I am filled with gratitude for the long and beautiful life I lived under the sky, rooted to the Earth in this place.
I remember the first burst of life within me. I felt the swelling of my tiny fluff encased seed, resting in the mud, taking on moisture and warmth many decades ago.
Cottonwood seeds
My embryonic roots slowly unrolling as has been the pattern for all those who came before me for the entire history of this Earth. My roots obeying the ancient call to life, pushing my seed open, surprisingly strong, beginning to grasp the soil to reach downward as if pulled by a magnetic force, to draw in nourishment, and sustain my life, to hold me here.
Now my tightly folded seed leaves, pale from their time in the dark enclosed seed space soak in the first particle of sunlight through the crack in the seed casing. They reach out as though starved for light and unfold and harden and reach upward and multiply under the sun’s life giving love, with nourishment and moisture from my roots.
This is how my life began, dear ones. The ancient will to live and survive and thrive on this planet was encoded in my seed as it is in all living beings – those that move freely about and those rooted to the Earth.
Grandmother Cottonwood, winter
What love, what gratitude I feel for the magnificent web that connect us all in the never ending dance of life on this planet.
Dear ones, as you try out this practice, set an intention to raise your vibrations and calm yourself during this time of great uncertainty.
Breathe in Earth energy, breathe out fear
Visualize beautiful deep roots like the roots of a large tree growing down into the Earth from your hips, legs, feet. Now breathe in through your roots and feet. As you inhale, allow your feet, legs, hips, abdomen and lower body to fill with Earth energy. This will anchor and connect you with Earth’s loving vibrations, the energy of home.
Take several deep breaths in and out through your feet and roots. On the out-breaths, let tension, stale energies, old emotions, fears, and worries you no longer need to carry within you drain into the Earth for energetic recycling. This will ground and clear you.
Connect to the Earth
Fill yourself with divine light and color
Visualize a beam of pure clear golden light filling you through the crown of your head. Allow it to pour down through your entire body, permeating every cell like liquid gold.
Imagine every hair follicle, skin cell, blood vessel, every nerve, all organ systems, every bone, connective tissue and tendon, all muscles, your immune system and glands, respiratory and circulatory systems, every energetic particle of your physical being filled with this sacred light, bringing all body systems and organs into balance and harmony, clarifying your aura.
Now, as you visualize this beautiful light, allow it to become any color in the spectrum, whatever vibration of color is needed in your body to bring wholeness, healing and well being. Let the colors change and flow and mix as needed.
No need to think too hard about it or consult a chart. Ask for the colors to be just right for your body’s needs. Allow yourself to sit with the healing colors and light as long as needed.
Yellow swallowtail butterfly on deep pink Zinnia
Create sound and connect with all that is.
Set an intention to use your voice to resonate those areas of your body that feel out of balance. You will fill them with the healing vibrations and loving waves of your voice. You do not have to be a good singer, the only requirement is that you can make sounds with your voice.
Begin by humming, then make vowel sounds. Change the pitch and sound you are making and feel the vibrations resonating in different parts of your body that need attention. Intend for the sounds you create with your voice to reweave and harmonize the subtle energy of your physical and spiritual being and fill your being with peace.
Flowing stream, light dancing on shallow water
Connect to the Earth through your roots, fill yourself with divine light and color, weave all together with sound. Experience the oneness of all creation.
Have you forgotten something? Have you forgotten your spirit? Have you lived your life without consulting, recognizing, or getting to know the larger part of you, the part of you that knows and feels your connection to all that is?
Do not underestimate the power, reach and wisdom of your spirit, my friends. When you underestimate your spirit, you underestimate and undermine your amazing self!
Yes it is invisible, yet it influences every facet of your life. Get to know the larger you, the you that is so much more than your body, your worries, your problems, your job, your paycheck…
Your reach is wider, your influence greater, your personal power stronger than you have ever dreamed. Because you are so much more than your body…
To know and experience this, get to know your spirit. Not necessarily in a churchy religious way, for they may bind you with rules and regulations, shoulds and should nots- But in a gentle exploration, a trust, a moving into the unknown once step at a time. Ask the universe to support your new journey and to reveal the unseen.
Many begin this journey with meditation, with books they are drawn to, with curiosity, with questions. Ask the questions that occur to you, follow your heart, and trust that you will get to know your indestructible spirit.
Do you fear that you will lose your edge, become complaisant, or a lie-about if you allow yourself to be content? (Those of you who push, jockey, and fight for position in life will need to cover your ears and eyes for a moment.)
Contentment is peace and peace is your true nature. Contentment is a feeling that all is right with the world. “All is right within me. I want for nothing in this moment. I feel good in this moment. All is well in this moment.”
Belted Kingfisher
Yet, in the next moment, you may find yourself remembering a want, a need, trying to solve a problem, or worrying about what is next for you.
Can you hold the memory of the feeling of contentment in your heart? Then you can bring it back to mind when you want to feel peace again.
You might remember the feeling of contentment you had while sitting on your porch watching golden patches of sunlight light up the trees in late evening.
You might remember the feeling of contentment while walking in the woods on a cool summer morning listening to birdsong.
You might remember the feeling of contentment you had when holding your new grandchild in your arms.
Savor these moments of your precious life and inhabit them fully, for they are your life. Remember the sights, smells, feelings and emotions of contentment and bring them to your awareness. Pay attention, absorb the feelings into your heart and breathe in the peace you feel.
And now I ask on behalf of the trees and all living things: Can you be content with the earth and her living creatures, her rooted beings, her stones and bedrock without bulldozing the sacred trees, scraping away the precious soil, paving over the prairies, felling the forests, scarring the landscape with ugly buildings, making war on those you do not understand?
