“love the world as your self then you can care for all things” ~Lao Tzu
There is an earthy Celtic tradition that I enjoy very much. This tradition is simple, healing and fun. It involves speaking or singing your love and appreciation directly to the trees and flowers, birds and animals that you encounter in nature.
For example, I might go out into my backyard and whisper to the pine trees and tell them just how lovely their green branches are today. Or I might smile at the lavender bush and praise its scent. I might stop as I’m walking the dog, and thank the sky for the amazing cloud shapes floating by. If I’m feeling especially exuberant today, I could even go so far as to sing my gratitude to the trees and flowers and sky. Or create a little poem about their beauty and effect on me.
This ancient Celtic practice gives me a simple way to honor and acknowledge my relationship with nature. Our human lives are interwoven with the natural world in a multitude of ways. But I often forget just how important nature is to my life. This gratitude practice helps me to remember.
“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” ~Khalil Gibran
Gratitude Walk
Below I share yet another way to shift into a naturally grateful state:
Take a walk in a beautiful natural space. As you walk, just notice what is beautiful around you. Whenever you notice a beautiful object, silently say thank you to it; thank each beautiful tree and flower and blade of grass for existing and brightening up your life.
Can you come up with 10 things to be grateful for? 25? 50? Make your list silently. And then notice what happens to your mood when you practice gratitude.
On a hike last year in the mountains, I walked out of pine forest into a clearing and found myself suddenly surrounded by flowers. The sight was so stunning that I can still picture it now months later. There were flowers, so many flowers everywhere! White, pink, violet, yellow blooms all around me; small whispers of color, large flagrant displays and every size and shape in between. Flowers were trumpeting the joy of life from every corner.
No two flowers in that clearing were exactly alike, yet all were similar. And seeing all those flower patterns reminded me of fractals; Scientists claim that every object in the Universe is created from sacred geometric fractal patterns. The same basic fractal patterns repeat again and again to form the foundation of every single object in our Universe.
Patterns within Patterns
I believe that these fractal patterns describe what human Souls are really like – our Souls express infinite variations of shape and hue that reflect patterns of the divine energy in unique and wonderful way; we are different and the same all at once. We are fractals in a field overflowing with fractals.
Spiritual teachers from every tradition have written and spoken about this field of sacred fractal patterns. This sacred field is known as the Akasha, a Sanskrit word that actually means “space”. Many of the world’s ancient spiritual traditions (Taoists, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs, Mayans, Druids, etc.) claim that this field is where energies that log all of your Soul’s experiences from every lifetime since the beginning of the World are held.
“A substructure underpins the universe that is essentially a recording medium of everything, providing a means for everything to communicate with everything else. People are indivisible from their environment.” ~Lynne McTaggart
This field is also known as the Void – although, in my experience, it is far from empty. It holds all of the vibrational patterns of YOU in lifetime after lifetime. Sacred texts tell us that Akashic records are held in a vibrational form in this field. The Akasha hold the patterns of your actions and reactions while in human form; your beliefs, and your choices as well as the rippling impact (AKA karma) of each choice.
Web of Life
Akasha represent the “glue” of Spirit; the energetic relationships that weave and hold our Universe together. In many Native American tribes a legend is told of grandmother spider creating the Universe by weaving it all together with invisible threads. And modern quantum physicists speak of “gluon”, the invisible force that binds subatomic particles together. Other scientists write about the Zero Point Field or Quantum Field; an invisible field of constantly oscillating energies that create the foundational structure of our entire Universe.
The Tao, gluon, web of life, Akasha, quantum field, zero point field… choose whatever name fits for you. Just know that you are connected and interrelated to every other part of the Universe through this magical web. The energy of the Tao or Akasha flows all around us in each moment. And it also flows within each of us; it is the energy of Soul and it animates and organizes our human form. It is the field of creation where everything is possible.
