tapestry of life

The Gift You Did Not Ask For

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One day as a child you woke up to the awareness and consciousness of yourself as an individual human being – that you have a body, that you breathe, your heart beats, you can move and speak and think and act with free will. You realized that you seem to be separate from those around you.

You spent some years early on learning how to master and live in your body. Perhaps it was an adjustment for your spirit, learning to live within the limitations of the physical world.

Newborn

Somehow beyond your conscious awareness, you spirit ended up inhabiting a body at this time in the history of our planet. You ended up in this place. It was no accident!

You as an individual may not yet know the larger meaning of your own life or how it fits in with the larger patterns and connections between events and peoples and living creatures, the land and oceans, the big picture of life on Earth.

Know this: The web of life is the big picture, the universal pattern composed of infinite smaller patterns and connections that interweave, interact, and overlap with each other creating an achingly beautiful tapestry of the whole.

Even if you consciously did not choose this particular life or the conditions of your life, you have been blessed with a span of years to live.

Spring Tree

You have been given the opportunity to experience joy and laughter, to know grief and heartache, to heal from grief and heartache, to seek and maintain connection with others, to learn about love, to experience growing older, to become a grandparent one day perhaps, to develop your talents, to do those things that satisfy your soul.

All that you do with kindness and good intentions blesses and strengthens the web of life.

Think of your life as a gift – the greatest gift you did not ask for. You are here now, so make the most of it!

What is your legacy?

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Dear ones, Please do not underestimate your contributions, your necessity to the web of life. No matter what your calling is, what work you’ve chosen to do, your feelings, words and actions in this life leave an energetic legacy for all living beings.

Amazing spider web

Think of the gardens you’ve planted, the trees you’ve nurtured, the love you’ve expressed and shown, the meals you have lovingly prepared, the pets you have held to your heart, the smiles you have freely given, the songs you’ve sung; the empathy, kindness, connections, the heart to heart connections alignment with divine light, the joy you’ve felt, the seeds you’ve sown, the lives you’ve touched with thoughtfulness, wisdom, and attention, the unconditional love for others that flows from your heart – these are the lasting legacies that you have bequeathed to the web of life, your families, and your communities.

I ask – is your true legacy measured in stocks and bonds, dollars and cents? Money can be spent, lost or stolen in a heart beat, leaving your heirs with only their inner resources, courage, wisdom, integrity, honesty and the clothes on their backs.

Your true nature is to be mortal. Every living thing must pass through the final transformation. One day your hands will relax and release their hold on objects and the material wealth of which humans are so fond.

Your body will stay behind while your spirit lives on. You will leave this material world which is so precious, so dear, yet so impermanent, ever shifting and changing.

Late winter landscape, dusk

So while you are here, find joy in your embodied life with the senses and emotions and intelligence you’ve been given, love with your whole heart and express that love in ways others will feel and understand. Do the work that satisfies your soul. In this way you expand and strengthen the web of life.

You are an essential participant in the web of life whether you know it or not.

Let your life create strength and resilience and peace and love in the web, your lasting energetic legacy.

Web of creation

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When life feels bleak and wintry, when your spark is extinguished your light clouded over, can you find in the innermost part of yourself the quiet voice that asks you to “trust”?

Your higher self asks you to trust that you are supported by the web of life, to trust that there is a wisdom larger than you can imagine that hears your longings, knows your heart, that weaves all possibilities and prayers into the great tapestry of life on this planet.

Goldenrod

The web of life creates the fabric of your experiences from the raw material of your thoughts your expressions of language emotion and art, your actions, your beliefs.

This is the language of creation! This is how you ask for what you desire!

So learn to trust life. Learn to channel your thoughts, words, creations, feelings, and beliefs to reflect the life you desire.

Even when times feel tough, remember that you can learn to see your life from a higher perspective, see the larger reality, the big patterns. Knowing this, you can learn to shift these patterns into alignment with your deepest purpose.

Colored maple leaves

The web of life has your back. It supports and creates the life you are asking for, building it with the energy of your thoughts, words and actions.

