Category: humanity

Muddy Toes…Happy Heart

Muddy Toes…Happy Heart

simonelipscomb (3) copyAs soon as I stepped onto my SUP board, a large shadow passed overhead. Wings gliding through air were so close the rush of air through feathers sounded like soft music. I watched the pelican navigate upriver as I turned my board around to head down…down river.

Those first few paddle strokes felt amazing. Weeks had passed since my last visit with the river and so I found myself unable to resist her call after my Pure Barre workout. A hearty breakfast and I was out the door after grabbing my cap and waist-wrap PFD. It only took a few minutes to strap the wheels on my board and begin the short walk to the water.

photoBliss began to fill me as my mind expanded through the sky reflected in the still water. And then, having paddled less than 100 yards, a large tree blocked my progress. At some point during the past five weeks a maple tree fell from the eroding bank and blocked the narrow passage of the Magnolia River headwaters.

Not to be deterred, I turned around, exited the water, re-strapped the board to the wheels and walked further down river to another put-in point. It wasn’t the white, sandy beach I am used to but it worked.

SimoneLipscombThe black mud oozed between my toes as I gingerly walked my board over submerged tree limbs. It wasn’t ideal but finally…ahhhh….I was free.

The wind picked up so once I was into the Cold Hole it gave me an immediate challenge. It didn’t really matter. I felt like I was getting reacquainted with an old friend.

The new floating dock in the Cold Hole had been whitewashed by grateful pelicans who discovered it as the perfect perch from which to sit and hunt. All the way past the bridge and onward the splashes of pelicans dropping from heavenly realms created wondrous music that blended with the steady dip and splash of the paddle blade as it sliced the surface.

Osprey...image taken in Florida last winter

An osprey cried overhead as I disturbed her morning’s reverie in the high pine tree just before Devil’s Hole. Cormorants swam and pattered on the surface of the water as they gained momentum to fly.

heron7Another large bird flew beside me with a large branch in his beak. The great blue heron flew up and over my head to the pine tree where he and his gal had raised a baby last year. Patiently waiting on the new nest was his mate.

Because the wind was quite brisk I hadn’t planned to go very far but the river was like a magnet for my soul and I was unable to resist her attraction. So on I went.

Past the snowy egret….past the snag where I saw the bald eagles last autumn. Past the double tree snag that was now filled with buzzards…past the last house and into the place where the river is wilder, more feral. My turning point would be the bend in the river where the sandhill cranes mesmerized me with their haunting calls during the migration last year. I wanted to peek around the bend and see marsh grasses further on…those sacred rushes where amazing nursery habitat for so many fish and sea creatures hugged the banks of the widening river.

SimoneLipscomb (2)Clouds grew darker and began to organize into layers of gray-blue puffy formations. It was the nudge I needed to turn homeward. With the wind pushing me now, I paddled steadily back to the muddy beach but my mind was lost in geometries of elongated ovals of dark blue ringed with purple, reflections on the surface, distorted by wind.

SimoneLipscomb (6)Too soon my board nosed into the submerged limb and the black ooze welcomed my toes as I stepped over otter footprints and climbed the sandy bank with my board. Some of my human friends are hunkered down for another North Carolina snow storm. Another is recovering in a hospital after being hit by a drunk driver and air-lifted to a trauma center. Other friends are recovering from serious surgery and on the list grows. So today…on this beautiful day…I feel blessed that somehow grace has touched my life and given the gift of the river.

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Elders Enduring

Elders Enduring

My last full day in Bonaire I rented a truck and drove through the north part of the island. As I was making my way toward Rincon, and then Washington Slagbaii National Park, I eased through Gotomeer. The narrow, one-lane road hugged the shore of a lake where flamingos waded along with other shore birds. It was beautiful with cactus lining the rocky landscape.

CopyrightSimoneLipscomb (2)As I drove past a tiny island, I noticed the fence and shelter had been improved from last year. In fact, each year it seems to get more fortified and improved.

After passing it, I came upon an elder. His dark skin glistened in the heat and he motioned for me to stop. Yes, I was alone with few other humans around and yes, I had a backpack full of expensive Nikon photography equipment, part of which was laying on the seat beside me. But locals get rides from anyone who is willing to stop and give them a lift. I didn’t feel any fear as the man wasn’t carrying anything and was most likely in his 80’s. As a visitor to Bonaire, I have given rides to locals before and they are always very appreciative.

CopyrightSimoneLipscombBefore getting into the backseat of the four-door truck he asked if I was Dutch. “No,” I replied. “Do you speak Dutch?” he asked. “No, sir. I don’t speak Dutch.” “So…you don’t speak any Dutch?” he asked again. “No,” I answered.

He climbed in the backseat opposite me and shook my hand. His firm grasp was friendly and I knew it was right to stop and give him a lift into the small town, not far ahead.

He asked if I was American. I responded with a ‘yes.’ He told me he liked Americans and they always treated him well. Without any prompting he started telling his life story…or a bit of it.

