A Life with Some Question Marks

After three weeks of travel, family visiting, sight seeing and camping in the wilderness I’m back home now to my altar, to my desk and to my regular daily routine. I’m reorienting to my life. A beautiful, gentle, graceful life that also carries strain and struggle. A life with some BiG question marks on it…for myself and for our collective reality.

The question of how to sustain ourselves in the context of an unsustainable society has been nipping at my heels for almost 20 years.

How am I supposed to “make it” in a system designed for my failure and servitude?

How can I create beauty and meaning and provide an inspiring and promising future for my daughter and her peers while industry is defacing and defiling all that is beautiful and life giving?

These questions have been building like storm clouds in my heart over the past few years. Each month, I struggle to make enough money to barely cover the basics of a sane and healthy lifestyle for myself and my daughter in the shadow of this consumer culture, while dreaming of “getting ahead” enough to be able to buy our way out of it…to have our own place, grow our own food, live life together as nature intended.

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The dream keeps me running but I find I’m just running in circles…and the older she gets, the more the consumer culture digs its claws into us. We’re in deep and everything seems to be getting tighter…more expenses, less income, more demands on our time and energy.

Now, with a partner and another child in our family, it all magnifies. The yearning for a natural family lifestyle in intimate relation with the cycles of nature and the pressures of trying to keep our heads above water in this consumer culture whirlpool.

Over this past month…away from my altar and my centering practices…immersed in the intensity of consumer culture on the East Coast…these questions have been running amuck in my heart and mind with no answers.

Where are we going to live?

How are we going to pull off supporting two teenagers next schoolyear?

When is it going to get any easier?

What about our own dreams and desires?

And it worked me all up into a bundle of nerves and stress.

As I sat at my altar on my first morning back and laid these questions out for my spirit guides to chew on I realized just how stressed I had been while traveling. I recognized the brick walls of tension that built up in my consciousness and were leading me exactly where I didn’t yearn to go. 

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Coming back to my altar reminded me of the core desired feelings I had been working with since doing my own Heart-Centered Manifestation process earlier in the year.

The feelings behind my yearning for simple, sweet, natural family time. The feelings that are guiding me toward that gentle way of living in balance with nature and in integrity with my soul.

At ease…In Tune…Turned On…Honest…Plentiful

Ha! Three weeks away from my daily practices and I wasn’t feeling any of these feelings…Oh my! I’ve got my work cut out for me.

So now I’m bringing my focus back to my path and relaxing back into this precious home I’ve manifested on my way to even more preciousness…into the arms of these mountains and the support of my daily practices…walking in the woods, connecting with dear friends, spending sweet summer time with my daughter…slowing down, praying, enjoying the silence…trying to keep it all in perspective.

The questions are still there but the tension is falling away as I surrender into the mystery of each moment…opening up the creative portals as I trust in the magic and celebrate the beauty and grace of life, exactly as it is, while taking steps each day to manifest the vision in my soul in its fullness.

 

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Musings on the Kali Yuga

It’s the Kali Yuga…accept it and let it go.

Here we are…born into these times and these bodies…these stories…given the skills and the strengths appropriate to our challenges in each moment, whether we believe it or not.

The empire is declining…the walls are crumbling…Kali is sweeping through this world with her fierce compassion…leveling all that does not serve.

No amount of squirming that will make it untrue. The only real trouble arises when we resist it.

V0045118 Kali trampling Shiva. Chromolithograph by R. Varma.

There is a path…a way…slowly, slowly…one moment at a time…winding us through these transitions…guiding us through the fires…the path is always the same, in any time and in any circumstance.

The path is presence. Here and now. Wide awake. In full acceptance and awareness of WHAT IS. In full humility to WHAT IS.

We’re only ready for what we get…no sooner…no more…patience, patience.

Striving for levels of grace or skill beyond what we have access to causes agitation and detracts from our wellbeing and the wellbeing of the whole.

Trying to fly with immature wings only causes pain and danger.

Acceptance of what is and surrender to our individual path makes the opening for growth.

Letting go, letting go, letting go…releasing attachment…opening our hearts…letting Spirit in…humbling to our own path and its gentle timing…honoring the beauty of it and its small place in the ALLONE.

BEing in the lives and bodies we’re graced with is the work.

Mothering, breathing, praying, playing, tasting, moving, creating, loving, learning our bodies…all without attachment to permanence or desire for something else…all as the simple act of BEing.

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Resistance, anxiety and denial of the Divinity that is unfolding through us causes more suffering to arise. Letting ourselves get distracted by lack or deficit…spinning out on those things that haven’t come yet or may never come…is the request for more suffering.

Bringing our presence and attention to the life giving forces…to the Divine gifts…is the doorway for ever more gifts to enter our lives.

This is where growth come from.

