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

Making Life a Sacred Journey of Nonviolence

Neighborhood Street Signs Make Me Smile!

Fighting, cheating, and bullying have trapped us in our present situation; now we need training in new practices to find a way out. It may seem impractical and idealistic, but we have no alternative to compassion, recognizing human value and the oneness of humanity.  The Dalai Lama (2/3/21 quote from Pace e Bene Nonviolence Services Nonviolent Life: Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey – more info here)

Compassion, human value, the oneness of humanity. These qualities sum up for me the first five days of the Gandhi King Season for Nonviolence which began on January 30, the anniversary of Gandhi’s assassination and ends on April 4, the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King. I’m engaging in awareness of each day’s theme in my life with the intention of erasing tendencies I have toward violence. You can find the themes here and here.

Day 1 on Saturday seemed to appear out of nowhere. Could it really be the end of January already? Yes, and now February is well underway. The theme for Day 1 was courage, a necessary ingredient in nonviolence. The day’s message offered a deepened felt sense of unity with all that is. Oneness. I am a part of everything. Everything is a part of me. Everything we think, say, do matters.

When you discover that everyone is contained in you and you are contained in everyone, you have realized the unity of life … Then you are not just a person; you have become a beneficial force. (From AGNT’s daily mediation Day 1).

This is BEing the change I wish to see in the world. Simple to envision. Not so easy for most of us to live moment to moment, day to day from this place. Courage is needed to buck the violence in our culture and to break the arc toward violence of the habits I’ve developed along the way: seemingly small, yet costly, negative reactions to some of what crosses my path in the course of a day: a snap judgement about something or someone in the news or a post on social media; impatience with Zadie Byrd when she wants to stop and sniff and I want to keep going. Recognizing that these are acts of violence (toward myself more than others) is a sacred act.

Life’s events are just that: sacred acts giving us the sovereign choice of how we will react or respond. When I take a walk with Zadie as a sacred act of care for both of us, my impatience wanes. My teacher Zadie Byrd, like Cool Hand Luke before her, reminds me in her own way to ‘stop and smell the pines’ (no roses here in the woods you know!).

Recognizing Zadie Byrd as one of my teachers in nonviolence, brought a smile to my face on Day 2 when the theme was smiling. I chuckled as I realized that my impatience is the place where my experience of the peace of nonviolence ends. My life-long learning of tolerance – a key to experiencing the truth of unity – continues! Thich Nhat Hanh reminds us:

If in our daily life, we can smile … not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.

Everything we do matters. A smile from the heart is a sacred act of nonviolence. Smile!

The ‘season’ continued with Day 3’s theme, appreciation, which flowed easily from the awareness of Days 1 and 2. It reminded me that appreciation is one of the keys to heart coherence. Day 4, caring, offered a reminder of the importance of self-care as a demonstration of nonviolence.

Today is Day 5, believing, and poses the question: what do I believe about nonviolence? Do I believe that each moment of tolerance and patience, every smile (masked or not!), every experience of unity and connection matter, and that care for myself and others are sacred acts toward creating a culture of nonviolence? I do. I believe that is true for each of us. We can do this! Indeed we must.

Teacher Zadie Byrd Rolling in the Snow - Also Makes Me Smile!

Envisioning a Collective Pivot to Love

Snowy Morning in the Sangres

Everyone has their story – good and bad. We are all different. We are all the same.

One week from today will be the ‘morning after’ what feels like a monumental presidential election here in the U.S. We may or may not know the result when we wake from our slumber, if indeed we slumber at all. Yet, whether we know or not, we are unlikely to experience a huge sigh of relief that ‘it’ is over. (Yeah, that bums me out too.)

Although election day itself will be behind us, the acrimony and divisiveness will surely make their presence known. The divide may even be deeper. Each ‘side’ will stoke its core to react; some with fear and hate, others with love and care. Fingers of blame will be pointed. This is how political machines and pundits thrive. This is how the machines of war and weaponry get funded.

But this is not the way of nature nor the true way of human nature. My heart aches when I consider the very real possibility of massive violence in the streets stoked by fear of ‘the other’.

That same heart bursts with joy at the possibilities that lie within and beyond a pivot to non-violence, to understanding, cooperation and to peace. Science is discovering more and more that this is the nature of we humans. That we each are an integral part of a whole, cells in the body of life on this planet, and, perhaps, beyond. May we come to know more deeply that everyone has their story – good and bad. We are all different. We are all the same.

