There are times in life when humans who live through freezing winters must walk on ice. It cannot be avoided.
To walk safely on the ice, total awareness is required in the present moment. Each movement and each step forward much be considered, balance maintained.
Those who have no choice but to walk on ice must have an eye for the safest places to place their feet. These are the spots that will provide the most traction. This knowledge and body wisdom is based on a lifetime of walking on ice.
GCW and Icy Path
Sometimes the path ahead is clear for easy walking without the walker having to consider each step. Then once again there may be packed snow or glassy ice patches on the path. It is beautiful, yet potentially dangerous.
You who walk on ice must know when to walk flat footed, when to shuffle, when to stride forward without planning your every step. Thoughts of fear or anger will deflect your attention and bring you down.
Such is life in a human body, dear ones. Sometimes you will have to carefully pick and choose your steps, slowly making progress through the dangerous places, finding traction, trusting the Earth will support you.
You must do your part as well and listen to the wisdom of your body, earned through many years of experience walking on ice.
Yes, dear ones, I return to a favorite theme. I speak of grounding once more because it is so vital to your well-being!
When your body and mind are exhausted, when you feel as though you can’t take another step, when you are depleted, shaky or frantic, recharge your power supply by reconnecting with Mother Earth.
Plug in and let her entrain your energy to her heartbeat, the rhythm of our planet, to the reality of her loving support.
When you are ungrounded you may seem to float away like an untethered space walker. Humans ungrounded deplete themselves and try to compensate for a lack of Earth energy, try to find a power supply elsewhere – food, drink, drugs…?
When you are grounded, you are filled with Earth energy pulled in from the chakras at the soles of your feet. This energy rises up within your body to anchor and root you to your home. This is mother Earth’s way of telling you – you belong here, this is your home.
Rediscover your power supply in the most simple and natural way.
Walk stand or sit with your bare feet on the earth, on grass a beach, in mud or soil. Lay under a tree. Hug a tree and lean there for a few moments. Visualize yourself as a tree and send your roots deep into the Earth. Gently massage your feet. Walk in nature. Rub the soles of your feet with a stainless steel spoon.
As you are here in a body, you are meant to live fully within the parameters and limitations, joys sorrows and challenges of this physical existence. Getting grounded will help you be here now and experience the fullness of life.
Practice simple grounding daily and recharge your batteries. Live in your body. Live more fully as you are meant to.
Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.
Dear friends, I feel a great heaviness in this world right now.
I can feel the vibrations of your tension, the tightening of your shoulders and throat, the churning in your gut, the stress, the weight of worry many are feeling right now in this time of uncertainty.
For those who are worried, frightened – lean against me and those of my kind, the extended family of trees. Enter into our friendly energy, rest your weight on us, we will support and calm you, help you know what is real and solid and true.
Grandmother Cottonwood
Tune yourselves to our quiet and subtle frequency. Listen with your whole body and heart, your wise self.
We will help you know you are not alone, that life goes on, that you are safe in this moment.
Know this. All trees and the collective spirits of nature – animal and plant, insect, reptile, amphibian, all angelic beings, your human ancestors who have crossed to the light, all spirits or land air and sea, of heaven and Earth, of the Universe are with you always.
Male Cardinal in winter
Please call on us for advice, kindness, companionship, spiritual nourishment, comfort. You are not alone. You are surrounded by love.
Tune into our quiet and loving voices to steady and calm your anxious minds.
Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.
As trees, we must practice patience. We begin humbly, as a tiny fragile looking seed finding a home in the soil where conditions for life and future growth exist- moisture, light air soil, warmth… the sense of home and belonging.
Silver Maple seeds
Here our first roots unroll toward earths’ magnetic pull. Our precious seed leaves burst out and open, stretching to the light. This is our home for life, this patch of soil and sun.
We are settled here. We are content and patient in the place chance has chosen for us. We live lives of endurance, growing slowly year by year adding height and girth, our bark expanding and thickening.
Hackberry bark
We practice patience as our new green branches turn woody in months gaining in strength and size over the years. We stand tall according to our nature, we soak in light, pull in nutrients and moisture from the soil, feeding ourselves, providing homes for birds and insects, wildlife, tiny mammals, mosses, lichen. We do this for decade upon decade.