Seeing it ALL as the opportunity for Divine grace and Divine teachings is the perfection of the path.

All the suffering…all the “imperfection”…all the unpleasantries…all the anger and frustration…are ingredients in the Divine stew…parts of the magical wheel of life.

When we pull back and see it all from a wide enough vantage point…through the eyes of Kali herself…it’s clear how necessary and beautiful every little part is in humble service to the ALLONE

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Today is an unfolding of my story…How can I meet my story today?

Today is an opportunity to heal and serve the ALLONE…How can I heal and serve in this day?

Practice and Presence are Priority

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Beauty as your J-O-B

What if your job was to create Beauty and express Gratitude?

What if these were your sacred tasks…the things you MUST do each day before and beyond anything else? More important than making money. More important than paying your taxes or maintaining your car insurance. More important than getting your kids to school on time. More important than buying groceries and doing the laundry. More important than fitting in, being polite and following the traffic laws.

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The way the ancient Mayans see it*, the spirits are paying close attention to us humans and what we’re doing here on Earth…and they are looking for beauty. They are hungry for it. They feed on it.

They love to feast on the sweet smelling smoke of our offerings and the delicious melodies of our songs, on finely woven cloth and artfully prepared food, on tender love exchanged with flowering glances, graceful caresses and honey-soaked words. They are strengthened and enlivened by the creations of beauty crafted by human hands and hearts…and when they are delighted in this way they are poised to help us…they are moved to come to our aid…to lift us up and celebrate us with their assistance.

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If this is really the way it is I can’t help but think that the spirits must be STARVING in this modern industrial reality.

The fine art of living the BeautyWay has been deeply buried in the hustle and bustle of industrial solutions to practical problems. It’s been flattened under the freight train of “progress.” Squeezed out by the need to turn a profit.

This is the world I’ve grown up into…the one that values money over worthiness…where speed and efficiency trumps craft…where we’re expected to earn our keep and feed the machine.

It seems all too easy to get drawn into the ugliness of fear and doubt these days…sucked in to apathy and complacency…wrapped up in worry, panic and strategizing because it feels like there’s not enough. It feels like we’re all striving and straining to get ahead, to keep our heads above water, and we’re all just barely making it.

Maybe it’s because the spirits have lost interest…maybe these long generations of industrial ugliness have lulled them into despondency. Maybe they’re waiting to be fed.

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I, for one, am ready to feed them…Right now, right here…I am giving my life to the creation of beauty and the expression of gratitude…I am waking up into the crazy paradox of living the BeautyWay in this modern reality. It is the underpinning of my soul’s mission and the noble challenge of each and every day…

To wake in beauty and work in beauty and love in beauty and mother in beauty and sing this world alive again all around me.

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*This account of the Mayan perspective is from Martin Prechtel and his story  The Secrets of the Talking Jaguar

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Vultures of Culture…yogamats and all

Warning: this post is a bit of a rant…I hate to be a hater but sometimes I just get riled up. And…no offense or judgment is intended against the individual participants and organizers of the festival in question…we are simply products of a truly messed up culture, doing our best in each moment.

A great fury bloomed inside me this weekend among a crowd of blissed out yogamat-toting festival goers. I found myself stewing in anger, outrage and deep aching sadness while the folks around me chattered and squealed in their excitement to be at the Wanderlust Festival in Snowmass Village, CO.

Reflecting on the weekend I can see that my reactions grew directly out of my own expectations and assumptions of what it would be like (which is really always the case with reactions). Judging from the line up of teachers and musicians and the language on their website…which proclaims that Wanderlust is “an adventure of mind, body and soul” and “an opportunity to unplug from the ordinary and discover the extraordinary”…I expected and assumed that this festival would uphold a certain standard of integrity, consciousness and quality of living. I was dismayed to discover quite the opposite.

The main reason we were there was to see Nahko and Medicine for the People. My man and I just love Nahko…he’s a brilliant performer and a powerful voice for change. His lyrics bust through the bars of our cultural status quo and challenge the listeners to step up into authentic personal power, radical honesty about our cultural conditioning, responsibility to social justice and deep love for the Earth. We like to see him whenever we can and it turned out that Wanderlust was going to be our one chance for the summer. I was also curious about this festival I had heard about focused on yoga, consciousness and wellness…win/win…right?

So we arrived open hearted…seeking the joy and pleasure of high quality music laced with the teachings and messages for cultural transformation.

But the scenario we found in Snowmass Village was saturated with the slime of consumerism and rampant hypocrisy…and it just put me over the edge of cultural despair.

Driving into Aspen and then up to Snowmass Village was like entering another world. A world where everything was finely manicured, color coordinated and outrageously overpriced. We were in rich man’s land. Our first disappointment was to discover that…surprisingly, in this day and age…in Colorado…in the hoitiest of toitiest places… there was no organic food store! I was actually super shocked. I still can’t quite wrap my head around it. All that money in their pockets and they’re just eating conventional food? The second shocker was the gas station…closed on the weekend…credit card only…$4.85 per gallon!! Ok…we’re not in Kansas anymore, baby. 

