ALL We Need IS Love

Snow! On the Labyrinth Bell

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need … John Lennon - The Beatles (click here for a 3 minute ride down memory lane)

As I move beyond the hustle and bustle of what we call the ‘holiday season’, I’m present to the pleasure and satisfaction that came with choosing to engage in holiday activities with others more than I usually do. I’m grateful for the opportunities to gather and share with friends. And as this fifth day of the new calendar year dawns, I’m also present to a deep pull to go within, to withdraw, bear-like, into a state of torpor. To rest. To hear with clarity the whispers of my heart, a heart that is calling for trimming the sails and making course corrections to more fully align the activities and choices in life with that which I say I value.

The Muse muffles a chuckle, knowing this will necessitate investing more time in sitting quietly, resting, napping. It will require that I let go of trying to control the flow of life and that I build muscle to allow changes and projects to flow in their time, divine time, not my time. The Muse’s chuckle gives way to a gentle embrace, a reminder that Muse nudges and wisdom are available 24/7. Like Zadie Byrd, the Muse is oh so patient with my humanness.

Although I feel this pull to draw inward every winter, this year seems different. While much of our contemporary Western culture declares the ‘holiday season’ over when the new year is celebrated, other cultures – those more in tune with Nature and her cycles – dedicate this time to inner journeys, to rest, to envisioning what wants to come forward. They rest and gather within that which will be needed to burst forth in spring. They listen to the heart whispers and invite the heart to have its full voice.

 And that is what I’m easing into in the early minutes of this new year: investing more time in contemplation and consideration, being with the stars and all of Nature to discover what wants to unfold, to jettison that which no longer serves, and to gather what I need for the journey ahead.

While discovery, jettisoning, and gathering will require me to breakthrough more layers of my own habitual muscle memory and to develop stronger immunity to the pull of a culture that wants me to conform, the deep potency and possibility that I feel for humanity and our planet home, Mother Earth, in this year provide sustainable, renewable fuel for the journey.

Although this time finds our world chaotic, we need not be in chaos with it. My choices, indeed, our choices, minute by minute in the remaining 519,120 minutes (more or less) of 2022, hold the potential to contribute positively to the new that is unfolding as the old falls away.

In the quiet time and in the active time each day, I’m deepening trust in the voice of my heart to shine light on the path and to support me step by step in the uncharted waters ahead aiming to expand my capacity to BE the love I want to see in the world. For indeed, love is all we need.

New Years Snow on the Mountains

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

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 - Love for ALL Beings

Home Sweet Home

Until there is a sense of solidarity among the peoples of the world, all of our efforts for peace and security will go nowhere. Ambassador Anwarul Chowdhury

I’m always curious to discover where the Muse will begin and where our weekly reflective journey will lead. This morning I remembered a meditation about loving self/loving all beings/embracing oneness that I experienced years back. I don’t recall its source or even the specific language, but I was aware of how valuable it would have been to remember earlier in the week when I found myself unable to feel the feelings of the frequency of love.

I wanted to infuse love into a situation about which I felt gnarly and confused, misunderstood and sad. Yet, for a period of time, I felt blocked from the energy and flow of gratitude, appreciation, love. Looking back, realized that I’d experienced a deep-felt sense of separation – separation from others, from planet, from Source, from self. At the same time, I knew that what I felt wasn’t and isn’t true. Yet I couldn’t access the deep feelings of truth: of unity, connection, wholeness; of gratitude, appreciation, love.

The Muse reminds me that our systems are built on this false story, hence we are steeped in it daily, consciously, or not. Thus, we need the nourishment of antidotes: stories that speak our deep truth. I’m grateful for the growing number and quality of such sources, one of which is front and center this week: Humanity’s Team and the week-long 12th Annual Global Oneness Summit: Opening to Your Universal Self, culminating in Global Oneness Day on Sunday, October 24. (https://www.humanitysteam.org/global-oneness-day). You only need invest your time to watch, listen, and be inspired by a vast array of thought leaders.

I’ve only taken in a few presentations so far. Doing so strengthens my understanding of and conviction about the truth of our being. It helps me remember to be ‘in the world and not of it’ and lifts the heaviness of the separation story. Indeed, it helped me put aside my ‘gnarly’ situation and to attend to daily life-sustaining tasks (you know, the ‘darn dailies’ that all too often seem like burdens) with a lighter heart. Zadie Byrd ‘chimed’ in, retreating to a favorite spot for a nap, reminding me that rest is as important as any other ‘task’ (especially since the body is still in healing mode). I notice that loving attention is easily focused on this canine teacher. The Muse has many voices.

The gnarly situation attempted to get my attention a few times, and even succeeded in getting me spinning for a bit. But each time I set it aside, confident that its time would come and along with it love, care, and clarity. When that time came, I was able to act with greater ease and a softer heart. I settled in with pen and paper to explore with Creation the highest and best course of action for all concerned. As clarity came and my course of action emerged, heaviness and any remaining sense of separation began to lift. As my truth began to reveal itself, access to love, gratitude, unity, wholeness – the truth of our being – returned.

The Muse chuckles, reminding me that the truth of our being is ever present. ‘It’ doesn’t ‘return’ to us. Rather ‘we’ return to love. And, as we do so the truth of our Oneness lifts our spirits and gently reminds us of our capacity to fly, sprinkling seeds of love wherever we go.

Which is just what the meditation exercise* is all about:

• Starting with self, feel love permeate your entire being every cell and into the biofield beyond your skin

• Take a step back to envision your home (or wherever you are) and sprinkle love to all beings therein (don’t forget the plants, the paws, the gills, the wings, even the beings in the web up in the corner)

• Float upward, envision your neighborhood, sprinkle love

• Upward again to envision your community, sprinkle love

• Upward again to your geographic region or watershed, sprinkle love

• And again, and again step by step (region, state, country, whatever areas you see), sprinkling love at each vision along the way until you are floating in space picturing the blue dot that is our beloved home, Mother Earth. Sprinkle love in every corner of this planet that sustains life.

• Go beyond the Earth, as far as you’d like, then return, step by step, vision by vision, to your Self, your Cells, your Love.

*I’ve taken what I remember from the meditation long ago and put my words, hoping to capture its essence and offer us each a platform and process for remembering our Oneness and sprinkling love for all beings.

Halo Moon