nature

The true heart of nature

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Open your eyes and hearts to the myriad creatures who dwell here in perfect harmony with you here on our sweet green planet. Yes, I’ve mentioned this before, but…. have you done it yet?  Then I must repeat myself…

Do you see your fellow earth dwellers as you rush here and there in your cars as if you were on a racetrack? Do you live in your head, ignoring the magnificence of nature as you drive on autopilot? Are you trapped in thoughts of the past or future…shoulda… coulda… woulda…?

Do you see the soaring hawk, the amazing cloud formations, the sparkling creek, the interwoven tree branches like writing on the sky? Do you see the doe and her fawn at dusk, the bright red cardinal sitting like a king at the tree top and singing his heart out?

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Winter clouds

You can see and know this beauty and more besides, because you are made of the same stuff.  You belong here.

Can you park your car and walk along the forest path? Can you take some time to sit at the base of a gorgeous tree as you breath in and out and attune yourself to her energy? Can you feel the gentle loving aura, the healing and soothing energy of the natural world that is your gift as a child of this planet?

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Geese swimming in creek

Do not squander your precious birthright by living in your head and rushing here and there, never slowing or stopping to connect with the true heart of nature. When you connect with the true heart of nature, you will find yourself.

We’re in this life together!

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We are in this life on earth together! All life forms are inseparable – from the mosses under your feet to to the magnificent trees that encircle this earth with their roots and branches, to the winged creatures, the scaly and furry ones.

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Winter moss

No matter how you try to weed, separate, segregate, put distance between, incarcerate, deport, wall off, ignore, eradicate; we are all one in the web of creation and cannot ever be separated.

Do you feel that you stand alone? Perhaps it feels safer to be on one side of a wall or border while “they” are on the other side. Perhaps you with the weed killer spray bottle in your hand feel that certain life forms are not acceptable and must be eliminated.

Do you not know and feel your energies overlap and intermingle with all other living beings, interweaving and creating new patterns? This is the essence of the web of all things, the energy of which we are made expanding from our physical centers becoming finer and finer the further from the body, beyond our capacity to see and sense.

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Worm eaten log

You choose! You can create thoughts and take actions which strengthen this magnificent web every living creature participates in, every atom of soil, every blade of grass, every tree, every insect, every drop of water, every reptile, every human being. In strengthening the web, you strengthen yourself!

You can also choose actions and thoughts and ideas that weaken the web of all things with doubt, fear, the illusion of powerlessness, the illusion of separateness. But remember this: In weakening our shared existence you weaken yourself, for all things are one in this universe.

Separation from others, from nature is not possible. You have never been, nor will ever be separate from any other thing.

I ask you to choose life and know your connection to all creation.

Forest cathedral

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Come to the timber with me. Feel the peace and sacred quiet on this snowy winter day. The peace of growing things at rest.

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Cottonwoods at dusk

This feels familiar for beneath the surface, beneath all the chatter and worry of the brain, beneath all the attention grabbing anxieties, you too know the peace and sacred silence at your center. It is a gift that all living beings are given.

Come to the timber and reconnect to the divine within you. You do not need stained glass, you do not need incense, you do not need a liturgy, you do not need words read out by another to connect deeply and know your oneness with all that is.

You may love your religious forms and rituals, but you do not require them to connect to the living spirit, the great oneness at the heart of all things.

Visit our forest cathedral, open to the endless sky, with its foundation of our intertwined roots, supporting columns of our straight and true tree trunks, arches of our branches, soaring overhead.

Here you may find sacred space and divine peace.

A shift in the weather

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Those who pay attention with hearts as well as minds will know and feel a change in the weather, a shift in the air. The greater heat in summer, the northward migration of warm loving species, the wetter snows, the thawing ice, the balmy winters, the unsettled weather as the earth warms.

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Dying tree

Growing things, winged creatures, 4 legged ones are stressed by this disruption to our age old fabric of existence, the climate in which we have all learned to thrive over eons of time.

Our atmosphere is heavy with exhaust of human creation beyond her limits and capacity to cleanse. Dear ones it will take your collective wisdom will and heart to cease the pollution of your planet; to clear the air, purify the water, to bless the earth once again with a healthy balance of interests between all living things.

What good are your billions of dollars when the earth herself can no longer sustain the life we have known for millennia?

Life itself is the prize. Preserve and protect and nurture all living things.

Heal the web of life! Begin the healing within yourself.

Ice

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The world is coated with ice. A thin shell covers all surfaces with high glass.