So, we figured…let’s blow this swanky pop stand and head up to the festival. Surely, they’ll have some great organic food options and a sweet inviting scene. We’ll feel way more at home there, among yoga practitioners and conscious, alternatively minded people.

Unfortunately we were wrong. The “festival” was located right in the middle of the Snowmass Village outdoor mall…which is basically a glorified, super upscale ski resort with a plentiful array of the goochiest of goochy shops and restaurants (non of which carried organic anything…oh, except for the yoga pants…they were organic). The festival vendors were set up right in the middle of the mall courtyard, between the shops, and they followed suit, offering over priced designer merchandise and food of dismally poor quality.

But this strange juxtaposition didn’t seem to be bothering anyone else. I looked around and realized everyone looked quite comfortable eating and drinking and socializing and shopping with their “spiritual gangster” t-shirts on, designer yoga mats strapped to their backpacks and mala beads around their wrists.

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This guy with the “love life” sign was driving me friggen NUTS! You know something’s wrong when I just can’t stand the life lovin’ hippies.

 

This is what Nahko sings about in his song Vultures of Culture…not some enemy “out there”…not the conservatives or the fundamentalists…not the politicians or even the corporate CEOs…he’s singing about the collective youth. He’s singing about our willingness to conform and gobble up the consumer culture that’s being handed to us. Our ability to turn a blind eye to the devastation it causes in favor of our immediate comfort and gratification…especially if it’s hip, stylish or “spiritual.”

“The behavior of the collective youth definitely seems to be in favor of the Western man’s invasion…see ‘em pumping fear like an IV, spreadin’ it like disease and all the while building a clueless army of God-fearing youth with no knowledge of the truth and their selfishness is so ugly.”

– Nahko Bear

And the craziest thing was that when Nahko played a great crowd gathered and everybody knew all the words to his songs. They were singing right along with him when his words called them out…called us out…when he described exactly what was going on at this “hotel and gift shop in the wilderness.”

“Itty bitty economy, based on geography, fueled by spectators and their money and their need for things that will not last…so, go on, build a hotel and gift shop in the wilderness…making a profit, capitalizing on it and all the while trampling on everything that is sacred…and it all starts to makes sense…why the Western man destroys things he doesn’t understand…and it all starts to make sense…all these patterns and wasteful destructive practices.

– Nahko Bear

He sang these words right there with the once-pristine mountains behind him and the condos and golf courses and shops and restaurants all around him…right into a crowd of devoted fans…and he made no mention of the hypocrisy we were wading in…not a comment, not a gesture, not even the raise of an eyebrow. And that’s when my heart really just broke in two and the cultural despair set in.

If it’s all just fad…all just catchy lyrics and cute t-shirts…then I just can’t play along.

He says… “It all starts to make sense…” But, honestly, it don’t make no sense to me. I’m here for real change. The kind of change his lyrics call for…the kind of change that requires us to risk all our comforts…to go out on our edges and find out what’s sane, what’s true and what’s needed at this critical time on planet Earth…to begin within ourselves and stretch the transformation outward into our actions, our gatherings, our celebrations, our work, our economy, our parenting, all of it!

So Nahko, I’m not sure exactly where you’re at…if you were just playing it safe there at Snowmass…if you’re really behind all the things you say…or if you’re just a channel for some cool lyrics…but I know that this is what I’m here for.

I dedicate my life to the people who need the light…to help them rise above the scam of the land and their lives and I’m cutting like a knife all the lies by the slice…independent of this democracy it’s really worth the fight…my request is reasonable…a tribe undefeatable, ambitiously moving toward solutions that are feasible…it’s unbelievable, all the slow moving people…they could care less, just as long as they are comfortable…it’s unforgivable, because the conditions now are critical and whether or not you’re ready we are now approaching a pinnacle. It’s difficult to say exactly what to do but the change begins with me and I reflect it back to you.”

– Nahko Bear

 

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That’s me with my GRUMPY face on in the wilderness…ready to throw down and work hard to light that fire of change under our asses.

 

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Posted in Cultural Transformation, Earth Honoring, Personal Transformation, Relating with Others, Uncategorized | 5 Comments

The Inheritance of Love

Written on Father’s Day 2014 on the island my dad spent his summers as a kid.

Dad…I’m here. Here on the island…sitting on the front porch of the old cottage in the sun and wind, listening to the planes fly close overhead and watching the light play on the water.

