Cycling Through the Cycles of Life

Sunrise In the San Luis Valley

Each day is born with a sunrise
and ends in a sunset, the same way we
open our eyes to see the light,
and close them to hear the dark.
Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

Another cool, still morning. Cloudless dawn. Quiet after a band of raucous pinon jays noisily flitted through the woods. The soothing sound of Cottonwood Creek in the distance. Hummingbirds waking, making their way to the feeder. Zadie Byrd sleeping soundly nearby.

Another cycle begins within the myriad cycles of life. Cycles of Gaia. Moon cycles (a full super moon coming tomorrow). Planetary cycles and cycles of the stars. Cycles of our bodies and each cell within. Cycles of time, of Nature, of Self. Bicycles and tricycles to carry us on our cyclic journey.

Mystically speaking (at least as I understand – and Muse doesn’t seem argumentative on the point) there are no beginnings or endings. ALL is energy and flow of that energy in cycles. Rising sun brings light of day. Setting sun leads the way to the darkness of light.

We ebb and flow likewise navigating events of these cycles in cycles of our own and cycles of the collective. We experience times of clarity, focus, and action as well as times of confusion, questioning, and the stillness of inaction. These fallow times may cause angst in our culture that places so much value on getting ‘things’ done. Muse smiles, reminding me of the ‘should’ word: our culture’s quick path to inducing guilt.

We experience times of receiving and times of giving, neither more blessed than the other, as each is integral to thriving in communities of life. Just ask a tree.

Summer, the season we in the northern hemisphere are currently experiencing, calls us to the outdoors to experience the longer light of day. In this cycle of heightened activity aligned with other cycles – growing and harvesting food, preparing for winter, enjoying the bounty of local produce – I appreciate simply sitting, being with the beauty of Nature that surrounds me.

Muse nods in agreement and adds that awareness of these cycles supports our sense of the legions of cycles operating in our world and of their intensity. Economic cycles. Climate cycles. Cycles of war and peace, division and unity. Cycles of civilizations rising and falling. Cycles. Cycles of life.

Awareness of the cyclical nature of life from the micro to the macro (and back) somehow strengthens my belief that life in this vehicle now is but a tiny part of the sojourn of infinite life. Important? Yes – each point in time, each life is. Yet this life is by no means the whole story. I notice that being with life from this cyclical perspective calls forth curiosity, compassion, love, gratitude, care. It deepens my understanding and acceptance of what is while calling forth new ways of walking in our world.

Amidst gratitude for the experience of this life and compassion for the suffering of humanity and our planet home, I wonder ‘What cycles are rising?’. What cycles are waning? What is emerging? What new cycles have yet to surface?

I carry those wonderings into the beginning of year 10 of these weekly musings. Today’s post marks the cycling of nine years (468 weeks!) since ‘The Zone’ (which pivoted to ‘The Pivot’ in 2020) began. It’s been quite a ride and I am grateful to all who journey with Muse and me each week. I’m cycling into the next nine years with that gratitude, along with curiosity about life’s ongoing evolution and a commitment to this weekly date with you, with Muse, and with creation.

Sunset

From Solution to Creation

July 16,1945 - First Test of the Atomic Bomb

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. Albert Einstein

 Most everyone reading these words is familiar with this Einstein quote. We use it to remind ourselves (and, yes, sometimes others) of the need to change our thinking in order to evoke a different present and future. But what if those weren’t Einstein’s actual words? What if over the years his words have been massaged, shifted, and he actually said something much more powerful?

 Curious about the context of the familiar quote, I did a quick search and discovered the apparent origin: a fundraising campaign (more here).

by a group of concerned atomic scientists who had been a part of developing the atom bomb. In 1946, some months after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (August 6 and 9 1945 – yes, we are coming upon the 77th anniversary of those tragic, fateful days), Einstein co-founded the Emergency Committee of Atomic Scientists to warn of the dangers of nuclear weapons and to promote world peace. (Muse suggests I let you know we aren’t intending a history lesson this week 😉, but context is sometimes everything.)

 Einstein and the Committee wrote:

 We need two hundred thousand dollars at once for a nation-wide campaign to let the people know that a new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move toward higher levels.

Oh, they were talking about something bigger than just changing our thinking about the mundane issues that crop up during the day. They were suggesting a bigger pivot, a shift in consciousness as suggested by another Einstein quote:

No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.

The scientists were in fact creating!