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Frozen stream

There is rare beauty in this icy landscape. This is your mother earth speaking to you in her native language.

She speaks in the language of weather, of light and dark, of warm, cold, ice, and snow, summer heat, thunder, lightning, of growth and life, of seasons, cycles of life and death, of deep soil, bedrock, rivers, streams, oceans, a variety of landscapes from desert to tundra, to mountains and valleys.

Will you hear and understand her messages? Will you pay attention with an open heart and mind?

During this icy time it is time to pull inward, and stay warm at home, wrapped in a winter chrysalis that protects and allows renewal.

We freeze and become petrified with cold, yet a thaw will come and all will flow freely once again.

You belong here

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Dear ones, I ask you to connect with your deep natures as children of this sweet green earth. Lie under the night sky, feel the earth support your bodies.

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Winter crab apples

Take in the billions of stars, the planets, the infinity of all that is. Know that you belong here on our living planet among the multitude of life forms that call the earth their home.

Connect to your deep nature. Get to know the heart of you, the core of your being that has sustained your kind since ancient times – before the written word, before history, before science, when the world was young.

Now, after all this time, you are still at your center an elemental earth dweller, connected intimately to the ground beneath your feet. You walk in this living atmosphere between the dome of sky and the supporting earth.

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Evening sky, waxing moon

You have been entrusted with these precious gifts. Know that you are worthy of them.

New beginnings

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The planet tilts, the sun returns, winter will merge into spring once again in its own sweet time.

Under the frozen ground life takes a nap, hibernates, gathering energy, living off last year’s fat.

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Winter cottonwoods

 

You too need times of rest, time to go underground, to let go and recharge your life force.

You who live in warm weather all year, remember to take time to give yourself the luxury of a little “winter” retreat.

Just rest a bit from your endless pushing and striving and wanting and buying and doing. Recharge and renew yourselves, body, mind, spirit, emotions.

Rise up into the strengthening light with new energy and passion and inspiration to greet the life giving sun.  Give yourself the gift of a new beginning.

Winter solstice

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Dear ones, those of us rooted in the north now notice the low sun dipping ever more to the south, day by day inching toward the horizon. Perhaps you at the so called top of the world are already plunged into darkness.

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Grandmother Cottonwood low winter sunlight

Once again we have faith and we know as the ancient ones knew that our sun, the life giving sun, will soon be reborn and with its resurgence will come spring – new life – and summer once again when all growing things rejoice in life itself!

For now, during the darker time, the short days, gather in, rest, sit snug by the fire. Go inward and make plans. Cease your endless striving for a time. Under the frozen ground life is whispering, renewing itself.  It will return in its own true time.

Now at the solstice it is time to rest, renew and rejoice in the cycles of life and death, light and dark, rest and action. You too are attuned to these primal rhythms.

You are light. You are dark. You are sunshine and shadow. Embrace the whole of you, the whole of all of life.

Rest and dream

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Will you rest and dream with me this winter?

Rest for a little while. Let go of all you normally hold tight to, letting go of control for a time. Allow your beautiful selves the luxury and freedom of nothing to worry about, nothing to push for, nothing to do, nothing to think. Simply be with no agenda for a time.

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Winter nest

 

Dream with me. Remember the earth memories deep in our cells from the ancestors- the primeval forests, vast herds of grazing animals, clear flowing waters, wide stretches of unbroken prairie, lakes filled with fish of all descriptions, towering forests standing thousands of years, our roots gripping the cool rich earth, reaching toward the sun, anchoring us to this place.

Within all creatures reside the deep primal memories of nature in balance, of peace and harmony.

You belong!

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Dear ones, do not put yourself down for getting nothing done today!

You breathed the cool autumn air, took delight in the crimson and golden fall color so beautiful right now. You allowed yourself to be, with no agenda, no worries, no second thoughts.

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Red and gold maple leaves

You felt your heart beating and the blood moving through your body, the air flow in and out of your lungs as they expand and contract. You felt cool water flow into your throat and filter through you.

Did you heard a flock of crows calling to each other as they flew from tree to tree? Did you open your eyes to the bright deep sky, the wispy clouds moving lazily with the wind, dissolving and re-forming?  Did you enjoy watching the scarlet and amber leaves raining down in the breeze?

You took part in this great web of life today, no matter what you checked off on your to-do list.  Simply by being here in a physical body, you have chosen to cast your lot in and belong to the great throng of life here on this earth.

Do not fool yourself, there is no test for admittance here. There is nothing you need to prove! You belong here.