These shores, covered in beach glass and sea urchins, these vining plants and old worn footpaths, have nurtured our family for generations. An escape from the city, right here in the middle of Boston Harbor. Wide open summertime freedom…no schedules, no cars, no electricity…just family…taking walks, skipping stones, playing cards, laughing, talking, bickering and feasting on seafood and pasta…Italian style!

This island is saturated with memory, steeped in the richness of family growing through generations…eating around the same table, sleeping in the same beds and walking along the same beaches.

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This is a place where the ones passed one walk among the living. Being here feels like being with you and the rest of our loved ones who have crossed over…Cyndie, Grandma Olga, Auntie Bina, Uncle Vic, Paga…and all the ones who came before them…the ones who live in my heart only through story. The cottage feels crowded with all these souls gathered around.

As I return to this place that you shared with us it feels as if some mysterious dialogue is happening below the radar of my consciousness…some information being passed on from your soul to mine. It has the signature of tenderness and patience…of windswept wood and sea-tumbled glass…of the steadfastness of lifelong love and deep commitment to raising family.

I know you can feel my struggle and my worry. Raising kids in these modern times, far from family, far from tradition…straining to keep up with all the demands of the modern day and trying my darndest to do right by them…to give them something lasting they can count on. It weighs heavy in my heart and part of me wishes it could just be a sweet continuum of these old ways. Sunday dinners, family birthdays, the same old arguments round and round again.

But you and I both know that’s not an option anymore. The tides are shifting. The rules are changing. And we are heading into unchartered territory.

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Somewhere below the radar of my consciousness I can feel you passing me a bundle…sharing with me what needs to be carried on even as we venture forward…for the kids and their kids and all those ones yet to be…through all the changes and the hard times.

The magical thread of love that has remained unbroken through all times and changes…through the wars and the family feuds…through the Great Depression and the economic booms…through the seasons and the years…that love…that love that I feel from you and Grandma and all the rest of them. You’re telling me now to let it pour through me into life, into the kids, into my words and works in the world. 

Dad…I love you! Thank you for everything you’ve done for me and all you’re doing now…Happy Father’s Day!

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Homeland Blues

The smell of salty air and the curve of the roads under thick green canopies of wet leaves feels deeply familiar to me…like family. Like the ones that held me when I was a baby. These trees, these beaches, these ponds and marshes know me and I know them.

Whenever I visit here it feels like home in so many ways…even after all these years.

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Over the past 18 years I’ve made my home in the high alpine desert, several thousand feet above sea level, where it’s dry and sparse…of vegetation and people. I fled for high ground as a young adult, seeking the spaciousness and freedom to relearn what it means to be human on this precious planet. To distance myself enough from the hustle and static of corporate culture and the industrial growth society to get a little perspective on what we’re doing here.

I’ve been learning how to slow down and listen…to other people and to the land (no easy feat for this yankee girl). I’ve been learning to simplify…to conserve my resources like the desert plants I live among. To cherish all the little blessings that come my way. I’ve been learning to nourish myself with clean food and water and plenty of time to soak up the pristine harmony and rhythm of the natural world.

I’ve been learning how essential this simplification and attunement is to our collective ability to make the transition to a life sustaining society. How essential it is to the preservation of life on this planet.

But often, when I come back to visit my homeland on the Eastern seaboard, I find myself falling in line with the predominant culture to some extent. The daily rhythm, the speed of life, the volume of consumption, the conspicuous absence of time for prayer and self-reflection, the dietary choices…and even the crazy accent…seem to sweep me up in their momentum. The undertow of mainstream culture is so strong here. The buzz of the modern agenda of consumption overrides everything else. Sometimes I try hard to resist it…to maintain my practices and hold my own…and sometimes I just go with the flow.

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This time I let myself go with the flow. It started with eating what was offered…sugar, gluten, dairy…and it snowballed from there. Money going out like the tide and sweet treats coming in…ice cream, candies, pastry, fancy drinks. And then I noticed my psychic channels closing down…my subtle senses…my line of communication with Spirit. My sleep pattern changed and my body stiffened as I dropped into the “main station.” It felt good in a way, because I kind of fit in (kind of). I was in Rome, being a Roman. But it felt crazy too…because a huge part of me knows that Rome is going down.

There’s only one destination for a culture based on endless and insatiable consumption.

And now, in the era of global warming, it couldn’t be more in your face than on this tenuous arm of sand sticking out into the Atlantic Ocean. Hundreds of thousands of people rushing to and fro trying to make a buck while the ship is going down.

It breaks my heart right in two. I love this quaint little place…the feel of it, the smell of it, the sweetness of it…and I love so many people who live here. And it frightens me…it repulses me…it broadcasts to me so many of the ills that have sent our society in the direction of demise. I wish it could be as innocent as ice cream on the beach…as sand between your toes and endless summer fun. But I know that it’s not.

It leaves me with an ache in my heart that I don’t know quite what to do with.

