficient depth to withstand whatever challenges lie ahead? How might I deepen it? How might I use this Thanksgiving Day to bring myself to a new depth of gratitude?

Macy’s chapter Grounding in Gratitude in part evoked my questions. The Mohawk Thanksgiving Address that she shares began to frame answers that will evolve over time as I hold the questions with intention.

The ‘Address’ begins …

The People

Today we have gathered and we see that the cycles of life continue. We have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. So now, we bring our minds together as one as we give greetings and thanks to each other as people.

Now our minds are one.

The Earth Mother

We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk about upon her. It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time. To our mother, we send greetings and thanks.

Now our minds are one.

It continues addressing the Waters, the Fish, the Plants, the Four Winds, the Animals, the Trees, the Sun, Grandmother Moon, and more, much more of that which sustains our lives and livelihoods on this blue dot that we inhabit. I encourage you to read it, let it wash over and go deep in your bones (click here)

This morning after walking the labyrinth in the woods out back I took this holy prayer of gratitude into the nearby Circle of Elders. I read it aloud standing in the Circle. Tears welled up as I was reminded again that I live on lands from which human beings indigenous to the area were forcibly removed. That is a part of my history. Our history for those here in the United States.

As I made my way back inside to the warmth of the hearth, I knew that this Thanksgiving would be a quiet day of gratitude, reflection, and beginning to read the book atop my winter reading stack: An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States. I know too that this prayer, grounded in wisdom and understanding that seems lost to our current culture, will be with me for many days to come.

I may read it in its entirety or simply choose one point of focus, but it is now a part of my daily practice, imagining living fully into any one of the elements addressed.

Feel for a moment (or linger longer!) how our world will be when we take on our duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things. Is my gratitude deep enough universally, truly and authentically with NO exclusions give greetings and thanks to each other as people? Can I truly include EVERYone? Imagine THAT world!

Although a touch disappointed that my local ‘family of friends’ will not to gather this Thanksgiving, I feel deep gratitude and potency for the day ahead: a day to simply be with myself, my thoughts, the ever-present Muse, and (of course) my sweet canine, Zadie Byrd.  As it always does, the flow of life takes me right where I need to be. A deep bow of gratitude to Life.

From the Winter Reading Stack …

Into The Deep

The Deep

Just as there is unseen beauty and life in the deep of the ocean, there is beauty, life and meaning in our own, sometimes dark, silence.

I find myself using the word ‘deep’ quite a lot these days. It’s an interesting word that, depending on how you use it, can be a noun, an adjective, or adverb. (No, I don’t intend these posts to be a weekly grammar lesson, but I’m fascinated by words and their power – perhaps the Muse will engage there one day.)

I notice my use of the word in all those forms in my thoughts, conversations, writing (duh!), and, especially in my awareness. I feel deep gratitude for my life, for life, for being here with Mother Earth in this body at this moment in time. I feel a depth about life and in life that is new to my being. I feel excited, curious, and trepidatious, all of which I’ve experienced before, yet they feel different now. That difference doesn’t have (and may never have) have words. The Deep. Deeper.

I sense we humans – individually and collectively – are in a deep shift, a transformation, a leap forward in consciousness as new knowledge, new scientific discoveries make their way into our awareness. This calls forth my curiosity and excitement. New knowledge, new discoveries are emerging into our awareness with ‘slim to none’ (and, as the saying goes ‘slim is out of town’) help from the so-called mainstream media or our storied institutions of education and government, most of which seem to be on increasingly shaky ground.

Coming to grips with this recognition that what we’ve been told and encouraged to believe is ‘the truth’ and necessary for our security stirs trepidation as we recognize that we too are on that shaky ground. We’re reckoning on many fronts: the Earth will no longer tolerate our reckless choices; the history most of us were taught is, at best, incomplete and written from the perspective of the so-called winner; our health and healthcare needs are personal and individual; and new scientific discoveries are expanding our understanding of who we are. Indeed, sometimes it feels like we are in ‘deep doodoo’.