I’ve been wondering whether the pivot suggested in these quotes is about making a shift from our cultural tendency/habit of problem solving to creating. Muse has fed my wondering since the question popped up in a recent conversation with a friend. I was sharing some ideas and learning that I was exploring, many of them from a class I’m attending. “So, what is her solution?” asked my friend.

The question startled me a bit and I don’t recall my response. It may have been some incoherent babble (Muse invokes a chuckle of agreement at that possibility). My friend’s question stayed with me.

In reflecting later, I realized that in most of life I see opportunities to create rather than problems to solve. I read and listen to podcasts, classes, etc. not to solve, but to expand my capacity to create. This wasn’t always my way, my perspective. For many years (okay, decades!) I approached life as a series of problems to be solved. Whether it was situations in my own life or bigger world issues, most everything was a problem that needed solutions.

Noting the difference this shift has made in my life, I think such a pivot may have been what Einstein intended with his words: to shift from searching for solutions to creating anew and co-creating with creation itself. In short, to shift our consciousness.

What does such a shift offer? There is light and lightness in creating and co-creating that engages heart and soul. Creating allows (rather than trying to control) and is curious about the seen and the unseen. It wonders ‘what wants to rise?’.

Solving mostly engages the mind and is often aimed at control. As I look out at our world that generally holds problem solving as its preferred path, I think it’s time to pivot to a new way: creation and collaboration with Life.

Surely the howl of coyote this early morning as I write these words suggests ‘hey humans, look to Nature and all that Nature creates.’ Muse smiles. I wonder if our preoccupation with problems is some sort of cosmic joke. But I digress …

I’m not suggesting that ‘mind’ has no place in the way forward – individually and collectively. Au Contraire!  Mind’s gifts are integral to creation, to engaging heart and soul. Imagine the beautiful world we will create collectively in making this fundamental shift, integrating the gifts of heart, mind, and soul. Close your eyes for a moment and imagine. Then take these words from John O’Donohue into your day …

Beauty inhabits the cutting edge of creativity – mediating between the known and the unknown, light and darkness, masculine and feminine, visible and invisible, chaos and meaning, sound and silence, self and others. John O’Donohue (The Soul as Twilight Threshold in Beauty: The Invisible Embrace

Nature Creates!

To Witness the Beauty of Earth

Beautiful Morning On the Trail

The beauty of the earth is the first beauty. Millions of years before us the earth lived in wild elegance. Landscape is the first-born of creation. Sculpted with huge patience over millennia, landscape has enormous diversity of shape, presence and memory. There is poignancy in beholding the beauty of landscape: often it feels as though it has been waiting for centuries for the recognition and witness of the human eye. John O’Donohue (Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)

 I’ve been on a bit of a retreat for much of the last week. New awareness rising. Love of the land I occupy deepening. Something (perhaps, some ‘things’) stirring, bubbling, shifting. Not good or bad; simply a sense that change is afoot.

 Change in me amidst. Change in our structured world. Change on (and in) Mother Earth. And beyond.

In this emerging awareness few words rise to be shared. Reading ( O’Donohue’s essay (The Affection of the Earth for Us) and reading again feeds the stirring, tapping my shoulder with a call to see beauty, acknowledge beauty EVERYwhere. Especially in the beauty of my place on the planet.

With Muse concurrence I simply leave you with O’Donohue’s closing words, along with the beauty of this sacred place I’m blessed to call home, and with an invitation to open to and embrace the beauty of your place on our marvelous blue marble.

We were once enwombed in the earth and the silence of the body remembers that dark, inner longing. Fashioned from clay, we carry the memory of the earth. Ancient, forgotten things stir within our hearts, memories from the time before the mind was born. Within us are depths that keep watch. These are the depths that no words can trawl or light unriddle. Our neon times have neglected and evaded the depth-kingdoms of interiority in favour of the ghost realms of cyberspace. Our world becomes reduced to intense but transient foreground. We have unlearned the patience and attention of lingering at the thresholds where the unknown awaits us. We have become haunted pilgrims addicted to distraction and driven by the speed and colour of images.

Sacred Mountains, Sacred Place

From Institutions to Inner and Interdependence

Dawning Sangres

This Huston Smith quote (thank you Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service for your Daily Inspirations!) evoked a nod of agreement, a chuckle (as in yep), and a long sighing ugh! Its truth runs deep in me. I could even add to Smith’s list of institutions and systems that serve neither humanity nor the planet. (Were Smith alive today, he likely would as well.)