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Lassoing Ideas

My mind is always on…

…paying attention to everything that’s going on and noticing the connections. When I look around at our changing world and what we’re all going through I can’t help but feel the stories of personal and cultural transformation hiding behind and underneath the surface that’s presented. The subtle play of cause and affect that dances through our lives calls out to me. Life is SO precious and so rich and there is so much wisdom folded into even our most mundane moments. All this…that normally goes unsaid, concealed behind the curtain, stirs in my heart and begs to be said.
 
That’s why I’m compelled to write. The stories want to be told. The connections yearn to be exposed.
 

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But usually, when I sit down to write to you, it’s all a swirling mess…thoughts, feelings, ideas, patterns, nuances of vibration…like wild horses with butterfly wings having a frantic caucus race in between my ears. Getting the words written down and out to you requires heroic feats of lassoing, performed with vigor and delicacy. I’ve gotta gather up all my energy and dive in, never knowing if I’ll actually catch anything worth bringing home to you. Sometimes I feel like I’m just running in circles trying to tackle the BiG ideas.
 
So I’m changing my tactics. Instead of going after the big ones, with the weight of perfection they demand, I’m going to simply sit each day, quietly with a bowl full of honey-coated consciousness and coax the little ones toward me. I’m going to cultivate relations slowly and sweetly with these stories that want to be told. And I’m going to tell them to you. In no particular order. With no grand plan. Messy, sloppy, raw, untailored…so we can all be here together…out in the open with the unsaid said…with the curtains drawn back.
 
I don’t know how it’s going to go. It’s a total experiment. But I have a feeling it will be sweet…refreshing…real. I think we could learn a lot along the way. So, I invite you to take the journey with me.
 
My commitment is to sit each morning and prepare the honey bowl with my loving attention and listening heart and then to record what wants to be said and share it with you. Let’s see how it goes… 

If you want to take this journey with me be sure to subscribe to my email list in the sidebar of this page…I’ll be sending periodic links to the blog posts I make to keep us all connected. Blessings!

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Spiritual Healing for our Earth and the Waters

I finally brought myself to watch Gasland this past week…(4 years after it was made)

Even though I’m totally grateful that people are creating these documentaries to teach us about what’s going on in our world, I have a tendency to avoid them. It’s just too much for my empathic spirit to stomach. In fact, after watching it the other night I cried my eyes out, tossed and turned all night and woke up with a terrible stomach ache.

So, as you can understand, these educational whistle blowing films are not my first choice for fun family entertainment.

The reason we finally watched it is because my 11 year old daughter has heard about fracking and wants to take action to stop it. It worries her that it’s happening so close to home and supposedly has such devastating effects on the water, land, air, people, animals and plants around it. So we’re starting to study it to learn what’s really going on and what can be done about it. Gasland was our first step in our investigation.

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The Waters are Wounded

One of the reasons this film affected me so deeply is because of the devastating impact this process has on water. Water is the source of all life on this planet and, for over a decade, I have been taught by my elders and guides to honor and revere water as the most sacred expression of the Divine in this physical world.

Through my spiritual studies and my own practice of learning to live sustainably in the desert I have come to know Water as the master teacher and healer she is. (I attribute a feminine essence to water even though, of course, she’s beyond the confines of human gender) She is the one that can cure all ailments and revive all that is withering. She cleanses and purifies all that has been defiled. She’s soothes and eases all that is burdened.

But what happens when the water itself is burdened and defiled beyond repair?

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Hundreds of toxic chemicals and flammable gases mixed with some of the last clean fresh water on the planet to the point that it literally becomes toxic waste and can lit on fire coming out of the tap. Millions of gallons needed for each fracking operation. Thousands of frack wells right here in the US and thousands more around the world. Groundwater supplies ruined beyond use to the point that the people and animals exposed to this water are loosing their hair, experiencing extreme symptoms of degeneration and being diagnosed with rare forms of cancer.

A Healing that Defies Logic

It is in considering circumstances like these when the prophecy of Grandfather Stalking Wolf (Tom Brown Jr.’s Apache elder and teacher) comes into focus for me. He warned Tom Brown that once we had passed by certain thresholds of damage our Earthly ecosystems would no longer be able to be healed by normal physical means. The specific thresholds he prophesized occurred in the 1980s. He said, that if we hadn’t changed our ways by then, the healing of our Earth would have to be a spiritual healing. 

When I think of what we know about the scientific nature of water and the chemicals it’s being contaminated with and then consider the extent of the contamination it seems obvious to me that we have indeed passed the point of physical healing. How could we possibly clean up this mess by physical means?

This predicament takes this teaching from Albert Einstein to a whole new level for me… “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”

So how do we do it differently? What is even meant by a “spiritual healing”?

I don’t know…but I do know that I’m drawn to the magic and the mystery of the water. The miracle that water even exists at all. Her enduring patience and perseverance. Her humility and grace. Her fierce power. I believe in her in a way that exceeds logic.