For generations, for lifetimes we thrive and survive.
You might consider us to be miracles! From fragile seedlings to magnificent mature trees, we have a strong will to live and endure, to take up the space we need, to soak in our share of sunshine and pull in the sustenance we need from the Earth.
We patiently endure droughts, torrential rains, lightening, storms, extreme cold and wilting heat. Year after year we patiently adapt to the conditions of our environment. Sometimes these conditions cause stress and then we benefit from your care concern and attention.
Trees and storm clouds
We are the calm green backdrop to your lives, providers of cooling shade, beautifying your neighborhoods and landscapes, holding the soil, clearing the air, sheltering your farms towns and and cities, greening your cemeteries, ranging over mountains and ringing lakes.
We lovingly watch your children grow from infants to adults, we witness with affection the growth and development of your grandchildren and great grandchildren.
I am swimming in this river of life. Sometimes smack in the middle of the fast moving current, surrendering to the flow. Not fighting it.
Sometimes the river of life runs low during dry periods and grounds me on a sandbar for a time, until the rains come and the water rises again.
And then, once again, I give myself to the river, trusting its course and flow as the current pulls me downstream.
The water of this river joins all waters of the earth, all creeks, rivers, streams lakes, inland seas, all melted glaciers, ice and snow. The current’s pull grows stronger.
The flow of all water on our planet culminates finally in the one great meeting place.
This is the ocean, where numberless droplets merge and become one universe of surging and living water, the stuff of life.
When you feel distraught, take a moment, bring your awareness to your heart and breathe. Let your breath soothe you.
When you feel unsettled, ground yourself by walking barefoot on the Earth, or hugging a tree and come home to nature. Let the sights and sounds, the smells of nature calm you.
When you feel ungrounded, come home to your roots. Plug yourself into Earth energy by hugging a tree or imagining your energetic roots sinking deeply into the Earth.
When you feel exhausted, rest awhile and come home to your inner spirit, the part of you that never tires, that lasts forever, that will never lead you wrong.
When you are worried or anxious, come home to this present moment of your life. Release regrets for the past and worries for the future for several beats of your heart and feel the peace as you breathe in and out.
Come home to your heart and body, to the present moment. In this way, you will live a true and authentic life.
Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.
Yes, I repeat myself once again with rooting and grounding theme. I do this because so many humans walk this earth with their awareness and their spirits partially outside of their bodies.
The energy of ungrounded humans feels as though it floats in space without an anchor or home. This causes many to feel anxious and unmoored. Ungrounded people are disconnected from a vital source of life-giving energy.
Making sure you are grounded in times of trial and uncertainty, when you feel spacey anxious or disconnected.
Here is one simple way to anchor yourself with my friends and cousins the trees. Which tree are you drawn to? Oak, sycamore, sweet gum, hackberry, cedar palmetto, beech, elm, walnut, fir, hickory, maple, ash, cherry, apple, spruce, poplar, aspen, magnolia, pine, cottonwood, mesquite, …?
Grandmother Cottonwood
Choose your favorite tree. If needed, find a picture of a magnificent tree to help your imagination see the details.
Now envision for a few moments that you too are a magnificent tree. Bear with me, you don’t have to tell anyone else about this…
Now imagine that you have roots reaching deeply into the soil, gripping the earth. Your roots range in size from mighty ones the size of main branches, tapering down to the tiny tenacious hair like roots that draw in nourishment directly from the soil.
Strong roots
With your imagination see and feel your roots reaching deeper into the soil and subsoil, through the bedrock and mantle of the Earth to the molten core. (Anything is possible in your imagination)
Now as you breathe in, pull in the anchoring Earth energy up into your feet, legs and lower torso to fill the cells of your physical being and help bring your awareness into your body – where you are meant to live.
Now you are plugged into the frequency of the planet.
Breathe the Earth energy in through your roots and let it travel upward through your trunk and branches through the tips into your leaves. Do this breathing several times as you imagine the energy filling your from the center of the Earth up.