Decades ago, I withdrew from religion and (after some years of aimless wandering in the territory) I began to forge a spiritual journey that continues with unexpected twists and turns to this day. The journey – heck, I might even accurately call it a quest – has guided me in numerous ways, many of them away from what we call ‘mainstream’ beliefs, culture, institutions, and such.

I tend to see ‘things’ – indeed life – differently than most of what I observe in the mainstream and many with whom I’ve engaged. Years ago, a revered leader in coach training circles dubbed me a ‘contrarian’. I wear the badge proudly.

I’ve long had the ability to see ‘both’/all sides and to accept the paradoxes that result, though I find it harder in today’s polarized culture as the sides dig more deeply into their positions. Institutions, as they are constituted by people, suffer and are failing as a result of this polarization. We’ve lost willingness and capability on all sides to listen, learn, cooperate.

And so, as institutions fail and fail us, I seek to find my own way. Seeking guidance and advice from others whom I trust and with whom I feel an alignment of values, I find myself making decisions from the inside out. I always aim to choose from my heart (and being human, sometimes falling short). I call this way ‘innerdependence’, strength from within to move forward in life; trusting self over institutions; depending on self-knowing, guidance from within. (Dr. Google, Webster, and Word inform me there is no such word. Hmmm…well, there IS now.)

Speaking of now, about now you may be wondering ‘what does this have to do with institutions?’ (I was wondering too as Muse guided the pen across the page!). We’re glad you asked!

As my innerdependence and self-conviction have deepened, I have been nudged (and, sometimes, pushed) to pull away from supporting institutions of all flavors (government, corporate, economic, education, etc.). They are not only failing us – you and me – they are failing, unsustainable, many breathing/gasping for their last breaths. I’m choosing to envision and to discover systems that are sustainable and that recognize in their designs the interrelatedness of all life. Interdependent. Cooperative. Life valuing. Life enhancing. Life generating.

I am clear that the future I want to see emerge is not ‘more of the same with some tweaks that (maybe) make ‘it’ better’. I envision and, by my choices, I call a world that works for all as we each follow the inner knowing of our unique roles, purposes, and gifts. From that individual innerdependence, new systems and structures rise. They recognize and honor our interdependence with one another and with all life as well as the interconnectedness of all life – from the unseen and microscopic to Mother Earth herself and the vast universes beyond.

My dream is not just for some distant, imagined future, this world is emerging NOW, being built NOW in thousands (perhaps tens and hundreds of thousands … maybe millions) of initiatives. As I pull away from mainstream institutions I’m creating and opening doorways to discovering amazing initiatives underway to co-create this future. Local, regenerative food systems and agriculture. New, innovative investment vehicles designed to do good in the world. And much, much more.

As I explore and choose to plug in, I will be sharing these discoveries. Meanwhile, I invite you to reflect on where your time, energy, and money are plugged in? How are they supporting the future YOU want to see in our world? For yourself? For the generations to come? For humanity and for our planet?

Evening Sky

Magic and The Beauty of Life

Baby Pinecone

Watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it. Roald Dahl

Yesterday morning I picked up a book that’s been on a nearby shelf for several years. It’s one of many that I’ve started over the years then set aside, pulled away by a shinier red ball or something that seemed at the time a more interesting or urgent trail. There wasn’t time to read in that moment, so I set it aside resolving to read later in the day.

When we returned from a lovely post-dinner walk, Zadie Byrd resisted coming inside. It was a beautiful evening, Sun moving through clouds on its journey to the western horizon, calm and quiet. Rather than insisting that she come in so I could read as planned, I grabbed the book and joined her outside. Ahh, the beauty of a Rocky Mountain evening.

Zadie explored the grounds where her long lead will allow, then pawed some earth and settled in. I settled into a waiting chair, taking a breath, scanning the landscape, and absorbing the serene beauty. A moment of gratitude for Zadie’s ‘suggestion’.

When I opened the book, I was greeted by the above quote. I read just a bit more, then read the quote again. Hmm… I closed the book, wanting to observe my surroundings with luminous eyes, ears, and all my senses. I thought of my desire to be a more keen observer of Nature, to hear and understand her messages. That being the topic of the book, I sensed I was receiving a new lesson, one that put my attention not on words on a page, but on Nature herself. I wondered if Muse was standing by.