Born on the island many years ago, he was subjected to forced Dutch schooling where the native children were not allowed to speak their own language and had to learn Dutch. He told me how difficult it was but it wasn’t so much the words he spoke as the way he spoke them that disclosed his lingering wound. I could feel his pain and struggle and sensed that he still carried distrust of the Dutch settlers who forced their rules onto local, native residents.

I knew of the Cherokee and other native tribes experiencing this sort of abuse in the United States but I had never met anyone who experienced it. Recently I watched a film called, Rabbit Proof Fence, about two Aboriginal girls who escaped from such a school in Australia. It was profoundly moving and gave me a better understanding of this kind of prejudice.

CopyrightSimoneLipscomb (1)We soon arrived in Rincon. In holding John’s (not his real name) hand–as he thanked me and wished me a good day–I said a silent prayer and blessing for him and all native people who endured such prejudice and abuse. I also asked forgiveness for humanity’s capacity for cruelty.

We need to hear their stories and they need to see that we are listening, paying attention and understanding the mistakes that were made and most likely continue to be made somewhere on the planet.

Awakening from the Dream

Awakening from the Dream

View from Blue Ridge Parkway near Cherokee, NC
View from Blue Ridge Parkway near Cherokee, NC

It was a dark and cloudy night. I was riding my bicycle in the mountains and had followed a friend to a turning point. After he made it to his driveway, I turned to go but mistakenly took a wrong turn and ended up behind a fence and at the bottom of a very steep, winding road. I knew the road would take me home but the danger involved was too great in the darkness.

So I turned around and headed back beside the fence to the main road. But along the way saw huge, fresh bear tracks or scratches where a bear had claimed his territory. I got very frightened and as I pedaled faster, I passed a large, dark shape. I became even more frightened. Then something started chasing me and as I glanced down I saw it was a large coyote. I pedaled faster. Another large coyote appeared and both were attempting to drag me off my bicycle. I tried kicking them and launched my cat off the bed. He wasn’t impressed.

Coyote
Coyote

My legs actually ached and I was so shaken that I sat up and wrote notes on the dream and attempted to decipher it. What the heck had I eaten for dinner? 

When I went back to sleep I dreamed I helped people speak to large gatherings. In fact, I even helped Bill Moyers speak to a group of students. His chair, for the gathering, was beautifully colored in white with red and purple flowers.

Maybe the answer to my nightmare came in my final dream of the night–Bill Moyers. He worked with Joseph Campbell in a series entitled The Power of Myth. As I started researching on the internet I found an interview Moyers did with Campbell on the journey of the Hero archetype. Within this 51 minute recording I found answers.

Entrance to underwater cave in Akumal, Mexico
Entrance to underwater cave in Akumal, Mexico

Campbell  spoke of this journey we undertake–that of slaying the ego–to find our true nature. In this journey there must be courage as we face our darkest, deepest fears. The journey includes a theme of death and resurrection…a dying to a part of us that no longer serves us and being born into a greater version of ourselves.

The journey always begins by going into darkness, our unconscious.This triggered an experience I had in meditation last week where I journeyed into dark water, through a vortex and ended up connecting with a huge whale. Campbell spoke of the whale as being a symbol where all that is unconscious within us is held. He says the unconscious is the edge or interface between what can be known and what can never be discovered. We must learn to live life with knowledge of its Mystery and our own Mystery.

Pre-dawn Gulf of Mexico
Pre-dawn Gulf of Mexico

Life is an adventure of being alive. We journey into our own unknown in order to slay the ego so that we can follow the soul’s path. He said the journey to save the self actually saves the world. We bring the world to life by bringing life to the self.

“Follow your bliss,” he reminded as I listened intently. The ego tells us why we can’t follow our bliss, the path of the soul. It’s what keeps us small. The adventure of the Hero is having the courage to do it anyway.

There is within each of us a quiet center and from this center is where all action comes. Unless the center is found, we’re torn apart because we act from outside ourselves. This always leads to ruin in some form, he reminded.

Magnolia blossom
Magnolia blossom

The dream was a reminder for me that I am on a journey into my own life, my own unconscious. I choose this journey willingly and admit it is scary as hell at times. We all have darkness or unknown dragons or coyotes nipping at our heels. And it may indeed feel as if they want to slay us.

Campbell said that as the Hero leaves the realm of light and moves toward the threshold of the unconscious, the monster comes. The Hero is either resurrected after being torn to bits by the animal or kills the animal, tastes the blood and transcends.

I suppose we each have the choice of continuing our slumber or taking the journey of the Hero and risking everything to find our true nature. Ultimately it is a journey we do alone but made sweeter by those who have the courage to shine a light for us as we emerge from the dark waters to welcome us back home.

Sunrise in Akumal, Mexico
Sunrise in Akumal, Mexico
Show the Way

Show the Way

I sat with tears rolling down my face as the words and music wound through the atmosphere of the open air pavilion. I arrived early to secure a good seat was was rewarded with a front-row seat less than ten feet from David and his magical guitar….and voice.