No path forward from where we find ourselves today will likely be an easy one. We have much work to do starting with an honest look at our own habits of separation. Collectively, we need to review history and somehow make amends for the crimes of our ancestors. From our sincere efforts a framework for living fully into the truth that we all were, are, and will forever be created equal. Everyone has their story – good and bad. We are all different. We are all the same.

It will not be easy to bid adieu to the structures and forms that have never served this higher truth. Like all creative acts the process will be messy, chaotic and require courage and commitment. Our ‘willingness to change’ muscles are sure to be tested and strengthened in the process. Then, beyond the chaos and messiness, a new world, one that works for all, can emerge. Like our precious Mother Earth, she will require diligent nurturing and care for generations to come. We can do this!

We are built for this time, this change and for the sake of humanity and the planet, pivot we must. By our thoughts, our words, and our deeds we are each creating the present moment and each moment beyond. May we think, speak, and act from open-hearted love for self, for humanity, and for the planet.

Frozen Morning Landscape

Courage for Our Time

A Visual Feast Every Day

It takes more courage to dig deep in the dark corners of your own soul and the back alleys of your society than it does for a soldier to fight on the battlefield. William Butler Yeats (Oct 13, 2020 - This Nonviolent Life: Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey from Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service)

When I read this quote it seemed to both echo and expand last week’s musing about true power. It reflects much of what we are witnessing in the collective move to look more deeply at history and understand the dark side of our so-called progress. To do so requires courage, especially in the face of resistance, sometimes armed and violent.

Likewise, it reflects the personal courage that I’m discovering I need to look in the ‘dark corners’ of my lifestyle and habits of consumption where their true cost is revealed.  It takes courage to dare wonder about the cost of my choices and to ask who is paying the price of my choices.

These are the kinds of questions that present themselves as I explore the territory of greater awareness in spending and investing choices searching for avenues that are more fully aligned with what I claim are my values. And, wondering if I have the courage of those convictions.

Such musings seem magnified this week in the great divide between those who would celebrate the colonization of the Americas symbolized by Columbus Day here in the U.S. in contrast to the messages from indigenous people (who continue to pay the price) calling upon humanity to awaken to the consequences not just to their cultures but the very planet that we all share.

It takes courage to read and to think deeply about Nemonte Nenquimo’s message to the western world (click here).

It takes courage to listen to 2018 presentation (click here) that Nenquimo and other indigenous leaders made at the Bioneers conference and then to think deeply and do more than sign petitions.

I know this, because I am questioning how deep my courage runs to be better informed, to reflect AND then to ACT upon these and other issues of our time. I pray that it is deep enough and that I might earnestly adopt the words and spirit of a prayer that came my way this week.

It is said to be the Dalai Lama’s morning prayer, written by Shantideva, a Buddhist monk of the Mahayana tradition who lived around 700 AD. He was a devoted practitioner who authored the Bodhicaryavatara or Bodhisattva Way of Life. Thanks to Nick Polizzi and the folks at The Sacred Science for this uplift to my week!

Bodhisattva Prayer for Humanity

"May I be a guard for those who need protection

A guide for those on the path

A boat, a raft, a bridge for those who wish to cross the flood

May I be a lamp in the darkness

A resting place for the weary

A healing medicine for all who are sick

A vase of plenty, a tree of miracles

And for the boundless multitudes of living beings

May I bring sustenance and awakening

Enduring like the earth and sky

Until all beings are freed from sorrow

And all are awakened."

… Enduring Like Earth and Sky …

Sprouting Seeds of Change: A New World View

In the Flow of Life and Change

… the work of pivoting to a new paradigm in which humanity along with all of nature on our planet can thrive …is deep and personal, each of us contributing to a larger collective. … Our work is work of the heart. Commitment, discipline, and consistent awareness are required. Being counter to much of our culture, using words of peace will require acts of courage, different, yet no less demanding, than engaging in battle. Read last week’s post here.

If you threaten someone’s worldview, they will often react to you as if you were threatening their physical body. … a worldview can function like a force field … Paul K. Chappell, A New Peace Paradigm: Understanding Our Human Needs

We live in a worldview that separates from our wholeness – body, mind, and spirit.  This paradigm separates us from one another and from nature, the planet that birthed and sustains us. Is it any wonder that that masks and ‘social distancing’ are this paradigm’s answer to slow the spread of Covid 19, and that strengthening one’s immune system is not front and center to the strategy and conversation?