I picked up a baby pinecone laying on the ground by my feet, probably knocked out of the tree in Monday’s hailstorm. It smelled of fresh sap and was gentle to my touch. I sensed that I was part of it and it a part of me. We were at once different AND of the same Source.

I felt deep gratitude as I wondered ‘who is that flitting in the pine?’. I took the challenge of seeing clearly in the fading light to discover western wood pewee, white breasted nuthatch, and violet green swallow. I ignored the gnat or small fly buzzing in my ear, to watch Sun’s last rays highlight the twists and turns of branches in an old pine that never fail to have me wonder ‘how/why do they do that?’

I sat, heart and whole being filled with gratitude for this place, this time, this planet, life. This gratitude grounds me in what is real beyond the world’s sound bites, stresses, and strains; its horrors and heartaches; its violence and injustice.

As the light faded, I realized how quiet this dusk is. I thought about an unidentified (so far) voice in the woods that I frequently hear summer evenings. As the thought exits, that voice – a deep, one note sound – enters. I chuckle and rise to move slowing in the voice’s direction. Maybe this day, I will see ‘it’. Not to be. ‘It’ is silent.

After a bit, I roust Zadie and we come inside to prepare for our night’s rest. Closing a back window, I see Moon in her fullness rising over the mountains and through the trees. Having spent time with Sun as she fell in the west, I’m drawn out back to be with Moon. Zadie declines to join me.

Moon mesmerizes as she shines through the trees, like Sun highlighting twists and turns in the pine branches. The unknown voice returns, speaks, moves, speak again, moves, speaks, moves … I sit in awe and deep gratitude for the magic of witnessing and participating in this life.

Muse smiles as I write this, knowing that my understanding and conviction of gratitude as a doorway to magic and peace has deepened overnight. Sun has just risen over the mountains and her rays into the woods. Cycles. Magic. Life.

As I prepare this post, I wonder about the symbolism of gnat and I ask ‘Dr. Google’. My quick search reveals such meanings as perseverance, transformation, change, and new perspectives. Sounds like more evidence of magic to me!

Moonrise in the Pines

Sacred Paths, Places and Peace

Meditation Corner

Fresh is the morning

Clear is the sky

Shiny are the rocks

Against the moist, dark Earth

Rain last evening helped quench the thirst of the soil and all who dwell in these woods. A morning after rain feels like an especially fresh start, much like a good, deep sleep when I’ve gone to bed weary. Rain and rest are balms for the soul quenching some of her longings.

Raucous raven’s cawing is dawn’s first sound as I settle in with Muse wondering where our journey will lead this morn. What wants to be revealed? Shared?

Much is stirring within and without, close to home and afar that warrants attention, reflection, care. Here at home new plants are thriving, feeding my spirit with joy as I gaze at the cheerful blooms and soft greenery with a heart full of gratitude. Afar, out there in the world, the new is being built on multiple and diverse fronts by visionaries, lovers of Earth and ALL her creatures, entrepreneurs, and others who know we must change and whose souls call forth life enhancing ways to do so: agriculture, food systems, health, energy, transportation, economies, and more. Activists are tracking and responding to what I pray are last ditch efforts to control rather than to nourish the dream of freedom and justice for ALL and the free will which we have been granted. They too are focused on multiple important fronts.

Their work inspires me. I cheer them on and lend support as opportunities to do so rise.

The last words I read yesterday evening weave with the practical wisdom of Pace e Bene’s daily inspiration several days ago:

At its heart, the journey of each life is a pilgrimage through unforeseen sacred places that enlarge and enrich the soul. John O’Donohue (Beauty: The Invisible Embrace)

and

If peace is what every government says it seeks and peace is the yearning of every heart, why aren’t we teaching it in schools? Colman McCarthy

Seemingly disparate at first read, Muse nudged me to read again, deeply. The Irish poet and the journalist each speak to our path and to paths forward. They point to paths in need of nurturing, focus, love, care. Paths that are sacred, as the journey to peace is a journey of each and all souls. Why aren’t we teaching peace? Why isn’t there a Department of Peace in each and every government from local to global?

The fearmongering of a crumbling world that is desperately trying to hang on to power and control will not stand as one by one, community by community, step by step, moment to moment we choose to recognize life’s sacredness and attend to learning, teaching, and practicing peace within and without all along the way.

The world’s woes are but reflections of darkness and pain calling out for light and healing. What world is calling to be created as we cultivate and nurture the light in our souls?

