This is the eighth issue of my free newsletter. Your feedback is most welcome!
Ah, Summer! Time for the children's exuberant release from school, time for vacations and frolicking outdoors in the beautiful summer sun. Father Sun energizes the rapid growth of all the Earth's children: flowers, fruits, vegetables, animals. Summer warms, relaxes and expands us. It's an easy time to open up and connect. According to Sun Bear's Medicine Wheel wisdom, it is the season of the coyote, who plays tricks on us and makes us laugh at ourselves--indeed, tricks us into growing and learning.
The theme for me this Summer Solstice is following my heart, trusting, embracing a new intentional community and a very different, earth-centered way of life. On July 2, I'll be moving to Earthaven, near Asheville, North Carolina, for a trial membership (and a new, budding relationship!) Of course, welcoming the new always requires letting go of the old--the diverse delights of the Bay Area's culture, and most of all my very dear friends--and there is certainly some sadness about that. I've decided to crack out of my comfortable shell, rather than let myself stay stuck in the old ways due to fear of losses, or of the uncertainty that change brings. Mostly, I feel like the lucky recipient of a huge gift!
If it's easy for me to let go, I won't need a fire to burn down my house.
With thanks to park naturalists and interpretive signs, here are some of my recent learnings from nature.
* The humblest are essential.
On my visit to Yosemite last week, I read the following: The Ahwahneechee people's name for El Capitan (the huge, imposing mountain made famous by many photographers) was "Tutokanula." The story is that two bear cubs were playing one day on a large flat rock near a river. The rock grew and grew until the bear cubs scratched their faces against the moon. The mother bear called on all the animals to rescue her babies, but none succeeded until the lowly inchworm (Tutokanula) crawled slowly to the top and led the cubs safely down. The fact that the people native to Yosemite Valley chose to give the tallest mountain the humble name of the inchworm, so opposite to the white man's name of "captain," is rich with meaning for me. It's not only coyote humor, but also a reminder to revere the smallest and to beware of grandiosity.
In Muir woods, I learned that even the tiny sorrel plants growing beneath the redwoods are part of the family, keeping the tall trees alive by holding moisture in the top 8 to 10 feet of soil where redwood roots grow. Although the roots are shallow, they all link together, providing great stability in an invisible way. Just so, the invisible web of connections with other fellow beings gives us stability when storms come.
* Apparent weakness can be a strength.
An important reason that the giant sequoias have been left standing is that their wood is actually brittle and fragile, and can break like glass when a tree is felled. This has made them less desirable for commercial logging...part of the Creator's crafty design to let these magnificent elders survive, that we may benefit from their presence! These great tall trees are like antennas to heaven, transmitting healing to us.
* For some species, survival depends on agility more than ability to fight or even to hide. The Klipspringer deer can bound into the air and land on all four feet; their nimbleness enables them to escape predators.
* Male sable deer fight on their knees, going head to head with their horns. (What would the world be like if our national leaders fell to their knees before THEY went head to head?)
Other learnings occurred spontaneously. Spending time with one of the great sequoias, breathing love from my heart to the tree and sending imaginary roots down into the ground next to it, suddenly I could hear parts of a message being sung to me by a bird far above: "See Spirit within you. Spirit of Community--good therapy! Security is an illusion. What is true security? Community is security."
Two sequoias growing close together beckoned us, and a natural ritual of con nection unfolded as both of us placed one hand on the trunk of each tree, bridging their energies with ours.
A little further on, I saw a toppled and charred tree with a broken-open swelling that looked a great deal like a broken egg from which a hatchling might have emerged. This tree came into view just after I had the thought, "I had to break out of my shell" (the comfortable city life).
Just as breath-taking to me as the great trees are the magnificent rivers and waterfalls of Yosemite. The power of those torrents of whitewater, so much greater than the power of a human, always inspire awe in me. How easily a human life could be ended, by falling into the churning rapids! Yet how exhilarating the spray and the cool updrafts. All those who took the hike up the "Mist Trail" were baptized with a good drenching. These pilgrims to the top of Nevada Falls wore shining faces upon their return, having seen the rainbows and heard the roar of the divine.
Perhaps the coyote was playing his tricks to teach us a special lesson that day. My friend and I experienced the power of our thoughts to attract outcomes, each in our own way. He had said, several times, "I don't want to be setting up the tent in the dark." Although we left the trail and set out for the campground in plenty of time, there had been an accident and we were forced to take a detour which placed us on an unmarked road. Twenty minutes later, we discovered we had been going in the wrong direction and had to backtrack. And there we were, setting up the tent in the dark after all! We laughed when we realized how the negative thought had been "juiced" with repetition and fearful emotion. Then I remembered the mishap with my camera film which had occurred just after I'd declared how upset I would be if I didn't get a photo of Nevada Falls with the rainbow. Although I had managed to find an extra roll of film, I had not loaded it properly in my excitement (and could not hear the usual whirring sound due to the thundering water). It was only after the falls were far behind us that I realized what had happened. It reminded me of something Neal Donald Walsh wrote (in "Conversations with God") about the universe being like a giant xerox machine that simply gives us back what we are putting out.
(If you are interested in an enlightening and entertaining book for all ages on the power of attraction our thoughts hold, read Sarah and the Foreverness of Friends of a Feather by Esther and Jerry Hicks; see www.abraham-hicks.com.)
May your summer season be blessed with rapid growth, trust and love!
For more on learning from nature and rituals to heal ourselves, please visit my website, www.TalkingBirdsPress.com, and read excerpts from my book, The Circle of Healing.
Does your group need a speaker? Contact me at (510) 845-5879.