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Praying for the Waters

I’m a dedicated advocate for taking responsibility to care for the waters in a physical way. To keep them clean and learn how to care for and respect them in our daily life. I try to take care of the water in my personal life and teach my daughter to do the same. I’m also a HUGE supporter of the good people who are fighting for the protection of the waters…the fractivists and ecologists who are doing their best to keep corporate interests at bay. But I feel the need to extend myself beyond these physical means and into prayer to truly do my part.

I’ve been taught that the grandmothers of many of the original peoples prayed over the water every day. They sang to the water and paid her their deepest respect. They knew, even then when the waters ran clean, that their prayers and reverence were needed and called for.

Over the past several years I’ve taken to doing this myself. Each day I take a moment to honor the water and give thanks to her. I am blessed to live in a place where the waters run free and clean and wild right down the mountainside. It is a miracle of profound beauty. So, in addition to giving thanks to her I imagine the purity and wild freedom of this water extending out across the planet, nourishing and reviving all our relatives. I picture the waters of the world running free, unbound by dams and obstructions, free of chemical contaminants, sparkling, fresh and aLIVE.

I pray for a miraculous healing…a cleansing of the waters and revival of ALL life that transcends the limitations of rationality and conventional science…I pray for a spiritual healing.

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Please take a moment to make a prayer to the waters of the world. 

The water in West Virginia…the water off the coast of Japan…the water near Fracking operations and slaughter yards…the water running in streams and rivers and rocking in the ocean…the water in the wombs of all the pregnant mammal mamas around the world…the water in your veins and tear ducts and in your cells and in the air around us…It’s all connected and it’s all sacred. 

Let’s hold this water in our hearts and envision it running clear and supporting a healthy web of life. Let’s pray that every plant, animal and human has access to the pure water they need to nurture their wellbeing. Let’s ask for the guidance we need to care for the waters, honor them, respect them and learn from them…Let’s pray for the protection and restoration of this essential element of life.

For thousands of years people have prayed for the waters everyday…when the waters all ran clear the people honored the waters with prayer and gratitude as a daily practice. Now, in these recent generations as we’ve forgotten to pray, the water suffers. Let’s pray ourselves back into relation with this sacred water of life…Minni Wakan Wiconi, as it is called in Lakota…and feel how much we appreciate her once again. 

waterprayer

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Overcoming Overwhelm with the POWER of your HEARTh-fire

As we face the daunting tasks of our lives…from figuring out how to balance a meaningful livelihood with our personal sanity and quality family time to facing the environmental, economic and political challenges on the global stage…it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and even powerless.

Often, when I’m talking with people about the changes they want to make in their personal lives and the changes we want to see in the world around us, I hear the same exasperated question… “but how?”

“How are we supposed to create this kind of widespread social change or even make changes in our personal lives when most of us are struggling to just get by and make ends meet?”

heartfire

Lighting Your HEARTh-Fire

The answer lies in your heart…and the magical power hidden within it. Deep inside your heart there is actually a power that can transform your overwhelm to ease…your daunting tasks to joyful pursuits.

In the chamber of your heart lies your connection with your true soul’s purpose. And, conveniently, right in there along with it are all the tools you need to fulfill it.

They will wait there, dormant and unused, for as long as you keep yourself busy running around trying to make ends meet and pleasing everyone else in your life. They may call out to you from time to time. But, the more you cast your attention outward, the farther away you’ll get from them and the more overwhelmed and powerless you’ll feel.

Overcoming your overwhelm and reclaiming your personal power is about coming back to your heart…back to the center of your SELF.

center

Imagine your heart chamber as a sacred HEARTh…a fireplace. When the fire burns strong in this sacred HEARTh it fuels your life…it provides the light and passion and clarity necessary to meet any challenge that comes your way and fulfill all your dreams. Like any fire, it needs to be tended.

When we’re busy chasing after fulfillment outside of ourselves, struggling to make ends meet and satisfy everyone around us no one is there tending the fire. The HEARTh becomes cold and dusty. The sacred bundle of your purpose no longer burns brightly.

When your sacred purpose is burning brightly and leading the way everything falls into place. Your priorities become crystal clear. You become invigorated by your passions and focus. Unnecessary stress and feelings of obligation, guilt and resentment fall away. You feel inspired by your life and can meet each day with enthusiasm. In short, you become emPOWERed.

“In some ways my life has become way more full and complicated since the Activate program but for the first time since I was probably 13 or something I have no stress, no exhaustion, no resentment…no fear even. I look for it and it’s not there!”

– Daya Scheide

Activate Your Personal Power participant…reporting 6 months after his activation experience in Fall of 2013

Warrior-like Attention…

Activating Your Personal Power is about lighting the fire in your sacred HEARTh and learning to tend it with the fierce commitment and dedication of a warrior.