As I’ve written before, I often find myself exploring and asking how I can live in greater alignment with Nature. I’m aware that I do so with the unspoken proviso that my comfort level isn’t diminished – I suspect most of us, knowingly or not add such a condition to our questioning. I’m also wrestling with a bit of history from my early teens: the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy on November 22, 1963. I wonder how that event, which happened just 30 miles from my home, has influenced me. I wonder when – if ever – the ‘whole truth’ will be released. A recent Charles Eisenstein essay has helped my understanding

I’m learning to be with that ‘deep doodoo’ feeling, to allow it, to accept that there is much that I do not know, even to be with sometimes feeling impotent to make a difference. That is part of being in The Deep. Christian mystics would call it ‘the dark night of the soul’. I’ve come to more deeply appreciate that just as there is unseen beauty and life in the deep of the ocean, there is beauty, life and meaning in our own, sometimes dark, silence.

Eventually, from the darkness of The Deep, light follows. I remember that knowledge begets awareness and the wisdom to choose differently. I remember that truth tellers and discoverers of our past have been maligned and then, eventually revered. Their discoveries shaped history, the lives we live today, and our very being. May we remember that as new discoveries far beyond those of history surface.

In the light, it feels as if we are on the cusp of new discoveries which will bring forth greater awareness of our potential in a Universe that is infinite. Not our potential to have more, do more, etc., but our potential to know more, to understand our access to vast stores of knowledge, and to BE what/who it is that we truly are.

Sunset Beauty’s Prelude to The Dark

Pivot to Slowing Down

Pines, Native Grasses, and Clouds Over the Foothills. No palm trees here.

The times are urgent; let us slow down. Slowing down is losing our way—not a human capacity or human capability. It is the invitations that are now in the world at large inviting us to listen deeply, to be keen, to be fresh, to be quick with our heels, to follow the sights and sounds of smells of the world." Dr. Bayo Akomolafe (Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service Daily Inspiration for your Nonviolent Journey – 9 November, 2021)

Slowing down is not the modus operandi that most of us take as we navigate life, especially life’s challenges. We speed up even knowing that speed often slows us done. Perhaps racing from place to place or task to task has the appearance of avoiding worry, suffering, and grief under the all too important cultural guise of being productive.

One of my urban dwelling friends recently shared her observation that drivers have speeded up and become reckless not only on her city’s freeways but in the alleyway behind her home. I see similar occurrences more frequently here in my small mountain community as more urban dwellers seek refuge in these quiet, sacred mountains. I wonder if they’re aware of the city habits that followed them.

The Muse reminds me to look to nature, to the trees and flora of these woods. Their natural pace is seeded in their very being, as is ours. While the trees don’t move about from place to place as we do, they know that their pace of growth is in their design and matches the characteristics of the environment. No palm trees in the woods out back.

Could it benefit the earth and we humans individually and collectively to be more rooted in place? We know the answer is ‘yes’ if not from our own senses, then surely from the photos taken of a world in lockdown: Nature free; Earth and her beings breathing.

I feel my roots deepening after 13 years here, and, as I shared with a friend yesterday, I prefer being home to travelling, even short distances. Just as Zadie Byrd sleeps in the tub of our guest bathroom as her ‘safe place’, this place is my ‘tub’. I understand the necessity of some travel. But was it necessary for 400 private jets to descend on Glasgow for COP26 and for countless entourages of limousines to ferry dignitaries about? What is the consciousness that makes such choices? What is in our consciousness that can shift to call forth different choices like that of my friend, Rivera Sun (author, activist, teacher of nonviolence) who announced several weeks ago that she would no longer fly to teach?

What is mine to change in me, my choices, my community?

I’ve had this and similar questions in mind each morning during the COP26 gathering as I’ve listened to the mindful moments presented by Listening to the Earth . I was moved this morning by Belen Paez who heard the call of the forest as a youngster and whose work demonstrates that she continues to listen. She has attended many COPs and, along with a song from her region, shared that she senses a different kind of listening at this COP: a listening more deeply to one another and to the earth, along with a waking up of we humans to the importance of her native Amazon region to life on the planet.

