nature

The waters speak

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

We, the various waters of the Earth, journey effortlessly across and through the land, finally reaching the great water where we gather together as one water.

From billions of tiny raindrops, thousands of streams lakes and rivers we flow downstream and merge into oneness – the global ocean.

We must flow and find our level, seeking the effortless path, carving the landscapes gullies, canyons, wide river valleys, woodland streams, prairie pot holes, wetlands, huge deep lakes on our journey to the great oneness.

We come together in the great oceans and seas, heaving and swelling, rippling or calm. Life giving. Life affirming. All our tiny drops melding into one mighty water. Then we separate again, as billions of our droplets evaporate and merge effortlessly with the air.

As water vapor we gather to create clouds, fall as rain, sleet snow, or hail and begin our long journey once again to the gathering place of all waters.

We begin our journey once again as we fall to Earth, gathering with other waters, becoming stronger and more powerful as we increase in volume.

We make our way downstream, meandering and slow or rushing in flood, blessing your Earth with the gift of life as we flow through and shape your varied landscapes.

Finally we reach our mother waters and pour into her. We cannot flow back upstream, or undo our transformation to salt water as we reach our destination.

We are the sacred waters of the Earth. We are the stuff of life.

Take a walk

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

Step out into the sunshine! Feel the sensations and rhythms in your feet, ankles, legs, knees, hips, spine, shoulders and arms, neck and head as you contact the Earth and move forward.


Grandmother Cottonwood

Aim to pay attention to your body, your breath, your beautiful surroundings and let those swirling worries, fears and the self argument go for now.

Leave your phone at home. You’ll be fine without it for an hour and you will confound those corporations that want to track and catalog your every move…

Breathe in the golden morning air. Feel the rhythms of your breath and blood, the movements of your body and your head balancing on your neck, the swing of your arms as you move forward, the beat of your heart, your feet contacting the earth and rolling forward, stepping out in rhythm. This is life, dear ones.

Feel the harmonious movements of your body slow dancing to the beat of your heart.

Immerse yourself body and spirit in nature around you. Can you sense the subtle energy of the trees, their protective branches sheltering you? Can you feel the solid earth beneath your feet and toes; The soil full of life supported by the living bedrock of our Earth deep below; the deep rooted grasses, sighing in the wind; Song birds calling, moving from branch to branch, wings flashing; Larger birds of prey soaring and circling higher above the trees, soaking in the sunlight….

Prairie grass

Now, if you walk by flowing water, the stream moving down toward the big river eventually merging and becoming one with all waters. This sparkling creek water dancing as it passes; carving out steep banks over the years, bringing trees down in late winter floods, creating sandbars, depositing silt and gravel, bits of shell, Holding life within its gold and silver waters.

Rediscover the ancient and simple practice that heals and calms- walking in nature.

Late summer

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

Growing things seem to pause now. Deep green leaves of ash, maple, and oak hang still in the humid air.  Butterflies frantically feed, flit and dance among late summer wild flowers…

DSCN8535 (480x640)

Late summer prairie grass

The new growth and excitement, the twittering birdsong of spring is a memory.  Now the grasses bend, top heavy with seed.  Dragonflies dart and zip above the prairie, sunlight reflecting from their glassy wings.

The new bird generations have all fledged and flown – Empty nests all around.  The insects sing their late summer songs, the chirp, the buzz, the whine of cricket and cicada, the tempos slowing as nights grow cooler.  The tree frogs chorusing their trance like rhythm into the wee hours, night after night.

Flowers that were bright with summer’s colors just a few weeks ago now fading, browning,  going to seed.   Still blooming, the magnificent plumes of goldenrod, masses of them,  swaying gently in the breeze.

2018-08-27 09.56.38 (640x480)

Goldenrod plumes

All the green rooted things hold their breath,  soak in the light of the  southward sliding sun, before the final days, the yellowing, the browning, the final dropping of seed and leaf, the dying down to the roots, the cooler autumn wind that will soon come and bring frost with it, and death.  The great letting go, before winters long nap…

Stand here on the cusp of change, knowing what is passing, knowing what is to come.  It is time for a late summer  rest.  Lie back under a friendly tree, soak up this still and timeless, day, this moment, before the sun turns to autumn once again.

 

 

Rest and dream

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

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.

2013-01-01 00.00.00-574

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.

Come and visit!

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

I’ve gotten my “haircut” for the year. Most of this year’s leaves are already scattered around my base, yellow and decaying, becoming food for next year’s growth and shimmering display.  A few of my dying leaves, still attached, flutter in the fall breeze sending silvery light through the woods and prairie margins. 

dscn3376-480x640

Grandmother Cottonwood

Come and visit us here in the woods. Quiet down and listen to the sighing the singing, the flowing and fluttering, the heartbeat of the natural world that supports and feeds and nurtures each and every one of us.

Come visit your fellow earth inhabitants! Know that we love you!  Turn off that shiny “smart” object, put it in your pocket and commune with us.  Tune into your wild nature and remember your roots in the rich earth.  You are a beloved spirit, an irreplaceable part of the web of the whole.

We nature spirits and beings long to connect and uplift you, to soothe and comfort, and hold your feet firmly to the earth, the magnificent green planet that is our home.

dscn3475-480x640

Hackberry tree bark

Lie on our fragrant cushion of fallen leaves, listen to the rushing creek, the birdsong, the crickets. Know that you belong, that we all belong together.

Rushing

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

What are you missing?