Once we awaken the flame we have to tend the fire with our unwavering attention. Being a warrior isn’t all about war and hatred and anger…it’s about going to battle for the things you love…It’s about vigilance and dedication…fierce love and commitment to what matters most. It’s a willingness to put your attachment to your comfort zone on the line to serve the greater good.

Reclaiming your personal power and learning how to manifest your inspirations and dreams with confidence requires a steady and sustained attention to what matters to YOU. You are the only one who can make your dreams a reality. It is up to you to choose to be that warrior for change in your own life.

Autumn_cave_silhouette_omega_lr

Activate Your Personal Power will initiate you into a whole new level of warrior-like attention…and the personal power and freedom that comes with it.

During this unique group experience you will:

  • Ignite your sacred HEARTh fire by reconnecting with your unique and precious sacred callings and tapping into your own brilliant inner guidance

  • Cultivate your focus and vigilance by honing in on what is essential to you and learning to lovingly release the draining distractions and self-limiting beliefs.

  • Cut the weight of your todo list in half by leveraging your passion to get ‘er done.

  • Be uplifted by the power of connection and group support with other like-hearted warriors for change!

The tools and awareness you’ll gain through our time together will radically restructure how you approach your life and the world…filling you up with emPOWERed confidence and enthusiasm for the precious opportunity you have to live your dreams in this lifetime. It’s a priceless investment in your ease and grace fund…not to mention your hell-yeah fund.

“I had no idea how much Activate Your Personal Power would change my life. I found the power within me to make life long dreams come true.

Jo pointed out to me the blockages in my mind and guided me to see what I really aligned with and wanted from life. I learned that I am capable of expressing and bringing into fruition my truest desires. Her meditations and activities where always timed perfectly in the unfolding of my true self.

I believe that what I learned in this workshop will last a lifetime because every time I think I can’t achieve something I will remember that I have the tools to do it, and that I can do it to my fullest.”

– Lyndsay Rose

Activate Your Personal Power participant…reporting 6 months after her activation experience in Fall of 2013

Register for Activate Your Personal Power today!

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The Return of Spirit

Stop what you’re doing just for a moment and see if you can feel your breath moving in and out of your body…if you can feel your heart beating in your chest.

Can you feel the LIFEforce in you?

The energy that keeps all your bodily systems running. This lifeforce is more than a biological function and it doesn’t just run your body…it runs through everything…everything that exists and all the space in between is charged and infused by this same lifeforce energy (even the things we don’t consider to be “alive”).

lifeforce

It’s everything…

Apache elder, Grandfather Stalking Wolf, refers to this energy as the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things. The Aborigines of Australia call it Divine Oneness. The Lakota call it Wakan Tanka, which translates to “The Big Sacred.”

In his new book, The Light Inside, my dear friend and spiritual brother, C.S. Drury, reminds us that… “If we just walk outside and look up at the stars, across a desert canyon, at a blade of grass, we can easily become enthralled by the wonders of life here on Earth. And if we look closely enough we can see that Spirit lives inside all of it, just as it lives inside all of us.”

This Spirit cannot be captured by words and names. It defies all logic and transcends all definitions. Although it is the source and inspiration of countless forms of spiritual devotion throughout history, it is much bigger and wider and deeper than any religion or set of spiritual practices.

It is grander and more magical than the greatest miracles performed by saints and prophets…and, despite the claims of certain religious institutions…it runs free through ALL of existence. Access to it requires no special key, no particular heritage, no fancy training. Each and every one of us has full access to it…through the magical portals of our very own awareness.

humility

Bow Down…

Connecting with and receiving guidance from this great and powerful spiritual force is as simple as relaxing…fully…into the reality of your present moment. It’s as easy as giving up the struggle and strain…putting down the baggage of your worry and posturing…and surrendering to ‘what is’ with genuine awe. It’s about witnessing the breath in your lungs, the sun filtering through the clouds, the traffic jam in front of you, the complexity of life in the modern world with a sense of wonder. In fact, even the most elaborate of spiritual practices and religious rituals are designed to do just that…to deliver you to a state of awe and wonder.

But true spiritual connection is not about strategy. It does not actually require specific rituals. All it takes is HUMILITY.

As we bow down to the sheer miracle of life we put ourselves in the position to receive. From this place of honor and reverence we are able to witness the perfection of the BiG picture unfolding, listen for and hear the guidance being offered to us and understand how we can contribute to the wellbeing of the Whole.

We are being called back…

The modern techno-culture we’ve been raised by prides itself on being secular. Science and technology have been elevated to the ranks of undeniable truth while spirituality and religion have been relegated almost to the level of quaint family hobbies, at best. Spiritual interests are often seen as old-fashioned, superstitious, quirky or close-minded. In the mainstream of our culture it’s not “cool” to be spiritual…it’s not sophisticated…it’s not what educated people do.