My point is not to get into the controversy over the effectiveness of masks and other approaches, but to invite us to look at the challenges and deep work required to sprout and nurture a new worldview. As I discovered (again, for the first time) this week in a blinding flash of the obvious, the worldview of separation is so deeply embedded in our being that we are often unaware of how it guides our choices. It, like water to the fish, is transparent. For the fish, awareness may not matter; for us, awareness is required.

My discovery came from a story that a member of the faith community, an activist herself as well as a counselor to those on the front lines of activism and service.  It deepened my understanding of why the drive to succeed at all cost has never felt quite right. It invited me to look back at my years of workaholism in a new light.

She told of a conversation in which she was counseling a young man who had been loading food all day on an assembly line. He was so focused that he forgot to eat, hydrate, or go to the bathroom. He slept only three to four hours over five or six days. In our culture we tend to praise and admire such dedication. We might add some words suggesting some self-care.

We rarely look more deeply to the root, the worldview from which these choices arise. We accept, even honor, the dedication and commitment. It seems required in times of urgent need such as these.  I too acknowledge and honor those who serve in so many ways. In acknowledging, we might say something like ‘I had no choice … it had to be done.’ Who among us has not spoken those words?

But the minister took a deeper look. She saw a deep awareness that (and I’m paraphrasing/semi-quoting her words here) ‘this system of individual performance without connection to mind, body, spirit is white, male, supremacy, domination, capitalist thinking … it is the disconnection from mother … and, we will not move from this place in the consciousness that created it.’ 

The connection of our performance-based approach to so much of life and this worldview seems obvious in hindsight. The minister’s story resonates deeply in my being. It shines new light on the choices I’ve made to withdraw and live quietly connecting with myself and nature. And, on how blessed I am to be able to make those choices.

It reminded me of the challenges of making personal change. And, more importantly, of the historical context of how difficult birthing a new paradigm, a new view of the world is.

The seeds of a new paradigm are sprouting all around as the old worldview fights to hold on to its old, outmoded ways. Chaotic and messy is the nature of creation. Pivoting to the new is not easy. It will often seem as if we are going against the flow of life. It is work of the heart and work in the streets. We can do this. Indeed, we must.

Nurturing Seeds Inside and Out

Pivoting To the Language of Peace

Stairway to Heaven - The Ziggurat

One of the key words Gandhi used in expressing the meaning of nonviolence was ahimsa, literally ‘non-harm,’ the refusal to hurt others. It's the rock bottom of nonviolence. A second key word was satyagraha (a combination of the words for ‘truth’ and ‘holding firmly’) sometimes called ‘truth force,’ holding on to what is true and good, striving to bring about more humane conditions for people and society. King called it ‘soul force.’ Dr. Gerard Vanderhaar (daily quote for June 3, 2020 This Nonviolent Life – Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey, Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service - https://paceebene.org/

I feel my ‘inner radical’ waking up, emerging as something both new and familiar. Not to re-engage in the political activism of my distant past (that system is broken, yet, until we change it, that IS the system), but to call forth the shifts and changes needed, individually and collectively, to bring new collaborative, cooperative systems forth.

Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me … let this be the moment now (Sy Miller and Jill Jackson Miller – 1955)

Words seem inadequate to express the depth of sadness and grief I’ve felt this week witnessing the discord and rage playing out across the United States. Sadly, I’ve seen it before both here and abroad.

Likewise, words don’t seem up to the task of lifting us out of the morass to a view above the fray. Above the fray we can imagine a different world: a world of peace; of harmony, of beauty and joy; of love. A world of understanding that we are one. A world where justice is not a system, but a way of being. A world in which ‘ahimsa’ is our way of life. Let this be the moment we pivot to peace.

Yet it is with words that we create our world. Our words beget action. The dissonance and outrage being lived out today stems, in part, from our failure to use words wisely, thoughtfully, with awareness and care. Rather than words of peace and nonviolence, we humans have declared ‘war’ on most everything: other cultures and countries, disease, poverty, racism and a host of other ills.

