We can get pulled off center by any number of things, believing them to be incredibly important, when in actuality they are meaningless. In the end, the only thing that matters is the Love that we create.
Kindness: A Living Tribute
Are we kind? In our private thoughts and actions? Are we kind in our thoughts about ourselves? The beloved teacher and guide, Thich Nhat Hanh recently left his physical body. His teachings have touched the Hearts of many and continue on. Perhaps the best way that we can honor him is to choose true kindness every day, being mindful of our thoughts and inner dialogue. As always, if we are struggling, the Plants are willing to help us.
Celebrating the Pause
One of the great gifts of humanity is curiosity. We can utilize this gift to get to know one another, listen to someone’s story or experiences and enjoy their glimpse of the multiverse. Connection, appreciation, and empathy lead us to the path of Love. This path of Love leads us back to community, to who we are meant to be, to our rightful place as part of Nature. This path of Love leads us to our beautiful future of thriving, together.
Choose Love for Change
Worldwide the shifts can no longer be ignored. Unfortunately, there is a human tendency to react with fear towards change. Fortunately, this is not a necessity, but a choice and we can just as easily (well perhaps with a little conscious awareness) choose Love. Here are steps to help us act more clearly with Love.
A Revolution of Love
Have you ever really looked at a Flower, gazed in wonder at ki’s form or color or smell? Or held a Seed in your hand while thinking of the eventual Plant that will come from this tiny Being?
I do this often, which tends to result in tears of utter joy and amazement, as well as, an overwhelming sense of humility. The humility helps to bring back into perspective my current issue, as I realize that whatever “huge mountain” I am dealing with is really minuscule and nothing in the face of the miracles of this world. From this place, I can see that possibilities exist way beyond my imagination and that I am not alone.
Finding Our Wings
There are large paradigms and power structures that need to shift. While things may get a bit messy (okay, they are already messy), we need to keep the focus on the goal. Anyone who has experienced a major life change knows that there is a time period of dissolving. When the world as you knew it breaks apart, turns upside down. This can be disorienting. However, if you can continue through this (or sometimes simply breathe and be), you come to a period of finding your new center. There may be a trial and error period of figuring things out, seeing if they fit, until the center is established. But once, you emerge, you are renewed and grateful and would not want to go back. The metamorphosis of a Butterfly is often used to describe this process. And for good reason. For a caterpillar has to completely dissolve before growing ki’s wings and becoming a Butterfly. And we are in the metamorphosis stage. How lucky are we that we have chosen to be on the Earth at this time?! We get to determine the next stage for humanity.
Chapel of Resistance: The Love of Corn Mother
Chapel of Resistance: The Love of Corn Mother
My Heart breaks and I grieve on a daily basis; though generally, I allow these feelings to wash over me and help my Heart grow rather than be bogged down. This is because I am able to tap into the bigger picture and see the reason for the destruction or whatever is happening, able to see the overall energetic pattern, rather than this minute detail. And I choose to see the Beauty and Love that is abundant wherever I look.
Today; however, I learned that a judge granted Williams Partners the right to seize 5 properties in my area, which will allow them to build a ridiculous natural gas pipeline. The worst part is one of these properties is owned by the Adorers of the Blood of Christ, a group of nuns, who built an outdoor interfaith chapel on their land because the pipeline interferes with their Land Ethic. This ethic includes, “As Adorers, we honor the sacredness of all creation; we cultivate a mystical consciousness that connects us to the Holy in all of life.”
So today, I became overwhelmed with the short-sightedness and the blatant disregard of Life (human, Plant, Water, all Life). I wondered how far do we have to go? What will it take for us to realize that money in the bank is nothing compared to the gifts we are destroying? I did what I do when I am overwhelmed, I go to Nature and pray. This time I went to the little chapel in the middle of a cornfield.
The sight that greeted me was Corn Mother growing up through the pulpit. Well, this instantly calmed my Heart. As I remembered the incredible resiliency of Corn and her sacred relationship with humans.(If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend The Unlikely Peace at Cuchumaquic: The Parallel Lives of People as Plants: Keeping the Seeds Alive by Martín Prechtel. This will explain why this sight was so powerful for me.) The Nature Spirits were already telling me to go Home and do my work, that I didn’t belong there grieving. Though I asked them to let me feel this a little.
I said my prayers and asked for forgiveness. I sang my grief and as I did the wind blew through and Corn responded. Tears did come. As I’ve been taught not to waste these, I gifted them to Corn Mother. As I continued to sing what was in my Heart, my song changed and continued to change until finally I sang the song Corn wanted to hear. These are the words that came:
We’re gonna rise, rise, rise up.
We’re gonna shine, shine, shine bright
We’re gonna Love, Love, Love, Love, Love
We’re gonna dance, dance, dance, dance, dance
And so Corn danced while I sang and my Heart lifted. I know that this is only a small part of the picture. I do have more work to do and I cannot be bogged down by this. Though it would be easier if we could all recognize the incredible Beauty and gifts from the Sacred that surround us and start treating this Earth and one another as the Divine Beings we are.
As always, I am grateful to Corn Mother.