Trust the threads of love

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Do you allow yourself to make the kind gesture, let yourself reach out to others when that is your first impulse?

Do you stop yourself from creating new friendships, visiting family members, having friends over when deep down you know you would thrive on the connection?

Pair of wild geese in evening light

Some day, dear ones, your friend may move many hundreds of miles away, your family member may fall ill, your loved one may die. Your life in this body is limited and finite so you must make the most of each moment.

(Please remember – the life of your spirit is infinite and unlimited!)

Do you feel you are not worthy of love, connection, or deep abiding friendships with amazing people? This dear one, is a distortion in your thinking. Begin compassionately and lovingly to create new habits of thought that support your highest good!

Trust your spirit to know who to spend time with. Trust the whisperings within you that move you toward connection and wholeness and expansion.

  • Wild geese in springtime

Allow yourself to participate fully in the great web of life that connects all living things with the resilient and powerful threads of love.

Your surroundings reflect you!

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I would like to thank all those many two legged beings who pick up the trash from our community of trees, grasses wildflowers, bushes, thistles, brambles… We feel your care as you clean up behind those who give no thought to their papers, wrappers, cans, bottles, bags and junk.

Your surroundings reflect you and your inner world. Look around you. Are you pleased by what you see?

Remember this: The woods and beaches and neighborhoods and landscapes and private yards on this earth reflect what you think of yourselves. If you have no self regard you will show that outwardly by dropping trash and fouling your environment.

If you love yourself and care for yourself, your surroundings will reflect that regard.

We keep the earth in balance, all of us, together! Please continue to do your part. Learn to become aware of your piece in this puzzle called life on planet earth. Learn how you fit in with the other living beings that surround you.

Learn how your spirit fits in with the spirits of all things, the living tapestry of energy that surrounds and supports us all.

Know that we are all connected in this magnificent web of life. We depend on each other. We thrive together!

GCW speaks, continued

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These words of Grandmother Cottonwood’s are continued from the previous post…

This Earth, this home is so very dear to me… Words cannot capture all I know, all I feel…

I know, too the flow of the stream, the flood in spring, the ice in winter, breaking and grinding during a thaw… I know the rocks and sandbars of the creek, the elegant s curves of it’s southward course, the downed trees, uprooted by the current, changing the flow of the water .

I am familiar with the creatures of the water, the tiny silver fishes, the earth hugging turtles, the insects that skate and float…those that come to drink.

Spider web

I know the worms of the soil, the fungus that consumes rot, the spiders patiently weaving their silver webs, the bright butterflies and nodding wildflowers full of nectar, the sharp trilling call of the red winged blackbird in early spring.

My world is made beautiful by the deep shade of my companion trees in summer, the bark of the sycamore, dark and rough near the roots, creamy white and peeling near the crown…I know the cushiony moss, growing in the cool damp places, a green to remember.

GCW and sycamore

From my home, I feel and know the heartbeat of the city, the town, the homes and all those creatures inhabiting this place. I feel the rushing and impatience of some, the peace and contentment of others.

I experience the students who hurry past me on their way to school, their thoughts and attention elsewhere, forgetting the lesson that life is lived in the moment, one breath at a time; that hugging a tree will help them feel better.

Come to school with GCW and you will learn an age-old yet always fresh curriculum – Observe without judgment. Breathe. Notice what you are feeling. Notice what happens in your body.

Be present to what you see, hear, taste, touch feel, smell – be present and allow yourself to know what you know, to be who you are. Become friends with your own self. Listen to your heart – the dreams of your heart.

Now, put the shiny blinking thing down, for if you let it, it will block out everything but itself. Turn it off for a little while and just be.

Know that you too are a part of this magnificent tapestry! Above all, hug a tree.

Web of life

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My bark may feel cold and rough to you this winter’s day. Do not let this fool you, for my heart is warm and welcoming! 

I may seem silent, separate, apart.  Do not be fooled, for in my own way I am fully engaged in the web of life on this planet!

I may seem irrelevant to your human world, your worries, concerns, and solutions to your problems.  Do not be fooled, for my energy interweaves in intricate patterns  with that of all living things including humans.  We are in this together!

