Magic Morning

Flatirons in Snow

“Let me bring you songs from the woods…”
~Jethro Tull

A bit of serendipity…

This morning I ended up taking a hike in Chautauqua Park. I had an appointment, but the Universe had other plans for me!  I was already in Boulder when I found out that my morning appointment was cancelled. What to do with 2 hours? What to do?  So many possibilities!

Flagstaff Mountain called out to me, and I found myself driving to Chautauqua.  It was a beautiful morning to be outside, sunny and cool with a few inches of day old snow blanketing the mountain. As I began hiking straight uphill in snow, I questioned the wisdom of my decision. But legs and lungs soon adjusted to the climb and the view of the Flatirons was enough to keep me going.

Along the way, I relished the silence – what is it about snow on the ground that makes the woods so still?  I felt like I was walking in sacred silence. Step by step, I picked my way carefully up and down the snowy slopes. Walking in snow became my morning meditation practice. With each step, my mind cleared and my heart opened wider.

Mama Pine

Down in a hollow where I have never hiked before, I met this old Mama pine tree.  I stood and listened to her view of the world for awhile.

I leaned against Mama pine’s trunk, listening and looking up into her branches, After 5 minutes in her space, I felt like I had been at a meditation retreat for days!  And my heart opened even wider. Such is the calming, cleansing power of old trees.

Tree Web

Thank you Mama pine for sharing some of your essence with me.

You helped me make it a magic morning.

☾ ☽

“…a Sign that the Universal Mind
has written you into the Passion Play”

~Jethro Tull, Skating Away…

Snowflake Wisdom

St. Vrain in Snow

February has never been my favorite month. The weather can be cold and  brutal. And snow is expected here in the Colorado Rockies today. Winter can seem endless in February. But a little story in  The 13 Original Clan Mothers stopped my winter grumbling and gave me a way to actually enjoy February.

The period of days from one new moon to the next is a moon month. According to Native American teachings, every moon month is watched over by a different Clan Mother.  Early February is within the 2nd moon month of the year; Grandmother Wisdom Keeper watches over this moon cycle. Wisdom Keeper holds the knowing that the entire history of this planet is held within the stones of Mother Earth. And that every part of nature helps hold our history.

One day in February, Grandmother Wisdom Keeper was out walking in nature and a little snowflake spoke to her.  Here is an excerpt of the Wisdom Keeper legend from Jamie Sams’ book:

“…On the Rock Person’s surface was a perfectly frozen snowflake. The intricate pattern of the snowflake seemed to float above the blue-gray of the stone’s surface.Wisdom Keeper bent closer, being careful that the warmth of her breath did not melt the frozen web suspended in the early morning frost. “Oh Snowflake,” she whispered to herself, “what a genuinely rare gift of winter you are.” 

The snowflake surprised Wisdom Keeper by answering her whispered thoughts, causing the Clan Mother’s heartbeat to quicken.

You may call me Ice Web, Mother. When Grandmother Spider wove the web of Creation, she created Snowflakes to represent the webs of dreams that would travel from the Dreamtime to Earth, becoming living, physical experiences.”

Wisdom Keeper had never encountered a talking snowflake before. In her curiosity, the Keeper of Earth’s Records felt impelled to ask Ice Web further questions in order to fully understand the roles that the Great Mystery gave the Ice-beings of winter. “What an extraordinary mission you have, Ice Web. Will you tell me more about how your Medicine assists our Planetary Family so that I may hold that understanding for the Two-leggeds?” 

“Of course I will, Wisdom Keeper. I was preserved in frost so that my passage through your life would not go unnoticed. You must record the purpose of my role in nature so that every Child of Earth will know how her or his dreams and visions aid the spiritual growth of the whole Planetary Family. 

Mother, every one of the Children of Earth has feelings and dreams according to his or her place in the scheme and balance of nature. When combined, all of those dreams and feelings make up the needs of the Children of Earth. The snowflakes are the messengers of those needs because our bodies hold the patterns of each individual dream. When Grandfather Sun’s warmth melts our bodies into water, the feelings of the collected dreams are poured into the Earth Mother’s soil, giving her the understanding of her children’s deepest desires.”