These are the musings that rise from my deep longing for a world where my stepson doesn’t feel the need to let me know that he and his family were not at the parade where a mass shooting occurred. A world where all children are safe, nurtured, nourished. Indeed, where all of us are safe, nurtured, nourished. A world where freedom and justice are the foundations of our way of life.

May we hold the challenges of this time as sacred places on our journey that enlarge and enrich our souls. May I?

Mountain Morning Mist

Beauty Abounds

Monsoon Season in the Mountains

Beauty abounds

Beauty surrounds

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

 Since last week’s post I’ve been keenly aware of the abundant beauty in my life in oh so many forms. Shortly after posting I opened mail picked up late the day before to find a gift: John O’Donohue’s Beauty: The Invisible Embrace. The gift alone was beautiful but coming on the heels of posting that investing in beauty is an investment in my soul I knew I’d received an immediate return on my investment in the post. Since then I’ve been present to simply noticing the word ‘beauty’ in various media on a wide range of topics.

For me this time of year is tender with beautiful memories: summer fun at the lake; beloveds who left their bodies in summertime – my mom, my dad, my cousin, and Cool Hand Luke; personal growth that I’ve experienced in summers past. Beauty.

There’s profound beauty in the changes I witness in Zadie Byrd over the past year. Unlike last season’s monsoon thunderstorms when she panted, trembled, paced, and sought shelter in the bathtub, she now takes them in stride – a bit pensive, but easily calmed by a flower remedy or a few drops of CBD. This season I enjoy the sound of rain on the roof, watching rain fall on the earth, and being alert to the possibility of a rainbow. Beauty.

An afternoon thunderstorm followed by showers late into the night adds moisture to these thirsty woods and mountains.

Rain falls

Sun shines

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

Rocks glisten

Ground softens

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

 Muse calls attention to my wandering mind as it wonders ‘is this rain enough to ease the extreme drought?’ or at least move the needle from extreme to severe or even simply ‘drought’? Man measures. Nature simply IS.

Birds sing

Hummers flit and feed

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

 Muse nudges again as mind wanders again to multiple projects that I want to move forward – continuing the landscaping; organizing and releasing books, papers, and other ‘stuff’ that once upon a time I couldn’t live without; completing my will and other legal directives …

Creek roars

Sun rises

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

 It is challenging to see beauty in the ravages of war, during personal hardship, in political upheaval and rights being taken away, in half-truths and outright lies, in hate speech – overt and covert. Yet, while they may be dormant and need tending, I know the seeds of beauty are in the midst of all. How might we tend, nurture these seeds? How might I?

Beauty abounds

Beauty surrounds

Wrapping me in a blanket of serenity.

 I was heartened yesterday to discover that the theme this year’s local July 4th celebration is ‘interdependence’ and features a local food hero who is one of the driving forces in organizing a regional food hub that provides access to locally grown foods around Colorado. The season’s first CSA (community supported agriculture) box arrived last week, chock full of fresh, Colorado grown and produced, food – beets, cherries, salad greens, quinoa, eggs and more. Nutritious, delicious, bountiful beauty.

Perhaps it is time to change the moniker of July 4th from ‘Independence Day’ to ‘Interdependence Day’ for as surely as each cell in the body does not operate with total independence of the others, we do not operate, survive, and thrive without one another in the various communities of which we are a part. Perhaps such reimagining is an evolutionary step forward in caring for Mother Earth, Nature, and one another. How beautiful could that be?

Yesterday’s Rainbows

Investing in Soul

Magical, Mystical RAIN!

Investing in beauty is an investment in my soul.

Muse knows that I’m excited this early morning, the second day of summer (Happy Solstice!). I’m immersed in the motion of summer, engaged in a project that has long been a dream. An unexpected trip to a regional nursery is on today’s agenda. Beauty is on the horizon.

A pre-Solstice heat wave was followed by much needed and blessed rain along with cooler temperatures. Rain over several days moistened the parched earth and left behind shining rocks that look as if they’ve had a good scrubbing. Birdsong seems even more cheerful, and I sense the unseen Beings in the woods out back are dancing with me in celebration.

Nature has awakened to her season of growth. Cones are forming on the pines. Cacti are blooming. Mother Earth delights in the softness of the moisture and watching her progeny grow.