Surely by now we understand that war is not the answer no matter what the question. As so-called leaders declare war on each other and incite us to follow, WE must lead with a resounding ‘NO!’ We must render the words of separation, of competition, of violence null and void. We must toss them onto the trash heap of outworn concepts and ‘facts’ that science no longer supports. Separation has defined far too much of the history of humanity. We must weave science and spirit together again in our consciousness as surely as they are wed in the universe.

This is the work of pivoting to a new paradigm in which humanity along with all of nature on our planet can thrive. The work is deep and personal, each of us contributing to a larger collective. Our work is as simple as being thoughtful with each and every post or comment on social media. Gulp! And, simple is not easy. Our work is work of the heart. Commitment, discipline, and consistent awareness are required. Being counter to much of our culture, using words of peace will require acts of courage, different, yet no less demanding, than engaging in battle.

The world we’ve known with its illusion of separation is falling apart. Rather than putting Humpty Dumpty together again, it is time to pivot to a new story.  Infinite possibility awaits our discovery and calls us forth to weave the world from a place of new understanding and new knowledge, using wisdom past and present to guide us step by step to a culture of peace.

My ‘inner radical’ agrees with author/activist Rivera Sun who declares that radical is the new sensible. As part of my pivot, I’ll be joining some of her summer trainings and offerings (you can find them here). I’ll continue to engage with nature and listen deeply to call forth wisdom from my past and discover what new wisdom emerges at this pivotal moment in time. We can do this. It is our time.

Mountain Morning Majesty

Optimistic By Nature

Morning in The Woods Outback

Every thought leads to the next thought. … Optimism infuses your life with an aura of dignity and invites in harmony. Gregge Tiffen (Open Secrets: An Air of Optimism)

Harmony. Ahhhh … As I look into the woods out back as the day dawns, I hear the early morning songs of avian awakenings and I watch a humming bird hover outside my window, perhaps curiously wondering what is this wall that separates her from the blooming plant just inside. Zadie Byrd sleeps peacefully nearby. Harmony.

I feel the optimism in that harmony deep in my bones and deeper still in my being. I feel the dignity that optimism imbues. These woods, these creatures reflect the true nature of life. I ask for guidance to do, to be likewise.

In these woods I witness cycles – timeless yet timely. Sunrise. Sunset. New growth. Death. Movement. Stillness. Flow. Surely these must represent the essence of optimism.

Nature is intimately partnered with us in the physical experience, and that is perhaps the greatest boon of our incarnate existence, as nature is directly connected to and informed by the Universe. Gregge Tiffen (Life in the World Hereafter: The Journey Continues).  Harmony.

It occurred to me that my optimism is grounded in nature – what I know and what I can learn from nature’s teaching. Harmony.

Yet, I (indeed we all) live in the world, a world in which harmony is hidden and disharmony appears to reign. Divisiveness is wielded as a tool to maintain control. All around are the cries of polarities that, ignorant of harmony and nature’s ways, invite me to choose sides, to select who or what I should depend on to sustain my life. Pessimism fuels their games.

When I look beyond the headlines and drama screaming for attention, I see that world dissolving. In that dissolving we are called forth to create anew. To ‘do’ life differently. To ‘be’ and express the true nature that we are: harmonious, beautiful, joyful, loving, intelligent, alive, peaceful, powerful beings in an abundant Universe. To live from optimism.

At first I thought ‘no one is optimistic by nature’.  Then as I realized the nature of optimism, it became clear to me that our true nature is indeed optimistic. Yet, while optimism is our true nature, to live optimism requires attention, awareness, and nurturing. Moment to moment we are called to awaken to this, our true nature. When the world succeeds in distracting us with its pessimism and fear, we are called to reawaken to the optimism that is our true nature.

Be willing to awaken while the world dissolves before your eyes. Call yourself forth, call yourself by your true nature. Susa Silvermarie 2018

Optimism thrives on curiosity. Optimism requires courage.  Optimism is not something to ‘do’, it is a way of being true to self and true to nature.  How will you rise to the call of optimism this moment, this day, this week? 

FLOW! Crestone Creek at Colorado College

Spring! Awaken, Think Deeply, Pivot

Yield and step into the flow of nature.