☾ ☽

I LOVE this view of the world where every part of nature has a purpose and wants to help us! A world where tiny snowflakes hold our most precious dreams for us. They hold and cherish each tiny seed until our dreams can sprout and grow in the warmth of spring.

Here’s wishing that many, many snowflakes fall today. I’d like one to hold and cherish each one of my winter dreams, please!

Snow on Front Range

Elemental Gratitude

Front Range

Today I’m grateful for sun, blue sky, mountains in the distance and snow on the horizon…

Spirit dances with Fire, Air, Earth and Water and somehow the amazing alchemy of Life flows forth  Today I’m grateful for the dance of elemental Fire, Air, Earth and Water all around me. What a beautiful dance it is!

Flatirons and Sky

Free Infinite Web on January 24th

  Calling on the Infinite

Thursday January 24th, 2013

7 PM Mountain

8 PM Central    6 PM Pacific

It’s time for January’s Infinite Web Flow Session.  These group tele call sessions are completely Free and you can take part by simply phoning in. Once connected to the group call, you will be able to listen in, ask questions and be part of the shift that the group creates. Infinite Webs take advantage of the exponential power of group consciousness, making it easier to shift and transform any issue.
 

In this month’s call, I will share how you can open up and receive from the infinite pool of Universal energy, and use that energy to shift your body or mind into a balanced, calm and flowing state. If that sounds yummy to you, please register for the Infinite Web Flow session on January 24th! 

 
To register, just send an email to me at: nancy@nancylankston.com and let me know you want to join my Infinite Web this month.
 
 

The Breath of Life

Open to the Magic of Flow

There is a tidal flow within you. This tide was the first motion within your tiny baby body as you formed in your mother’s womb; its gentle waves actually helped your physical body to grow. Many Craniosacral Therapists and Osteopaths call this flow the “Breath of Life”  because it is so important to human development.

This rhythmic tide flows around and within your brain and spinal column for your entire life. This motion within your cerebrospinal fluid has a profound impact on the performance of nerves throughout your brain and body. Small restrictions in the tissues around your brain and spine can inhibit the flow and block the breath of life. And a restricted flow can cause severe sensory and motor problems such as chronic pain, palsy, loss of sensation or movement, hyperactivity, headaches, insomnia and sucking, chewing or speech difficulties. 

CranioSacral Flow has been part of my healing practice for 20 years. I have synthesized many of  the teachings of Sutherland, Becker, Sills, Upledger and Milne into my energetic version of CranioSacral Therapy because I believe that helping your nervous system return to its healthy, flowing and juicy state is absolutely key to healing. 

 ☾ ☽

“Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water.
Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible,
nothing can surpass it.

The soft overcomes the hard;
the gentle overcomes the rigid.”

~Lao Tzu in Tao Te Ching

fractal flame

Nancy Lankston
Elemental Flow

Advice to Myself – Meander

St. Vrain in Snow

Rivers hardly ever run in a straight line.
Rivers are willing to take ten thousand meanders
and enjoy every one
and grow from every one.
When they leave a meander,
they are always more
than when they entered it.
When rivers meet an obstacle,
they do not try to run over it.
They merely go around
but they always get to the other side.
Rivers accept things as they are,
conform to the shape they find the world in,
yet nothing changes things more than rivers.
Rivers move even mountains into the sea.
Rivers hardly ever are in a hurry
yet is there anything more likely
to reach the point it sets out for
than a river?
by
James Dillet Freeman

Me·an·der   v.
1. To follow a winding and turning course: Streams tend to meander through level land.
2. To move aimlessly and idly without fixed direction: vagabonds meandering through life. See Synonym wander.
—————————
[From Latin maeandercircuitous windings, from Greek maiandros, after Maiandros, the Maeander River in Phrygia, noted for its windings.]                                                                    From http://www.thefreedictionary.com

 
 
 ∭

We call upon the waters that rim the earth, horizon to horizon,
that flow in our rivers and streams, that fall upon our gardens and fields,
and we ask that they teach us and show us the way.
~Chinook Blessing

 

Spacious Sky, Spacious Mind

Spacious Sky
“…it’s the opening
that’s the point. It is that lightheartedness, that bigness,
that spacious 
mind and love that can hold the suffering and accommodate it
and integrate 
it and understand it.”
~Susan Salzberg
 
Advice to myself today – be Spacious, my friend.
as Spacious as the sky…