Having followed his music for years I was surprised I had missed this song and yet I fully believe that music and other tools of healing come to us when we are ready.

Auburn University Oak Tree Poisoned by a Deranged Man
Auburn University Oak Tree poisoned by a very sick man

Lyrics from Show the Way: “You say you see no hope, you say you see no reason we should dream that the world would ever change. You’re saying love is foolish to believe. ‘Cause there’ll always be some crazy with an army or a knife, To wake you from your day dream, put the fear back in your life.”

Gulf State Park during 2013 BP Deepwater Horizon Oilspill
Gulf State Park during 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon Oilspill

“Look, if someone wrote a play just to glorify what’s stronger than hate, would they not arrange the stage to look as if the hero came too late, he’s almost in defeat. It’s looking like the evil side will win, so on the edge of every seat, from the moment that the whole thing begins….”

Children at Akumal, Mexico
Children at Akumal, Mexico

“It is Love who makes the mortar and it’s love who stacked these stones. And it’s love who made the stage here, although it looks like we’re alone. In this scene set in shadow like the night is here to stay, There is evil cast around us, but it’s love that wrote the play. For in this darkness love can show the way.”

Sometimes I feel such grief about the state of humanity–the polarization of friends and families, of communities. The taking of sides against what we perceive is ‘the bad people’ but in reality we are fighting among ourselves when the evil goes unchecked….or so it seems.

Joanna Macy and Work That Reconnects group, Rowe, MA
Joanna Macy and Work That Reconnects group, Rowe, MA

I have come to believe that Love is the cosmic glue that holds us all together. Not romantic love or possessive love but the love that passes all understanding. We try to name it and it illudes us so I’ll simply say as I open my heart I find more love around me and within me. If I focus on being a channel for this love and constantly let it flow through me to others, the supply is endless and I always stay filled with it. The moment I try to stop it or hold on to it, I feel empty.

Our hearts are like blossoms, waiting to bloom
Our hearts are like blossoms, waiting to bloom

What a Great Mystery this Love is and yet I truly believe the key to our own and the planet’s healing is simply to open our hearts to love without judgment. Clearing away anger, judgment, opinions–even if for 15 minutes a day–can create vast change within our own lives. Once we see how good those 15 minutes felt, we will want to live in that space of open heartedness as much as possible. For that is our natural state of being.

To watch the video and listen to David Wilcox’s song please click on this sentence…. and enJOY!

Heal the Planet, Heal Ourselves?

Heal the Planet, Heal Ourselves?

A beautiful documentary film, With One Voice, created a flurry of excitement as I grabbed paper and pen to take notes. It had some powerful reminders for us: 1) The condition of the world mirrors human consciousness; 2) Peace in the world will occur when we realize we all belong to each other; 3) Hate destroys.

The overwhelming thought I had after watching twice is this: Our destruction of nature is a direct result of our disconnect from our hearts–the spiritual nature of life– and the Earth–that from which our bodies are formed. To heal the planet we must heal ourselves…or is it to heal ourselves we must heal the planet? Or perhaps they are one and the same.

Below are some quotes presented by various persons interviewed in the film and photographs that hopefully illustrate their ideas.

You can tell someone about a rose but they won't really 'get it.' Give them a rose and they can smell it, feel the soft petals...and connect with it fully.
You can tell someone about a rose but they won’t really ‘get it.’ Give them a rose and they can smell it, feel the soft petals…and connect with it fully.
Stand in front of a very tall tree. Listen to the deep, deafening silence held within the tree. Wonder: why can't I be like that? Stand still and listen. Grow upward and downward. (Malidoma Patrice Some)
Stand in front of a very tall tree. Listen to the deep, deafening silence held within the tree. Wonder: why can’t I be like that? Stand still and listen. Grow upward and downward. (Malidoma Patrice Some)
Love only works by giving. It cannot be stored or banked. Love is an infinite ocean.
Love only works by giving. It cannot be stored or banked. Love is an infinite ocean.
See the gift of love everywhere. Convert frustration into compassion. Convert hatred into love. Turn all discourse to love. When you hate someone, send them a love poem. Transform hate into love. (Malidoma Patrice Some)
See the gift of love everywhere. Convert frustration into compassion. Convert hatred into love. Turn all discourse to love. When you hate someone, send them a love poem. Transform hate into love. (Malidoma Patrice Some)
When we realize the innerconnectedness of all life, hatred and all forms of aggression with cease. Peace in the world will occur when we realize we belong to each other.
When we realize the innerconnectedness of all life, hatred and all forms of aggression with cease. Peace in the world will occur when we realize we belong to each other.
Compassion is love made visible.
Compassion is love made visible.
We are coming home to a place we have never left. Our own inner peace brings peace to the world.
We are coming home to a place we have never left.
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Again…Compassion is love made visible.
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Wisdom says I am nothing. Love says I am everything. Between the two my life moves.
And just once more....Compassion is love made visible.
And just once more….Compassion is love made visible.