In our fast-paced culture we find it easy and convenient to rely on others – leaders, governments, corporations, even NGOs to do the work of environmental restoration and protection. And, while they have important roles to play, we each need to look closer to home, in the mirror perhaps and to ask questions of ourselves. To borrow from the 35th President of the United States let’s ask not what the Planet can do for us, let’s ask what we can do for our Planet.

What choices and habits do I have that add to the pressure on the Amazon and other critical bioregions? That’s the hard work of individual exploration, discovery, and making changes. First, using what I know about plastics, polyester, conventionally grown cotton, etc. to make changes right here at home. Next, searching for resources, both information and more earth-friendly products (check out Green America for a wealth of information including their recently released scorecard on toxic textiles). Then taking action, perhaps bold action, from what I discover.

As conscious as I think I am, I can’t claim much more than a ‘fair to good’ record on my own scorecard on the home front. Although it’s no excuse, we are products of a culture that promotes consumption and convenience while it measures success almost entirely in economic terms.

Which, in the Muse’s sometimes roundabout way, brings us to slowing down. For surely it is in our rush that we make choices of ease and convenience for us while adding to the stress on Nature, on our Mother Planet Earth. When I slow down and give myself time to reflect, to hear Nature, I remember that I have an important role to play in sculpting the future of the planetary being of which I am a part. I remember that my choices are in part responsible for the strategies that companies follow in their quest to have me (and you and everyONE) consume their goods and services.

Where I spend and where I invest, regardless how much or little, matters. Beyond ones that are obvious for me (local, organic foods; investing in natural health; etc.) there are fields of information and possibility to explore. When I slow down and open to listening, I hear their call, their music, and their invitations to explore new points of inspiration and possibilities to pivot. Let’s Dance!

Sunset - Clouds in the Eastern Sky

Being The 'Listening Heaven' on Earth

Sun and Shadow. Rain and Rainbow.

Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. Rabindranath Tagore

Last week I shared the question that my heart heard as I was walking in the woods out back (click here): What would I do if I loved the earth unconditionally?

I’d love to say that I’ve reflected on the question each day and made many adjustments in daily life to live more fully aligned with Gaia. Reflected? Yes. Daily? Not quite. Adjustments? Few.

And yet, I feel an expansion, a deepening in my capacity to listen and to hear the voice of our home. Listening and hearing are the pivot points for change whether heard through the ears as sound or the heart as a felt sense of truth.

With so much dark and heavy noise in the world, I’m tuning my inner radio to the sounds of the earth, listening to ‘stations’ where the voices share information not just of the head, but also of the heart.

No surprise that much of my ‘listening’ to Mother Earth is visual. These sacred mountains and the woods out back whisper, “beauty, consistency, harmony, change and adaptation, peaceful presence.” Yesterday afternoon as I headed out the door, I discovered that along with the bright sunshine, it was raining lightly. I raced out to an opening where I could see the rainbow that I knew for sure would there. This morning the Muse and I walked the labyrinth, curious about how today’s message would unfold. Greeted by the sun’s first rays on the pines, I was reminded that light always follows the darkness.

Beyond these woods and the peaks above, I’m tuned in to Listening to the Earth’s daily ‘moments of mindful connection’ (find them here) offered by representatives of Indigenous peoples and cultures around our beautiful globe in support of bringing heart and soul to the science and politics of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26). I wonder what’s possible as more and more leaders and negotiators listen with heart as well as head (and the latest poll numbers)? How might the stresses on our planet and ourselves (our cells!) be eased as we listen to the trees seeking to listen as deeply as heaven surely does?

Inspired by the wisdom in this morning’s ‘moment’, I felt my heart open and connect with the heart of the earth. The felt sense of oneness with Mother Earth was palpable. I ‘knew’ that there was no separation between my body and Gaia, a knowing of the heart not just of my slippery mind. And I knew that this is true for each and every one of us – those with whom I’m in solidarity on many issues of the day and those whose views and actions are not aligned with mine. There is no separation.