We are waves of Spirit,
We are born; we rise and flow on the ocean of consciousness
Before falling once more into the silent depths of the Tao.
∞
Soul Space Meditation
There is a space where true healing resides. This space is infinitesimally small, yet expansive beyond all reason. It lies at the edge of the Great Unknown. Step inside this space and you will know the healing power of boundless love. The divine essence of life is here and all is well.
How do you find this tiny space from which healing beckons? There are many paths; prayer, time in Nature, communing with children, conscious breathwork, dance… the list of ways is as endless as the stars.
Here is one simple way:
Sit. Your back is upright, your shoulders relaxed, your belly soft and your chin parallel to the floor. Just Sit.
Now, close your eyes and breathe. Just breathe. Feel your breath move in and out of your chest; In and out, in and out. Once, twice, a hundred times, just breathe. It is so simple yet hard. Just breathe and your mind kicks into overdrive. Your thoughts will try to get in your way.
But you are not your thoughts. There is far more to you than thought. You are Soul. You are endless and eternal. You can step out of the way of your thoughts and watch them dance by. You can witness the flow of your own mind. Yes you can. Again and again, step out of your thoughts.
Again and again, breath in and watch, breathe out and watch. Step out of your thoughts, Observe the incessant chatter of your “monkey mind”, always restless, always grasping. Notice how feeling arise within you and then fade away.
Step out of your thoughts again and again. And come back to the breath. Feel the rise and fall. Air rolls in to your body and air rolls out. This is the universal wave of life force. Explore each wave as it rolls in and out of you.
Try to find the pause between two breaths. Sit in the pause, explore the pause, that razor sharp edge between the out- breath and the in. Explore that edge and feel it expand.
Again and again, step out of your thoughts. Ride the wave of breath. And find the space between. Breathe and explore the space that flows with the essence of you.
Each of us was born from the Tao. And we return to it when we leave here. Consciously connecting to this flow is transformative; it will help you “wake up” to your Soul’s purpose and remember why you are here. It will clarify and solidify your priorities and become an inner true north that guides your life.
There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born. It is serene. Empty. Solitary. Unchanging. Infinite. Eternally present. It is the mother of the universe. For lack of a better name, I call it the Tao.
∞
Since before time and space were, the Tao is.
It is beyond is and is not. How do I know this is true? I look inside myself and see.
Ayni is a beautiful little word. Ayni is the art of living in balance within and without; Living in right relationship with Self, Soul and World.
Click on the link below to listen to a wonderful little talk; Two well-known shaman discuss Ayni and Shamanism as the Art of the Soul: Interfaith Radio
We have come to be danced not the pretty dance not the pretty pretty, pick me, pick me dance but the claw our way back into the belly of the sacred, sensual animal dance the unhinged, unplugged, cat is out of its box dance the holding the precious moment in the palms of our hands and feet dance
We have come to be danced not the jiffy booby, shake your booty for him dance but the wring the sadness from our skin dance the blow the chip off our shoulder dance the slap the apology from our posture dance
We have come to be danced not the monkey see, monkey do dance one, two dance like you one two three, dance like me dance but the grave robber, tomb stalker tearing scabs & scars open dance the rub the rhythm raw against our souls dance
WE have come to be danced not the nice invisible, self conscious shuffle but the matted hair flying, voodoo mama shaman shakin’ ancient bones dance the strip us from our casings, return our wings sharpen our claws & tongues dance the shed dead cells and slip into the luminous skin of love dance
We have come to be danced not the hold our breath and wallow in the shallow end of the floor dance but the meeting of the trinity: the body, breath & beat dance the shout hallelujah from the top of our thighs dance the mother may I? yes you may take 10 giant leaps dance the Olly Olly Oxen Free Free Free dance the everyone can come to our heaven dance
We have come to be danced where the kingdom’s collide in the cathedral of flesh to burn back into the light to unravel, to play, to fly, to pray to root in skin sanctuary We have come to be danced WE HAVE COME