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If you have lived for very long you will have come to recognize that our lives are like stories and they have very distinctive chapters and parts. When I was a child my father worked for the Forest Service and about every 3 years we were transferred to a new place. During these times it seemed to me a chapter closed and a new one begin. This was both exciting and scary. It was hard to leave behind what was known but strangely freeing. I remember this brief time usually traveling through space from one place to the other, that really felt like we were in the unknown zone. It feels like that time is also our collective NOW. This time is known as liminal time or in between time. It is a special kind of time and needs a special conscious approach when possible.
“On this Path we learn to drink beauty. We are quenched by the sun and the moon.” Do you know how to breathe, eat and drink beauty? Do you know how to savor and let it infuse your insides from head to toe? Do you know how to feel your own inner life force being fed by the radiance of the world?
It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing. It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive. It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
Understanding the Inner Child. It happens to all of us- we get triggered. Some seemingly random event happens, and we go into this crazy emotional meltdown, or blow up, or whatever you want to call it. And part of us thinks, “Whoa! Where did that come from?” like we didn’t even know that we had such strong feelings about- what? What is it that brought on this out-of-the-blue upset? Whenever circumstances trigger a strong emotional reaction, stronger than those circumstances warrant, we can recognize our inner child is involved. If we do this without self judgement we can actually take charge and lead the child out of difficulty. We have to use the reaction itself as a wakeup call. And we have to accept that are not our idealized image with humility and grace rather than self judgement and self-criticism.
From a very young age I was a seeker needing answers to the big questions of LIFE. I needed to know, “what is it all about?” Life has to mean something, suffering must have a purpose. Otherwise how is it worth living? Yet in the face of the grandeur and beauty of the Living Universe something within me knew all is significant and purposeful. Something big is going on here; a great mystery that calls me to penetrate it. I found the Pathwork when I was 34. For 30 years now it has been my guiding light, helping me get the most out of every life experience I encounter and answering the burning questions in my soul. More than just a philosophy, the Pathwork* was a process that helped me learn to find the answers within myself through direct experience.
Winter is the time of resting in being and waiting. All nature knows this blessed state, even human nature, but in our modern culture we are lost in a great imbalance, idealizing and over-emphasizing the active, doing orientation in life. We have lost touch with receptivity and being. The initiating active principle is of course a necessary power and principle, but if it is not balanced by the receptivity of simply being, if our doing doesn’t arise out of our deeper being, then all our doing and giving and pressured activity drains us. The more we struggle against life’s storms and currents, the more we exhaust ourselves. .
Forest Therapy increases our intake of Vitamin N for Modern Nature Deficit Disorder and Stress related illness. Nature or Forest Immersion experiences are a form of recreational therapy that have a vast array of benefits for human health and wellbeing. Also known as Shinrin Yoku, or “taking in the atmosphere of the forest”, this proves to be the perfect antidote for our stressful modern life styles. 30 years of research in Japan has shown the beneficial effects on all our modern stress indicators; high blood pressure, pulse rate, cortisol levels, immune system balance, creativity and mental focus are all benefited. It is becoming a popular organizational luncheon workshop.
Fall As we move into the energies of the fall in the Northern Hemisphere, it is time for gathering, sorting and reflecting; reaping the harvest of what we have sown, taking time to separate wheat from shaft and set aside the seed corn to plant in the spring. Oh yes, and don’t forget the feasting and Thanksgiving! Here is a link to a song a fall faerie once sang to me. https://earthwalkways.com/harvest-song/
I wish to dedicate this blog to a new teacher of mine, Visionary Activist, Compassionate Trickster, and Keeper of the Mythic Landscape that has been lost to contemporary western culture: Caroline Casey. Please check out her Trickster Training Council and her Pacifica Radio Broadcast, Coyote Network News. http://coyotenetworknews.com/bio/