Just as I imagine the fay dancing, my mind’s ears hear a dialog among the pinons. “I’m starting my cones today,” says one. “I’m gathering my energy to begin. Maybe tomorrow or …” replies another. In the world that I know as reality, their underground communication network is in full swing, collaborating to make the best of conditions above and below ground.

I too am in motion. The expanding collection of geraniums has been moved from their winter home indoors to the outdoors, bringing life and eventually color to the deck overlooking the woods. Moving and caring for them at the season’s change has become a ritual of creating beauty.

This season a project that’s been a dream for some time is coming to fruition. One side of my home is quite barren. Seemingly it was more impacted when the home was constructed and never received any TLC. Then last year installation of the solar system disrupted it further.

After construction was complete, I asked the area what it wanted, hoping that its desires would align with my long-held ideas. The area seemed to understand that it couldn’t be returned to its natural state and simply asked for beauty. ‘I just want to be a part of the beauty of this place, the home, Nature, and the woods out back,’ is what I sensed the area to say.

Since that ‘conversation’ I’ve envisioned creating beauty that would flow visually into the woods. This week finds me putting that vision into reality. Co-creating with Nature and a creative partner who knows what plants thrive here in the mountains. He has a keen eye for creating beauty and a strong body to dig in our rocky soil. He loves doing so and engages the process with keen awareness and meditatively. A joy to create with and to watch!

We’re using, with permission, the gifts of rock and driftwood, the trees and natural terrain of this landscape adding drought tolerant, deer resistant plants many of which will attract butterflies, bees, and the hummingbirds that nest here in the summer. I’m beyond grateful for his creativity, knowledge, strength, and the level of consciousness he brings each step along the way.

As I walk among the almost overwhelming choices of plants at the nursery, I come to realize that I’m creating a landscape that I’ve dreamed of long before coming to the Rocky Mountains. I’m filled with gratitude that I can invest in creating beauty and that, even before the project is complete, offers deep nourishment to my soul. Ever-present, Muse reminds me:  Investing in beauty IS an investment in the soul.

A Bounty of Beauty

Senses of the Heart

Cottonwood Creek - My Teacher this Week

Listen with ears of the heart. See with eyes of the Heart. Pam Gregory

As I settle in to write this morning the day is barely dawning. Earlier I stepped out to see the Moon in her fullness as she moved to the western horizon. The stunning lineup of planets and the all the stars were giving way to dawn’s light. In the cool crispness I observed the clear sky, absent of smoke and haze present in recent days.

As I breathe in the fresh, cool air – deep and slow - I pull the afghan knitted decades ago by my grandmother over my legs and feet and invite Muse in.

Thinking of Gran reminds that I’ve experienced promptings this week to reflect on family. I, my generation, is the last of this branch of the family since I and my now deceased cousins each for different reasons chose not to bear children.

I don’t regret my choice, having been a partner in raising my stepson, now with a family of his own and continuing to hold him close to my heart despite the miles and life priorities that limit frequent contact. I choose not to create obligation or guilt, but to allow the relationship to flow where it flows. As Muse reminds me that a relationship based on obligation is no relationship at all, I realize that it is a decision that I’ve made with my heart, asking my head to follow heart’s lead in defying a culture that holds a particular definition of how ‘family’ should look.

These days I embrace Nature as my family of choice, the ‘family’ that I love and learn from daily. This is the ‘family’ I long to be in right relationship with. Muse prompts a wondering: is it possible to be in right relationship with another human while our relationship with Nature is askew?

In the little corner of the globe that I occupy and call home I want to right my relationship with Mother Earth and ALL of her progeny. This week She reminded me in Her gentle way that a part of right relationship requires asking permission.

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been gathering water from nearby Cottonwood Creek as a part of the experimental nourishing two pinon pines in the woods out back. Mother and Grandmother Pinon each agreed when I asked if they would be willing to receive. So, I began the process: bringing in water from the creek, mixing an Ormus formula, activating with frequency 528Hz tones, pouring around the tree. I’ve felt a deep connection to each tree as I engaged.

One morning this week at the creek as I busily filled a bucket and thanked the water, I realized that I’d never asked for permission to do so. It was as if the creek was speaking to my heart. The reminder brought a wave of guilt and sadness for my thoughtlessness, yet I knew that I was hearing through the ears of my heart.

I asked for the creek and the water’s forgiveness and for permission to continue. In hindsight I see that those words were more from my head than my heart as I quickly completed my bucket filling task and brought the water home.

