Epiphany

I found the above quote
on the Angel Wings and Herb Tea Facebook page.

This year I hope to 

stand more steadily,

Barefoot on bare earth.

Feel a belonging to the country of my story

my native truth

my inner being.

I don't need to assimilate

Or unlearn my mother tongue

To understand the riddles of a new country.

I can speak my own language,

Sing my own poetry

and write my own story.

Simply, authentically, quietly my own.

Because that is the gift I was given

And the only one I can return

That will be of any worth at the end of the day

I hope only to stand on my own little wild scrap of earth

without fear or dismay

and connect fully and compassionately with others as they stand on theirs.

If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, quieter, warmer.

Dag Hammarskjold

 

 

Medicine Dreams

The dream is a sacred thing to many tribal cultures. 

It is a vision for life, a finding of the soul. 

Native people of many ancient traditions call it medicine.

The dream is meant to heal the most broken part of ourselves and help heal the most broken part of others we meet along our journey through life.

It is what makes us whole again, uniting us to our soul and the soul of the the earth and the spirit of the one who created both.

In some Native American tribes, a youth, when ready to find his medicine will sit upon a mountain for four days and four nights without eating or drinking.

A young Aborigine in Australia will be taken to a place deep in the outback desert. In that place of solitude he will also find His dream and it will become his strength and it will lead him, safely home.

In the western world we have career advisers.

Our dream has now become deeply connected to our social status and that is reflected in the career path we forge.

How many people would prefer their child to become a gardener over a scientist, a cleaner over an accountant or a carpenter over an executive.

Not everyone, but the prevalent norm is to place our greatest value on status and salary.


This is all reflected in which subjects are taken most seriously in schools. 

Practical vocational qualifications, the arts, humanities and spiritual studies, are generally not considered as important or valuable as the hard sciences or mathematics.

We are encouraged to follow the path which most effectively enhances our sense of value in society. Whether or not the pursuit of such a path is of any inherent value within itself.

The advertisers, the media, politicians and ultimately those who benefit most and pull the most strings, the corporations, have replaced the true dream with a superficial version.

This is a great crime against our human souls and it is going unnoticed because it is happening so slowly.

 

The Media sells us false dreams.

While we run ourselves ragged simply trying to work and look after our families, we become passive to the effects of the media on our consciousnesses.

The media plays up to every one of our base impulses. It encourages us to consume above and beyond our means and needs.

 It also makes us fear the world around us while giving us the message that ultimately we are impotent and powerless to change anything.

But the most scary truth is that we are becoming numb.

We are losing the ability to truly see and hear the voice of our souls.

The voice of the sacred in the everyday.

And it is young people who are most vulnerable to mistake the false dream for the real one.



Maybe this is because the dream replacement seems quite congenial, non confrontational, consumer friendly and relatively safe compared with the true dream.

In the new dream Saint Nicholas becomes Father Christmas, Jesus becomes a blond, blue eyed, life coach, and American Idol and X factor become the initiation ceremonies for our youth.

In contrast, the true dream of our souls may very well lead us away from materiel security, the pursuit of wealth, perpetual beauty and comfort, and the instant pleasures and conveniences that factories across the world supply at both an environmental and human cost.



I took a walk outside the other night, far away from the orange street lamps and the hazy atmosphere. 

 I found a place completely dark except for the stars and the crescent moon.

I sat and heard the stories nature tried to tell me, the ones I am usually to busy to hear.

The rustle of the leaves, awaking me softly to the night, both within and without.

The river sings of our deepest truth.

The truth that is present within all things from seed, to birdsong, to the human heart.

I pray to be more present to the wisdom of  this sacred truth.

I have the feeling that our collective dream still sings somewhere along that river.

 

A soulful life

 A soulful life is an intentional life.

A life that seeks to nourish and sustain the soul first.

A life that remains still and small and quiet enough to listen to the songbird  and the rustling leaves and the falling rain.

A life that sees with the heart more than the eyes.

A life that gives fearlessly knowing deeply that giving sustains more than taking.

For whatever is measured out will be given back a hundred fold in ways you cannot imagine.

 ^" Give, and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete, therewith it shall be measured to you again.”

 

A Soulful Life seeks and finds goodness in others.

Understands that I am no better than you.

We all stand in awe of this mystery called life.

We are all on this wondrous journey together.


The bark of a red wood tree, the blade of green grass, the sparkling stream, the gentle fawn,
you and I are  connected and a part of one another.
   

If you are deprived I will never be satiated.

If you are in prison, I cannot be completely free.

If you are oppressed, I remain shackled.

 

A soulful life is a life that puts love first.

Before my ideology, my creed, my religion, my politics, my colour, my country, myself.

Comes love

And love comes after too.

"Let all go dear...

                           So comes love."

e.e cummings

                                                                       
 

 It is the pearl without price for which everything else must be given.

"When a soul sets up to find God, it does not know whether it will come, or by what path it will be led. But those who catch the vision are ready to follow the Lamb where ever He goes. And it is as they follow, obedient to what they have seen, in the spirit of joyful adventure, that their path becomes clear before them, and they are given the power to fulfill their high calling. They are those who have the courage to break through conventionalities, who care not at all what the world thinks of them. Because they are entirely taken up with the tremendous realities with the soul and God."

~Amy Carmichael

Memories

Drawing in the garden, then painting in blessed coolness with my girls. 

Taking the time to let creative juices seep through the gentle gauzy linen of sunny afternoons like the sunlight through tender green sycamore leaves.

New Birthday dresses.

The stillness, of summer evenings. And the quiet listening there.

Wild flower trinkets made by my little brown eyed bear cub, special for her Mama.

Child Art. Fresco's!

Friends.

Bringing a little beauty from outdoors, indoors.

Little shoots watering little shoots:)

Fresh home grown produce.

Old toys loved new again..

A Gentle Prayer is what I'll say...

A gentle prayer is what I'll say

To close this peaceful. gentle day.

With gratitude that I have heard
The pre-dawn chirpings of a bird.

With thankfulness that I have seen

The many hues of summer green.

With singing heart that I could feel
The soft warm grasses when I kneel.

With love for those who give me care
I softly close my gentle prayer.