My quiet existence matters in the web of life. My existence creates a ripple and a powerful filament of love in the tapestry of the universe.  I belong here!

I want you to know each thought, word and feeling of yours has energetic reality that affects the web of life, just as my tree energy does. You make a difference ! You matter and you belong here! 

You don’t have to move mountains or bring peace to the Middle East. Simply tune your thoughts and feelings gradually to happiness and joy and kindness and laughter a little more often.

Turn off those news programs and avoid those people that manipulate you into anger and fear.   Guide your time and energy to uplifting, soul satisfying activities, thoughts, words, beliefs, friends, and entertainment.

In this way you will affect the web of life for good!  You are a creator whether you know it or not!

Take your job seriously!  You and I, along with all living beings on earth reweave the web of life with each thought, feeling, and action.

Expand your awareness

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When you expand your awareness to include the spirits in all things, the rocks, trees, clouds, insects, plants and animals, the land you call home, the other people around you,  you expand your experience of life.

You expand your understanding of the oneness of all things  You see life from a different perspective like a hawk soaring overhead, or a snake gliding across rough pavement or through the tall grass.

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Little brown snake

When you expand your awareness to know what hawk knows, you will feel and know the warm updraft under your wide open wings, effortlessly holding you aloft above the immense landscape where you make your living.

When you expand your awareness to know what snake knows, you drink in the earthy smell of soil, dead leaves, and rough pavement beneath your belly, you sense the texture and solidity of the ground, you feel the stiff stems of grass anchored to the earth as you glide past.

When you expand and allow yourself to know these things and to experience them, you will gain respect for all living creatures and the great web of life that sustains us.

Always remember this!  Nothing can be separated from the whole. 

When you expand your awareness, you will know your place in this great web of life- that you belong to the earth.  I ask you to use your free will and human agency to celebrate and protect the great tapestry of creation of which we are all a part!

You are the master weaver

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Each living creature on earth weaves a web or tapestry of energy with thoughts feelings, actions and emotions, by simply being alive. Each individual web then overlaps and interacts with others, forming a greater web, a magnificent and intricate weaving that unites all things.

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Interlacing branches

You are the master weaver- the powerful artisan creating the patterns and vibrancy of your energy fabric.

You can learn to master your own energy. Make it colorful, make it clear, make it vibrant! Where you feel fear or dread, transmute these threads of emotion by loving attention and reweave the fabric with courage, with love and acceptance. Where it is clouded, make it open; where it is dull, make it brighter; where it is obscure, make it clear.

Simply attending to your own personal tapestry creates waves of healing and waves of clarity that radiate from you and affect the greater web of all things.

Do not underestimate your power to help create a magnificent, healthy, and peaceful earth!

Tapestry of spirit

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You are all connected, yet all on your own, so to speak. You are not permanently joined like paper dolls physically connected at hands and feet.

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Tapestry of summer grasses

Each of you may stand alone, act alone, live alone, feel alone. Yet each of you is connected, a thread in a tapestry, the most exquisite, complex, delightful tapestry that is constantly growing, expanding, and morphing into new and yet more beautiful forms and colors, more joyful expressions.

If you focus on what you consider the ugliness, the mess, the unpleasantness of life around you, you miss the infinite beauty love and uplifting joy that is available to you through this fabric you belong to.

Are you one who sees the only drop of dirty water in the infinite ocean? I ask you to refocus your attention!

This life you’ve been given as the most precious gift imaginable is to be lived in concert with the spirits in all things, and your own spirit, the invisible life force that animates your body. Your spirits know a higher perspective, seeing many lifetimes, knowing the larger patterns of your existence; seeing and knowing the vast sea of light and peace and love that is not always apparent to your physical senses.

Get to know the part of you that is invisible, the part of you that is one with all things alive, all stars, all planets, every blade of grass – All that is.  Get to know the expansive spirit that makes possible your physical presence here on this sweet green earth.

Extend your awareness to include your invisible energy, your spirit.  Feel the power!