Category: Earth Wisdom

When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.

I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light.

For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

~ Wendell Berry 

This is one of my favorite poems.  Each time it is read, it takes me into nature.  If I am unable to “be” in nature it takes me there in my mind and if I’m in nature, it amplifies the truth of the words.  And most of all, it is in the beauty of nature that I feel the most free and clear-hearted.

In love and service to life and all that bring life,

Lana

“My Mother’s voice is a lullaby in my cells.  When I am still, my body feels her breathing.”

This beautiful phrase comes from Terry Tempest Williams book, When Women Were Birds.  One of the most delicious books I have read in a while, it caused me to think about the incredible feeling I get when I lie on my back in an open meadow or in the hammock under the Madrone trees found here in the Santa Cruz mountains of northern California.

Most of all, it is the “state of being” that I have experienced after completing an eight-day guided vision quest.  We humans need to experience slowing down to the rhythm of the earth to fully embrace this amazing living Being we call Mother Earth. Only when we slow down in a natural setting are we able to feel the breath of life.

In love and service to life and all that bring life,

Lana

One of my favorite aspects of life is the unknowing of what each day will bring to my living.  Most days, something exceptional arises because I am looking for it and/or expecting magic.  I could write a blog post about that however, today I want to share the amazing gift received during a Skype call with a dear friend and colleague.

It is my sense that most of us are very protective of the private, inner world that we hold so dear.  Those parts of ourselves that we feel are so personal or intimate that we either do not ever reveal them and/or we share them with one or two trusted friends, family or spiritual teachers/guides.  The unwillingness to reveal is not necessarily attached to shame or fear of judgement but simply that we hold them as deeply intimate and/or we may still be navigating as unknown and want to have more clarity before revealing them to another.

Today, my friend and colleague was in a particularly tender emotional state of being.  As a person committed to living a transparent life, she beautifully articulated very intimate details of her inner realm and by the end of her sharing I found my heart was broken open with admiration and appreciation.  I knew that I had been given a beautiful gift of the revealed self.

Her modeling of transparent communication; what to say, how to say it, how to reveal the “essence” of her inner world without unnecessary details was masterful.  As she completed her sharing, my tender, open heart told me an invitation existed to enter in to that extraordinary realm of transparent communication.  The opportunity to be transparent and vulnerable with another human… an opportunity to be “witnessed”.

And so… with a deep breath and a burst of courage, I stepped onto the sacred circle she created.  My sharing was in and of itself artful and wove a beautiful tapestry of what is moving in my inner realms.  Upon completion, an aura of peace, calm and “lightness of heart” surrounded me.  It was like sitting in a pool of warm sunlight.

We both were silent for a moment; tears flowing down our cheeks and smiling.  We knew we were “complete” and so we rejoiced and acknowledged one another saying, “Namaste”  (“I bow to the divine in you.”).

So this precious gift of transparency forces me to ask myself, What other gifts may be present if I but have the courage to step into the sacred circle of transparency and vulnerability?

When I was a child, I had an insatiable appetite for adventure!  I woke each morning with a sense of raw excitement, wondering how my life might change that day!!  What new plants or creatures would I discover in the woods where I played or what new person might change the course of my life? Within every adventure were vast opportunities to learn and grow.  Endless/Timeless possibilities!!

Now, as I approach my ‘yelderhood‘ (as my friend calls our entry into young elder hood), much of that same excitement for adventure still lives in my heart. Most days I awake wondering what direction might my life take today?  Who might I meet?  What new adventure might unfold?

I said “most days” and… there are those days when I wake with the weight of the world on my shoulders.  I can hardly muster myself to action as I consider the daunting projects and/or challenges that demand my attention as I navigate adult life in a very complicated world. Two key lessons have emerged for me about these cycles of ease and challenge.  1) There is a direct correlation between the attitude of my heart and the amount of time I spend in nature and the experience of “ease”.   2) The cycles of ease and challenge create a lens for contrast that sharpens my learning edges.

Lesson 1:  Nature is the ultimate learning lab!  It refreshes my heart and provides an endless cornucopia of delight for my senses.  When I spend time in nature, my heart stays pliable and hungry to learn.  This heart receptiveness is a vital component if I hope to walk a balanced life; a life that believes the universe is a friendly place and embraces the joy of learning and growing.

Lesson 2:  Challenges are part of the human journey.  They are inherent to growth because learning in and of itself is a challenge. Embracing my love of learning and growing, demands that I also accept and embrace that some learning and/or lessons are hard.  Shifting my attitude and opinion about challenge allows me to move into receptivity verses resistance.  When I am in “resistance“ to a challenge, my life force energy is diminished… zapped!!!  The more I focus upon what is not working or how hard the challenge appears, the more I feel my joy of life diminish and my spirit becomes hardened.  When I am “receptive“ to challenge; to a new experience or adventure, my heart is enlivened and hungry to learn.  My perception shifts from one of despair to hope.  I begin to anticipate and look for what I might learn within and from the challenge. In the medicine way or Earth Wisdom way, being able to shift our perspective, is an important ability to learn if we are to walk in a way of wholeness and balance.  When we have a sense of our destiny, we are enlivened and a challenge becomes an opportunity and an adventure to learn and grow.

What environments and opportunities enliven you and give you a desire to live an adventure of learning and growing?

In love and service to life and all that bring life,
Lana

It is a memory I recall often because the first time I heard the words it significantly shifted my reality.  “You are whole and complete in every way”.  It was in that moment, as though my heart leaped with ecstatic joy and my skepticism kicked into overdrive at the same instant.

How would my life have been different if I had always walked with this belief? How would my life change if I fully embraced this statement as truth and lived my life in a manner that reflected this concept?

I was amazed, excited and challenged.  It required a complete reorientation of my entire operating system.  The notion that I no longer needed to ‘prove myself’ or “earn” love was mind blowing, to say the least.  Especially since I had spent my entire personal and professional life in social systems that demanded I prove myself worthy.

So, I began a journey along this ancient path of earth wisdom teachings.  I needed to understand not only the phrase, “You are whole and complete in every way” but also how might one live a life in this state of consciousness?  What if just believing that I was whole and complete in every way made the statement a reality?  Would this new story of myself change my behavior?

In love and service to life and all that bring life,

Lana