I’ve carried this moment with me as I’ve observed with deep gratitude all the ways that Mother Earth and Nature support me with unquestioning, unconditional love. My heart sees the many ways that I take that love for granted, assuming that I have permission to walk on the earth wherever and whenever I choose and to use the resources She provides unconsciously and at will.

These are habits of lifetime and culture that I in this chapter of life I aim to shift by engaging the senses of my heart more fully from moment to moment and day to day.

I cannot know how my life would have unfolded if I’d learned early on to listen to Mother Earth in this way. As I feel deep gratitude that I am learning now, I wonder how our culture might be had we followed this wisdom of the ancients – listening to and working in cooperation with Nature. I aspire to do my part to give our progeny the gift of knowing. Perhaps this is a pivot we each might attend to in our own unique way.

Cones Birthing on the Grandmother Tree

Return on Investment

Morning Light in the Woods

I know it's way too Utopian to think we will all ever just hug and love each other- but proactively dealing with hate could be as important to the future as clean water. Bobby Sagar

The sky lightens earlier and earlier each morn as Mother Earth moves toward the Summer Solstice in less than two weeks. Warmer weather has arrived here in the Sangres bringing the blessing of cool evenings and crisp, cool mornings. Nature’s air-conditioning.

Just as I do as winter settles in, I remember the patterns and adjustments needed for the season: windows open at dawn, closed as the sun rises over the peaks and shines in the woods, open in the evening cool, close at bedtime lest bear feels invited in. Cycles. Adjustments. Patterns. Breaks. Life!

My investment in rest this week has returned an abundance of reflection and thought time. Cycles of light and dark have been part of that reflection. Knowing that each and every day when one part of Mother Earth is in darkness, another part is in light. The light expands in summer and contracts in winter. Consistency.

We experience this cycle 365 days a year. I’ve experienced it 26,349 times during this sojourn on the planet, far too many of those cycles unconsciously, even grudgingly. Especially in my young adult years waking to the annoying ringing of an alarm clock (remember those?). Ugh! Another day already? Do I really have to get up? In those years too few mornings were met with the tingles of gratitude, wonder, and curiosity I experience today.

Though different, my gratitude and wonder these days is reminiscent of the wonder and excitement I remember as a child. Excited to explore and discover what treasures and treasured experiences awaited, I was the first kid in the neighborhood to be awake and outside on summer mornings. I didn’t have an awareness of gratitude in those early years; perhaps my joy was sufficient.

Pen pauses. Muse has taken me on an unexpected turn in this reflective flow, but perhaps a worthy turn it is. In the morning cool and quiet I wonder how it relates to the week’s experiences and other reflections such as acknowledging the darkness in events around the globe without being overwhelmed by them.

Honoring my deep desire to be a point of light that attracts other light while maintaining my balance and sovereignty, I remember that everything is magnified by the Universe without distinguishing what we think of as good or bad. Everything. Every thought. Every word. Every deed. I experience a moment of sadness, regret for mindless words spoken to a friend when I was irritated recently and for feeling irritated itself. It’s a strong reminder to pause, to breath before speaking.

Muse smiles and reminds me about my reaction yesterday to a new structure being built nearby that seems quite out of place and character in our neighborhood and community, both its physical appearance and intended us. I think about the trees sacrificed in the name of generating a high return on investment. No regard for Nature. No regard for community and community needs. I’ve been there in that profit only mindset. I’m pivoting to a new understanding and finding new investment vehicles for the resources I have access to.  (Hmm … another unexpected turn from Muse in this morning consciousness stream.)

Gently I return to the new structure, thinking about the challenge to speak my concerns from non-judgement, non-violence, and love, putting my attention on my care for Nature and the nature of our community. I wonder if there is cause to rally neighbors in protest. How might we do so with love? And, how will I stay in my center, not getting caught in the flurry of a word storm or contributing to it, while standing in and speaking my truth?

This I sense is what we are being called to do as world chaos intensifies and the old breaks down to make way for the new. How will we invest our energy to generate returns in the form of a new world, higher consciousness, a world that works for all? How will I? How will we begin to see and understand our complicity in each of the day’s pressing issues – micro/community and macro/global - without losing heart and hope and with an eye toward making individual pivots toward that better world? How will I? How will we learn to value ALL life and reflect that value in our daily choices? How will I?

Blessing the Feeding of the Mother Pinon Pine