“A commitment to forming a relationship with Spirit is regarded as a distraction at best and dangerous or evil at worst.”

– C.S. Drury The Light Inside

I see this as a great cultural loss…something that we have been deprived of by our culture. We have been raised without a true awareness and knowledge of the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things. In fact, we’ve been trained to ignore it.

We are part of an incredibly dynamic, living, breathing, moving, growing body of conscious Spirit that is constantly communicating. But, over thousands of years of cultural conditioning, we have convinced ourselves and each other that we are separate from it and superior to it. Even after perpetuating this lie for countless generations the truth is still the truth.

Spirit never left. We are still deeply woven into the tapestry of life. All we’ve done by claiming this separation is to shut down our ability to perceive this truth and, therefore, cut off our power to connect and collaborate with this omnipotent lifeforce energy. The return of Spirit is really about the return of our awareness that there is a profound spiritual power moving through all of existence and that we can interact with it, contribute to its wellbeing and receive support and guidance from it.

“One of the most devastating consequences of our culture’s story is that it has resulted in a loss of belief in our most important and vital support network, that which we find through the world of Spirit.”

– C.S. Drury The Light Inside

This disconnection renders us powerless and sets us up to be victims of seemingly random and meaningless circumstance. It also causes us to be not only useless, but seriously destructive within the great circle of life.

Without the awareness of our interconnectedness with the rest of creation we’re like a bunch of blindfolded buffoons stumbling through a gallery of exquisite blown glass art.

landfill

Without humanity’s active and responsible cooperation with the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things all of creation suffers. The circle of life can only truly thrive when all the players are willingly involved. The damage caused by our illusion of separateness has become so serious in recent decades that the very life support system we all rely on is falling apart right in front of our eyes.

The signs and symptoms have become undeniable…the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things is calling us out of our stupor. We are being called back to attention…we are being beckoned to reconnect with the circle of life…and to once again revere the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things…to humble ourselves to it and learn how to perceive it and honor it and contribute to its wellbeing.

Way back in the 1960s, Grandfather Stalking Wolf warned his young student Tom Brown Jr. that if we reached certain thresholds of damage in the physical world that we would have to wake up to our sacred responsibility to participate in healing on a spiritual level. He said…

“The Earth can no longer be healed on a physical level. Only a spiritual healing can change the course of the probable futures of mankind.”

Reclaiming our Sacred Responsibility

At a recent Hindu fire ceremony to honor the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things I was listening to the guidance of the facilitator as he oriented the newcomers to this practice. He was instructing us to make offerings into the fire while saying the word “Swaha,” which means “I offer.” This is one of the many ways to practice humility and surrender to the Divine.

He said, “Say Swaha like your life depends on it…because it does.”

This ritual was given to the people tens of thousands of years ago to guide us in participating with the circle of life and help us bow in humility and reverence to the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things. It is said that this is the fire that brings the rain, that grows the grain…and the smoke that purifies our bodies, minds and spirits.

fire ceremony

When he told us to say “Swaha” like our lives depend on it I realized that they, in fact, do depend on this genuine connection and humility. It is true now more than it ever has been. Our lives depend on it. Of course, we need the physical sustenance of quenching rain and nourishing grain…but, as I explained to my 11 year old daughter, these are also metaphorical.

The fire is the devotion, the ritual, the offering of our passions and our attention…that brings the rain of spiritual support, the reciprocation from the spirit world that nourishes the land and all of creation to produce sustenance for our lives, like the grains and all of the rest of this abundant world.

Hindus are not the only ones who believe that our prayers and rituals and requests to the spirit world are necessary to support our physical world. All of the ancient cultures that I’m aware of share a similar belief that the active involvement, ritual and prayer of humans helps to sustain balance and wellbeing in the world…that, in fact, that is our role to play in creation…our sacred responsibility.

offerings

Similar beliefs and practices among the Dagara, Aborgines, Shipibo, Shona, Lakota, Kogi, etc. express that we’re meant to continually sing and dance and pray the world alive. That that is the reason we’ve been given this creativity and consciousness that is so distinct from the rest of the animal kingdom. And that when we use our consciousness (or intellect) instead to further our own development and comfort at the expense of the web of life we are actually turning our back on our most sacred responsibility and creating massive imbalance and destruction.

During this time of breakdown and breakthrough in our world it is essential that we wake up to our interconnection with all of existence and offer ourselves to the mending of that which has been broken.

Although there are many rituals and practices that can help us “get there” all we need to do is humble ourselves to the Divine with genuine awe and wonder and realize that we are already there…held within the great circle of life…nourished by the Spirit-that-moves-in-all-things…ready and willing to be of service.

 

 

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