Life seems to fail us because we do not make new space for ourselves. … life is a continuum of things being ‘broke’. Unless you are willing to take a new stance, walk a new path, find a new answer, develop a new character, build a new body, express in new terms, and see through new eyes, everything will remain the same. … Nature moves down two pathways. One assures equal balance on the planet. The other leads to a natural development and advancement of all living things.  Gregge Tiffen (It’s Springtime! Flow with the Power of Nature – March, 2007)

Spring! The earth spins and the season of new growth begins here in the northern hemisphere. Half of the globe is springing into newness and light. The other half ‘falling’ into the season of harvest with the darkness of winter just beyond.

But no matter the season, life has changed drastically for all of us. We have the power to decide how that change will emerge. As nature moves down her two pathways, balance and advancement, will we step into her flow, listen deeply to her voice, reflect on her cries, and pivot to create new ways to live on our precious planet?  Or, will we simply pause, rest, entertain ourselves in the hope that life will soon return to ‘normal’? Which will I choose?

Do we have the courage to challenge the thinking of scientific materialism that has taken us further and further from nature, our mother? Do I?

Are we willing to be honest with ourselves about the destruction we each cause in our daily participation in a culture that values science and the material world over spirit, not understanding that the two are not separate? Am I?

Might we examine the life we call ‘normal’ knowing (even complaining about) the stresses that it creates in our bodies, our relationships, and all of life? Might I?

Our children who haven’t yet lost their connection to nature are asking and, rightfully, demanding. From Greta Thunberg, to the Sunrise Movement (www.sunrisemovement.org), to your own children and grandchildren as voiced by this young person’s question to ‘mom’ over breakfast posted by a colleague yesterday on Facebook:

Mom, we’re doing our part and staying home from school, not seeing our friends, not going outside. We are doing this even though Coronavirus won’t kill us. We’re doing this to help the adults and the older people to live longer and healthier lives. So, when this is all over, will they repay us by making changes to save the environment? So that we will be able to live longer, healthier lives when we are their age?
Because, you know, that seems fair to me.

How will we respond? How will I?

Will we simply hit the ‘play’ button when this pause is over and scramble to return to life as it was or as close to that as we can make it? Or will we use this time to think deeply and pivot to creating a culture and systems that recognize and use both spirit and science/material things, that honor the ways of nature and acknowledges that we will not control her?  Will we boldly demand a culture and systems that respect ALL life?

As I watch the snow fall in the woods out my window my heart knows that these are questions. And, as history has shown us time after time, a ‘war’ on the problem is not the answer.

Use this time wisely. Rest. Take extraordinary care of yourself and those you love. Hold those whose choices you loath in light and love for they too are on a journey of learning just as each of us. Muster the courage and willingness to think deeply and honestly about your life. Build upon that courage to pivot to walk through life anew.    

The calendar says ‘Spring’. Mother Nature says ‘not yet’.

Me, You & The Times We Live In

Clouds Obscure the Beauty of the Peaks … What might be clouding beauty in your world today?

The psychology of the individual is reflected in the psychology of the nation. … Only a change in attitude of the individual can initiate a change in the psychology of the nation. Carl Jung (This Nonviolent Life: Daily Inspiration for Your Nonviolent Journey – February 11, 2020)

The Universe sees in you the harmonious co-operation as one of Its parts to the whole. … The Universe loves you enough to agree to your request to be here now. Gregge Tiffen (Fanned Fire and Forced Love Never Did Well – February, 2008)

There are times in life when I’m challenged to not loose heart, faith and to maintain perspective beyond whatever event I find myself experiencing or observing.  I’m guessing you too have experienced such times. I’m guessing as you look out at the world and bear witness to anger, greed, fear, and violence this may be one of those times.

In addition to what we observe in the world, events in our personal lives may throw us into doubt and fear. Events, both personal and global, are the stuff life is made of, ingredients of the learning opportunities we are gifted with on our journey.

Today, much is being said across all forms of media and around kitchen tables over cups of tea (or glasses of something stronger!) about this time in history. Many wring their hands and bemoan what they are witnessing. Others engage in various forms of activism. Some are victims. Others are perpetrators. Some feel outrage. Others are gleeful at the power they wield. Many are fearful of what’s to come in their personal lives and in the greater collective.

Jung’s quote reminded me of this as I found myself reacting to current events here in the United States. Our society, our country are reflections of us.

