Category: Nature’s teachings

What’s Down is Up….or What My Mind Thinks of When SUP Boarding

What’s Down is Up….or What My Mind Thinks of When SUP Boarding

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I gaze down into clouds, puffy and white, against a grayish blue sky. As I glide along, a rope stretches from the surface into the depths and I wonder if I climb down where I would find myself when I got to the end.

Suddenly a splash interrupts my reverie and the water’s surface ripples, disrupting the illusion, causing me to come back from Wonderful-Land and concentrate once again on my strokes. Yet inevitably, as the water returns to its mirror-like surface, my mind begins to dream of ways to access the world being reflected from above.

I think of this physical reality, this world of apparent solids and masses, as a mere reflection of what’s on the other side of this this realm. There’s so much more to life than what we see with our physical eyes….

I give my mind freedom to imagine, contemplate, go wherever it wants to go while I’m paddling. If it dreams of watery worlds that lay beyond the surface or enjoys the sensation of flying on watery clouds it’s fine with me. Alice had nothing on my mind’s ability to journey to wild places.

Imagine fish swimming in clouds and turtles sunning themselves upside-down. We create whatever world we wish….think about that. What would you create if given a blank canvas? What’s stopping you?

If you haven’t read my books or viewed my photos I invite you to visit my website and explore…enjoy. Turtle Island Adventures is where you’ll find all sorts of fun.

Dance of Beauty

Dance of Beauty

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I stood transfixed listening to wild turkeys vocalizing across the creek. The distinct and loud gobble of a male followed by the yelp of a female. For days as I walked the Mountain, I have heard the calls, have seen a dozen hens roosting in the huge, white pines overhanging the small creek. Today I wanted to find out where the chorus of wild bird sounds originated.

Walking down the mountain, we decided to follow the pavement around to a road that followed the creek, far below where we stood listening. As we got closer, the verdant pasture that arose from the water was covered in wild turkeys. At least 9 fully-displaying males and over 30 females provided a glimpse into the spring equinox celebration of these amazing creatures. It seemed that two or three small groups had joined together in one large group of courtship and scouting-for-potential-mates.

I could write pages recording emotions I felt as I observed, but it still would not express the sheer joy and sense of awe I felt as the tom’s spread their massive tails into fans and puffed their chests and dropped their wings while dancing with one another. Watching from the high bank of the rushing water, standing among delicate trout lilies, breathing fresh air while seeing the morning sun sparkle off iridescent feathers….how could life get much better than this? Such beauty of color, sound, movement.

Two-by-two the males walked up the pasture to the top of the ridge. I saw only beauty, breathed only beauty and lifted my heart with gratitude for this amazing experience, this profound rite of spring.

Passion to Proceed

Passion to Proceed

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I am sitting at the counter at my mom’s kitchen gazing out at Mobile Bay. Just a pause before writing.

I’m presenting a program at Gulf Shores Library tomorrow morning and was reviewing my A/V presentations to see which one I’ll use. In reviewing my library of programs one I put together showing the worst part of the oil spill at the Gulf Shores, Alabama area caught my attention. Tears poured down my face as I watched and recalled vividly the heartbreak experienced by so many of us that love this area. And then I felt a surge of passion and love for the Gulf Coast that caused a transcendent moment to spontaneously occur within me. It provided an amazing moment of clarity that sealed the deal, so to speak, for my move back to the Gulf Coast.

Over a decade ago I felt called to return to the Gulf Coast to work but as I stood on the shore with warm, salty waters lapping over my toes, I heard in my mind…’Not yet…but you will know when to return.’

When the oil spill first happened and very often for 18 months, I made the trip from Asheville, NC to coastal Alabama to document…to WITNESS what what happening here. I felt the call to return but I didn’t expect to move back. Little-by-little, however, I felt that this was the big leap needed to fulfill a promise I made to the Gulf those many years ago.

A few months ago I put my mountain home ‘on the market’ and waited. Within these past two weeks everything has begun to come together. Two incredible people have connected with “The Cathedral of Trees” and immediately understood the power of the home and land I have been blessed to call home for over five years. They decided to become the new owners of this special place. And just yesterday, I finalized a contract on a nice cottage home near the Magnolia River that will nurture me and my work as I leap back to the headwaters of my life. The place of my birth.

With every major change in life there comes anxiety and fear and those emotions were doing their best to rattle me. But when I reconnected with the immense love and passion I have for the earth, specifically this area of amazing beauty…my coastal Alabama home…all doubt was erased and the anxiety and fear begin to diminish.