Dear ones, these acts reflect discontent, a pulling away from your center. They are not you at your best, not a reflection of your higher self. Find gentler ways to live and interact with this earth and her people, and we will all thrive.
Those who find contentment and peace within will live in harmony with nature, with the earth, with others, and with all that is.
There comes a time when you must acknowledge that you need the help of a higher power; that you need the wisdom and compassion of all that is to heal yourself, to solve your problems in surprising and miraculous ways with soul satisfying results.
Dragonfly
Dear ones, you cannot do it all by yourselves! Give up the illusion of control and allow the wisdom, grace, and peace of spirit to work in your lives.
You will have access to all wisdom, all possibilities, all combinations of factors, all inspirations and ideas. It is having the entire universe at your call.
Let go of your grasp on that which is holding you back! Let go of your narrow picture of how things will happen.
Allow yourselves to be filled with fresh inspiration and energy. Allow the amazing upwelling of spirit in your precious lives!
Does your mind outpace your body? Do you feel spacey and disconnected?
If your mind races ahead and leaves your body behind, you are living in the future and forgetting the present; neglecting your grounding in the here and now, your need for earth energy, for your full and complete presence in this time and place. Don’t jump or skip ahead!
Red wing blackbird on a breezy day
If your body rushes ahead and leaves your mind in the dust, you are living in the past ; disembodied, perhaps getting yourself into situations that do not serve you well. Perhaps you feel stuck.
Can you bring your body mind and heart together and concentrate all your focus in this moment? Can you keep it together?
The present is where your power lies! When all of you is in the present. This is the state of flow, where you are plugged into your power supply – All that is – and you have access to boundless energy.
Here’s a practice for you to help you pay attention to what is now. Choose one of the 5 senses: feel, taste, touch, smell, sight. Focus for a few minutes on only that information coming into your body and mind through that sense.
Can you narrow your focus that much, aligning body and mind and balancing your consciousness in this point in time? Can you gather all of yourself, your scattered energy, thoughts, feelings, physical sensations and know your wholeness?
In this way, you train yourself to be wholly present, to empower yourself and tap in to amazing energy!
This is only a test! Will you trust yourself, your inner voice, your true guidance when others around you choose differently? If not, more chances to follow your guidance will be provided.
Red wing black bird
This is only a test: Will you love, honor, cherish and accept yourself body & soul when others ask you to violate your ideals? If not, more chances and opportunities to be a person of integrity will be given to you.
This is only a test: Will you stay aligned with your light when circumstances seem to be pulling you into the shadows with magnetic force? If not this time, all-that-is will provide another chance, and another and another to live up to your light.
There is much to learn, fellow earth dwellers. Allow yourselves the gifts of patience, commitment, courage and willingness to take yet another chance on yourself. Learn new ways of being thinking and doing that will light up your life in breathtaking ways.
This is only a test! You are dearly loved and you can never be separated from that love which some call all-that-is. All-that-is is love. All-that-is is patience. All-that-is believes in you. All-that-is will never give up on you.
You are meant to be a column of pure clear light. This is when life flows delightfully, without effort.
White and black butterfly on red flower
When your light is shaded and dimmed by fear, when you are pulled off center or out of true by foreign substances, worry for another, your reaction to events, you lose effectiveness, you spin your wheels, you may become careworn and haggard.
Put yourself back in the sweet spot of flow, back to your spotlight where your energy moves without impediment. Align yourself with the web of all things where endless possibilities exist.
Simply drop the idea that you can’t do this. That, my dear is a lie! You are strong, capable and powerful. Those qualities are within you.
Do not search for your power and strength outside of yourself, for you will continue searching from lifetime to lifetime in vain. Draw them from the core of your being, as a singer brings forth a clear pure tone from within.
Release your need to control. Know your inner power and strength. Ask for help.
Allow the amazing intelligence of all that is to make connections and create soul satisfying solutions for you. Allow yourself to live in your sweet spot!
Dear ones, it is vital that you develop and learn to trust what you call intuition. This is your connection to all-that-is, beyond your brain and body, beyond what you sense by touch, feel, hearing, smelling, tasting. It is a knowing, without knowing. It is a true knowing you can trust… without physical “proof”.
Winter bird nest
Your lives will improve greatly when you expand your awareness beyond the boundary of the physical body and world and tune in to the vast knowledge and wisdom of spirit that is the birthright of each and every one of you.
If you are out of practice since childhood at this inborn skill, start small and easy to rebuild your muscle. Ask yourself a question before bedtime and state that the answer will be known to you when you wake up. Let your logical brain have a much needed rest. Do not impose restrictions, conditions, boundaries on yourself.
When you wake up, ask again and tune into the feeling, the subtle and deep knowings within your heart and spirit. The answer is within you. You must trust it, but only if you have switched off the logical brain, the critical parental voices in your head, the ego that imposes its agenda on you.
Practice every day, start small and trust that you will build your intuition and learn to trust your deep knowing that is connected to the web of all things.
The stream of intuition flows deeply within all humans. You must allow yourself to explore beneath the surface of 5 senses, logic, ego, and the voices of others, to tap this vein of gold.
Within each living thing is a reflection of the entire universe. You are brilliant! You are a miracle! You are a reflection of all that is – And all that is is delightful, magnificent, and ever expanding.
Hosta in blossom
All that is is great and abiding love. At our core we are the energy of love. Expansive, all encompassing.
It is common for humans in your culture to forget this most basic fact of life. We – all living things are animated an fueled by love! It is the foundation of our existence.
Those who turn away from this fundamental truth need not fear, for they too are supported, permeated and uplifted by this life force you call love.
Life in a human body on planet earth is about rediscovering your origins. Discover your basic make up deep within – the particles, the energy of love!
Ask Grandmother Cottonwood 