Interwoven branches and nest
Feel yourself relax and become one with our planet. Allow the Earth energy to soak into every cell of your body.
Let the trees show you anchoring. This simple practice can help calm you. No equipment or expensive accessories are needed, no experience or skill required.
All you need to tap into Earth energy are your heart, imagination and intention.
Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.
Dear one, do you feel shaky, off balance, flighty, un-tethered?
Our great mother, the Earth asks you to lie down heart to heart, belly to belly with her and absorb her loving grounding energy into your body.
When you feel anxious she will calm you, when you feel unmoored, she will give you solidity. When you are tired, she will fill you with energy. When you feel lost, she will provide a home, a safe resting place, a solid foundation.
Go to the Earth when you find yourself off balance, jittery, bereft.Let her energy heal you.
Let her envelope you in the energy, the safety, and feeling of home. Know that we belong to each other!
Dear readers this post is from the archives of AskGCW.
Rumors of the demise of Mother Earth have been greatly exaggerated. This planet will endure, she will continue spinning on her axis, orbiting the sun. Day will follow night. The sun will rise in the East. The ancient cycle of seasons will endure, the moon will wax, become full, wane, then begin again in darkness.
Full Moon
The ancient cycles will endure even if humans are no longer here to witness the beauty, to name the seasons, and study the stars
Humans are slowly committing suicide as they ignore the warning signs of the stressed and overtaxed environment and atmosphere. I ask you to slow down and listen to your Great Grandmother the Earth. Learn her language. Pay attention to her signs, symbols, her distress call.
When you learn her language, the language of the web of life, you will learn the ancient ways of survival on this planet. You will learn to respect the amazing intelligence built up over eons of time within every living thing and every living system.
Tuning in to the messages and intricate interconnections of the web of life and hearing the voices of all living things here on this planet still means survival.
Technology in your pocket, shiny objects, expensive homes will not save or buffer you from the reality that you are a part of this web of life, a part of nature. We survive together!
Take action to divest yourselves and your human cultures of greed and corruption. Stop over-consuming our precious resources and hoarding wealth for only a few. These things damage the web of life.
Learn to use only what you need. Learn to be humble. Learn to love each step you take on Mother Earth, each breath you take into your miraculous body, each beat of your heart.
Wake up and embrace your precious life on this precious Earth!
Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.
You humans have built an amazing civilization. But I wonder, Dear Ones, does it lift you up in ways that feed your spirit and serve your soul?
You all have within you the energetic memories of a time when humans were in tune with the spirits of the land, connected to nature, free to choose their path and direction, when they lived a simpler life and danced around a fire deep into the night.
Inuksuit
Let me be frank. You have been domesticated and tamed. Of course at first your need for domestication was about survival on this planet with unpredictable weather, predatory animals, unstable food sources, sudden accidents…
And now you have these basics, you have evolved systems of farming and food storage, medical care, learned to keep yourselves safe, the dangerous animals at bay…
But now what? Have things gone too far?
Have you sold your souls and your autonomy for the convenience of a sleek little phone, 2 cars in the garage, a paid off mortgage the best schools for your kids?
I’m telling you, you can reclaim your wild spirit, your deep soul that is your birthright, while retaining what is good and useful in your civilizations for your survival on the planet and a thriving life.
What is your definition of a thriving life?
If you are restless, if you feel you are missing that deep part of you, that something precious has gone, learn to tap into your true and untamed and fierce heart. Do not give yourself away or betray this part of you for love or money or the illusion of safety.
This inner fire is your true inheritance from those ancestors of the deep past who survived, from those who painted on torch-lit cave walls, who learned to speak to spirits and survive in harmony with our Earth’s rhythms and cycles, who found life a sacred trust, a gift of the ancestors.
Reclaim this deep abiding center of yourselves by living consciously. You get to choose what to keep, what to let go of in your life.
You alone can discern what makes your heart sing, what causes dullness and heaviness in your spirit, what lifts you up, what drags you down.
Live as though every moment is sacred, every living thing is holy, every person precious, with your wild untamed heart and spirit at the center of your beautiful life
Ask Grandmother Cottonwood 