I have dedicated my life to help our beautiful water planet. How thrilled I am to feel doors opening so that I can continue my work here, in this sacred place. There’s a song that has been my theme for this next stage of my life as it unfolds…Homeward Bound….”Set me free to find my calling and I’ll return to you somehow.” My heart is very, very full and I am so grateful.

In Ways I Can’t Explain*

In Ways I Can’t Explain*

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A few years ago I stood on this hill overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and felt my bones vibrate with resonance of the land. For the first time in my life, I felt I belonged in a way I’ve never belonged to any other place on the planet. I was in Devon, England.

Later that week, a beautiful elder of the area told me the Lipscomb’s (Lypscombe) were from Devon. When I returned home I looked up a family history cousins had compiled and found that Ambrose Lypscombe was from the Devonshire line and lived in Silverton, England. He was born in 1610. His son, Ambrose I, arrived in Virginia around 1668 (called New Kent County). And the lineage progressed forward through the years as my ancestors found their way to the Alabama coast.

As I prepare to move away from the mountain that overlooks this beautiful valley, I have reconnected with my intense love of the land here. As I was approaching this area on my morning walk a few days ago, a new song I had downloaded started playing on my iPhone and suddenly everything made sense. David Wilcox sings about wanting to go to Ireland and his lyric made me stop and breathe in the significance, *”My heart is here in ways I can’t explain.”

I have pondered the deep connection I have to the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Alabama Coast. I love both places dearly and completely. I feel torn with my love of the sea and my love of the mountains.

When I thought back to my visit to Devon and Cornwall I realized that the ancestral link I have to the coast of western England is strong in my blood, in my DNA. The seashore of Alabama I love so well and the mountains of North Carolina are two similar aspects of a very significant place where my dad’s family originated. With the Wilcox song, everything clicked and I had a rather large ah-ha moment.

Understanding a bit more of my heritage gives me insight into my path now, specifically about the move south. I spent my entire childhood, teenage and young adult years wanting to get ‘back’ to the mountains. After finally moving ‘back’ I met people that provided assistance as I developed important tools for my life’s work. It was as if we arranged, before birth, to meet up on this mountain and catalyze ideas and skills. And now, I am better prepared to move forward with contributions I came to make.

The chances of me moving to England to live are rather slim; however, the inspiration it provides and the fire of love for the sea and mountains create within me the devotion necessary to commit fully to this Path I have chosen to walk.

We all make choices about how to invest our energy and talents. As I move forward in this life’s journey, my intention is to utilize the skills I have to help create positive change for life on this beautiful, water planet. I embrace the gifts the mountains and friends here have supported and helped cultivate within me and with gratitude take the leap back to the sea. I allow the ocean of life to carry me.

Lyrics from David Wilcox Ireland and Let the Wave Say:

I’ll speak the words of poets gone: my music’s ancestry
We’ll hear the voice of Ireland in the wind beside the sea
In waves of music far as I can see
The voice of every poet singing free:
Singing bring your orphan children home–to me
(from Ireland)

And the high blue wall can break you
You can never fight the sea
You just learn to let it take you
To the place you want to be (from Let the Wave Say)

I am ready to ride the wave back home. (Thanks David for the music…and wisdom!)

The Abundant Universe

The Abundant Universe

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When I stop and look around me I see outrageous evidence of abundance. Sunsets, sunrises, rolling waves, white sandy beaches, tree-covered mountains all point to unlimited, unbounded, endless good stuff happening all the time.

No matter what issues circulate in the sphere of my life, the lives of friends, communities, ecosystems….balanced with those challenges, as bad as they may be, is amazing beauty and blessings. If we miss these places and events of sheer wonder, we miss the very things that make living so awesome.

If I look with the eyes of eagle, with higher vision, I see that everything works in some wild harmony and the story goes beyond the hardships, no matter how difficult they are. When the details get too intense it is time to step back and look at the big picture. A new perspective can shift me from the ‘poor me’ or ‘oh, snap!’ place to the ‘oh, WOW!’ place of expansion and wonder.

Currently my challenge is finding myself in limbo, awaiting the chain of events that will start my move back to coastal Alabama. I’m calling in higher vision and backing away from the details for a while. I want to be present with the abundant beauty filling my life NOW!

When do you find respite by stepping back and viewing the big picture? When do the eyes of Eagle help you in envisioning your life?

© Simone Lipscomb 2024