2016-04-25 11.20.25 (640x480) (640x480)

New oak leaves

 

Why must you try to get 5 things done in an hour, rushing here and there in your shiny heat reflecting air polluting cars? As you rush do you notice the red cardinal zooming past the budding maple tree? Do you see the delicate blossoms of bleeding heart that will fade and go to seed soon, not to reappear for another 12 months? Do you hear the age old call of the mourning dove? Do you know one is nesting in your eaves?

Do you gaze at the sky, the dramatic mountainous clouds piling up in the west as you buy a ready made meal made not with love and care, but additives and an eye for the cheapest ingredients? Do you put this in your body? Do you taste and savor the real food the earth has provided for you today?

Do you pause to greet each person you meet? Or do you hurry past them as if they were a manikin in a store window while staring at your blinking shiny object? That is obviously more fascinating than your spouse or child or neighbor or your own ideas and thoughts.

You are missing your life! You are AWOL, locked up in some prison, not even realizing that enormity of what you are missing!

Slow down! Pay attention to the life, the people around you, the earth at your feet, the sensory delights of each day! Come back out of your trance and inhabit your body once again. You were given this life. It is not too late to live fully!

Have faith, spring is coming

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

2016-01-07 12.03.03

Little snow monkey

Hang on, winter weary humans, spring is coming! In the meantime, don’t wish your life away! Have faith like my roots that reach deep into the soil below the place where ice and cold and snow can touch them – deep into the warm dark earth, our home.

Have faith and trust that all is well! Behind the heavy cloud cover is the blue sky, beneath the snow, the grass waits, beneath the dead leaves and frozen soil, all manner of living things sleep, ready for the return of the sun.

Do not despise this time of year. Do not hate your circumstances. Do not live in the future imagined sunny day; for when you live in the fantasies of your mind, you negate the only thing that really matters, your most precious gift, the present moment!

You make yourself powerless when you live only in your head! It is your body and heart that live here and now. Find a way to fully inhabit your body, for then you will find true joy. Find something to take pleasure in each day, even if the snow lies until June!

You have been given a treasured gift- life here on earth. Use it wisely

Your beloved pets

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

2015-12-05 15.22.09

GCW speaks of your beloved pets

You have invited creatures of the air, water, and earth to share your lives. And they have accepted and adapted themselves to you and your expectations.

You bond with nature through your beloved pets and through them to the larger web of reality in which you exist. Watch and observe your representatives of the web of nature with an open heart. Let them teach you without words, without agenda, without guile. Open yourself to their language of feeling and form, body language, spontaneity, complete rest, boundless energy, delightful playfulness, loving touch, expansion and contraction, life and death.2015-12-05 15.22.28

Learn from them. Let them remind you what it is to be an animal, to live in the ever present now, to fully inhabit the body, to revel in the senses, to delight in the light and warmth of a sunbeam on the floor, to play with delight and abandon for no reason! To be happy without a big brain and to live with heart by instinct.

My dears, please remember, your beloved pets are with you in spirit, even after death. Do not grieve for them, listen for them, feel for their familiar energy, for it is near.

You are not alone

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

DSCN1875

GCW speaks to those who feel alone.

You have never been alone! You are surrounded by the loving spirits of this earth, the magnificent cottonwood, the oak, the maples, all trees, all growing things, all animals, birds, insects. The earth herself envelopes you in her sweet embrace and has done since before you were born. Your ancestors who have crossed to the light have been with you since before time began.

You have been trained away from the knowing and feeling and sensing these dear energies from your earliest childhood by practical efficient mothers and distracted fathers. It is those among us who walk between worlds, who connect deeply and root to the soil, who also rise up to know the light who are finely tuned to the frequencies of these spirits. These sensitive ones bridge the worlds of spirit and matter for you. They interpret what you do not see or know with your five senses.

If you think you are alone, unloved, forgotten, think again! The whisper of the wind in our leaves and branches, the path of sunlight across the sky, the twitter of birdsong and flutter of wings, the sighing of tall grasses, the murmur of the flooded creek are all messages to you from all that is! Learn to read this unwritten language, the language of love and you will no longer feel alone. It is a gift, a love letter from the earth and heavens to you, my beloved.

You can learn this language if it is your desire, for it is part of your heritage and your innate wisdom!

The earth beneath your feet

/ Shamanic Healing of Ames / Leave a comment

DSCN1892 - Copy

GCW speaks of the Earth beneath your feet

My dearest, do you pause to think about the foundation of your physical existence, the earth beneath your feet? It is supporting us, giving us a home that meets our needs, supplying all we desire even beyond the needs of the body.

This earth, constructed of metal, stone, bedrock, particles of soil, the organic matter of years past, the atmosphere that mirrors your own auras; this you are freely given. It is yours to care for and make a home. Do you know the opportunity you have before you, to be in this place at this time, to be focused in a body on this magnificent earth, this priceless gift?

Are you open to the deeper meaning of your existence? You are not just here to have children, make money, buy things, and die. You are here to fulfill your soul’s deep need for satisfaction and wholeness. The earth supports your growth and the evolution of your soul.

You will continue to have chances to carry out the inspirations you have ignored in the past. Now is the time to allow them to carry you forward and create the beautiful, joyful life you came here to live.

You are beloved! More and more you are beginning to know you are more than your bodies. More and more you know that your life is not about acquiring more stuff. More and more you follow the guidance of source that is your lifeline and your constant companion. More and more will your earth and all creatures who inhabit our sweet green earth be blessed.