I think about this often when I observe events in the world beyond my quiet woods. I’m curious to observe my own thoughts which run the gamut from instinctive, angry reaction to a deep sense of peace that ‘this too shall pass’ (though I don’t believe this means that things will return to ‘normal’ or go back to some imagined ‘better time’). Life is after all an onward proposition.

I aim to quickly move through my reactions and look at events that perturb me from a higher perspective. I don’t want to contribute to the fear, anger and chaos that seem to reign in much of the media. We need quiet (and, yes, not so quiet) voices of understanding and peace.

As systems break down, we need to weave the fabric of new ones: systems that honor the truth that we are all one and that how each of us thinks, speaks and acts matters to the whole. Before we can weave, we must discover for ourselves threads of love and understanding, of connectedness. We must understand that we are separate parts of a whole that needs our highest and best – moment by moment, day by day. That is how change manifests: from inside each and every one of us to the highest and best expressions of ourselves in the world. This is our work first and foremost.

In a world and in times with demands and distractions from all directions, our work is not easy. It requires discipline, self-care (indeed our work is a form of self-care), commitment, and conviction. We are part of a greater whole that needs us to be our best selves. Our thoughts matter as much, perhaps more, than the words and deeds that follow.

It seems to me that this is important learning in and for these times. The school bus awaits. Will we climb aboard?

And after the clouds, clarity and beauty that was there all along.

It's NOT Beyond Me (or You)!

Fall Sunset over the San Luis Valley and San Juan Mountains Beyond

No matter what knowledge you want, no matter what guidance you seek,and no matter the circumstances, there is a place in the Universe that is personal and directly accessible for you to meet any one of your requirements.  Gregge Tiffen (Earth and Second Earth, Book 3 in The Collected Works of Gregge Tiffen)

A common thread that weaves through much of my adult life is a curiosity around tapping into knowledge, intelligence, wisdom that is beyond what I can observe using my five senses.

Perhaps I was born with it. As a child I would wander down to the pasture and talk with the cows. In this moment I don’t remember the substance of those conversations, but my guess is that they were more interesting and, perhaps, informative than interactions with people.  Indeed, most likely it was people particularly family and teachers, who interrupted that communication flow and my trust in it. After all, I’m sure their message was something like ‘be normal’ or ‘this is the right way’.

In college I was introduced to ‘Silva Mind Control’ and much of the reading and learning I’ve participated in over the years includes this idea of tapping into to ‘something’ beyond my five senses. As I reflect this morning, I’m grateful for what I know and use. I’m humbled by the tools that I’ve learned, but lie dormant, dusty even a bit rusty, from lack of use.

I wonder why that’s so in our world where science continues to ‘discover’ the ‘secrets’ known in ancient cultures?  Then, I remember my childhood in the pasture with the cows. That wasn’t considered normal. Whatever ‘it’ was, it wasn’t what needed to be learned or how to learn it.

Like many others, I was guided away from anything that wasn’t rational or logical. Beyond my own personal childhood experience, I see that logic and rationale are tools of control, used by us all to influence one another for good or for ill. And, used by those who want power over others.

The knowledge of our individual power and our personal, individual connection with the Universe has been drummed out of the culture for ages, hidden away by those who desire to control others.  As a result our systems – education, finance, business, health, politics, government, religion – have control as their foundation. They are based on power ‘over’ rather than power ‘of, by, and for’; domination rather than dominion.

Going beyond the logical, rational, mechanistic world is simply not supported by the systems around which our culture is organized. That we need new systems is a muse for another day. For now, I recognize that, though dormant, the seed of curiosity was planted, and whatever I’d learned was part of me. Stumped or confused about a decision I was facing, I shunned ‘I don’t know’ in favor of ‘I wonder if’. From time to time, I’d pull out and dust off a tool and apply it to whatever issue happened to be in front of me.

While that’s served me pretty darn well in life, I’m curious what more I can tap into. With deeper awareness what more do my cells have to say? What knowledge might the 70 plants that I’ve just moved indoors for winter have to impart? What messages do the creek, the sunrise, the sunset, the wind, the pines, the nuthatch hold for me if I will but listen? Beyond this plane, what knowledge and wisdom are within reach, if only I will listen within?

I’m grateful for remembering that nothing – NO thing – we need or want to know is beyond us IF we truly want to know and use our will to go beyond what’s normal, or easy. Then, with focus and courage apply ourselves to the quest.

Six of 70!

INWARD and ONWARD!