The Muse reminds me of a question posed by Gregg Braden in a recent interview: Do you love yourself enough to listen and give your body what it needs? (The Muse also says to let you know you’ll be hearing more about what that interview stirred.). Since I and the Earth are ONE, do I love myself and the Earth, to live more fully in alignment with her/with me? What would I do if I loved myself unconditionally? What choices would I shift? Where would my free will carry me? Do I have the courage to find out?

Curious about COP26 beyond what you hear in the media? Here are a few places to explore: https://nature4climate.org/nature-positive/

https://unfccc.int/conference/glasgow-climate-change-conference-october-november-2021

The earth has music for those who listen. George Santayana

First Rays on the Labyrinth

Pivot to Global Oneness - The Work of Loving All

Crestone Peak Peeking Through the Treetops

Building Beloved Community isn't just about loving the people who are easy to love. Friends, family, community, those with similar value systems, similar cultural or political perspectives. No love is ALWAYS easy, but if we're not struggling to hold love for those that are different than us, those that we don't hang out with, don't work with, don't see eye-to-eye with, then we're not doing the work of building Beloved Community. —Kazu Haga (This Nonviolent Life: Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey, October 18, 2021)

It's no secret that I hold a deep curiosity about how we can fully live into the reality (the Truth, if you will) of our Oneness, our interconnectedness, our interdependence in a world that is built on separation and continues to feed (and prosper from) that lie. Fortunately, the Muse shares my curiosity as well and, when not guiding (the Muse says ‘sometimes prodding’) the exploration, seems delighted to go along for the ride.

As you may recall from last week’s post (click here if you missed it) I was listening to Humanity’s Team’s Global Oneness Summit (if don’t know Humanity’s Team, now is a good time to ‘meet’ them and discover the vast array of thought leaders forging paths to a world that works for all). I’ll be listening to some presentations again and catching others that I missed. So, yes, you’ll be hearing more.

Last week I was also navigating a situation that I found gnarly …  I’m still in the throes of it, holding the intention that step by step a gap will be bridged, and allowing guidance to come rather than taking action precipitously before its time. Patience. Not my strong suit but growing in me/of me. That is key in the work of loving all. Yet I differ from the suggestion in the quote that struggle need be an ingredient. Effort? Yes. Commitment? Yes. Contributing to ‘Beloved Community’ around an issue I care deeply about. Yes! Effortless effort? YES, please – let’s play and practice that!

Effortless effort is work of the heart that is deeply needed in our world. It is the work of my heart, listening for where it calls, where it nudges, where it demands attention. Transforming deep work into play and experiencing the joy in that state of being.

After my walk with Zadie Byrd on this glorious, cold, Colorado blue sky morning, I felt called to the walk the labyrinth in the woods out back. I walked with both curiosity about today’s post (what the heck wants to be shared?) and with the intention to hear the voice of Mother Earth more clearly. As I walked the rock-lined labyrinth path taking in the beauty and feeling the freshness of the day, a question bubbled from my heart: What would I do if I loved the earth unconditionally?

The Muse may have chuckled about then as the question didn’t seem to have a place in the musings and questions that have had my attention for a few days (one of which would surely emerge as ‘the’ focus): how context shapes our views, how our views shape context, and how our choices create context; unpacking an event from my early teens to discover how it has shaped my choices in life (the event’s 58th anniversary is coming soon); the despair and division in our world; and all the good, the love, the care that is being poured on humanity and the planet from and by one another.

After I completed my labyrinth ritual of gratitude to the six directions, I felt called to BE in these woods. Setting aside the Muse’s chuckle (or perhaps that chuckle was the call of the woods) and my ‘I have to get the blog written’ push, I spent a glorious hour ambling slowly and communing with the pines, the cacti, the rocks, and a pair of does whose rest I, apologetically, disturbed. BEing with the question.

As I settled in to write and the words began to flow, I understood that ‘the question’ wasn’t a question at all. Rather, it was the gift of deepened clarity that loving the planet unconditionally is fundamental to all the other questions and musings. Indeed, it is fundamental to loving all. To building Beloved Community locally and globally. My work, our work continues. Let us PLAY!

Gentleness in the Woods Out Back