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Seasonal Teachings

Seasonal Teachings

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This past week I had two perfect days of paddling my SUP board. Lake Lure was surrounded by mountains sprinkled with colorful autumn trees and smooth cliff faces crowned with yellow, orange and red ridges. Blue sky contained it all as I glided on cold lake water, which refreshed my feet if I got sloppy with my paddle.

I marveled at the patterns of light on the water’s surface. My soul slurped up the colors and patterns and beauty of the days like a person dying of thirst. And perhaps I had been starving myself of beauty, cutting myself off from the season and the many gifts it offers, too caught up in distractions. My experiences paddling and another day I spent in the Smokies, made me pause and reflect.

Living in the mountains of Western North Carolina has been such an amazing experience. Over the past five years I have come into harmony with nature’s seasonal rhythms. My home is on the side of a mountain and this time of year offers an opening view with every leaf that falls. Thirty foot windows frame a valley and mountain ridge that come into focus more each day as the season unfolds, as the leaves whirl away with windy gusts.

During every autumn, the curtain of green, then yellow and orange opens to reveal the majesty of the Blue Ridge Mountains. And in the spring the curtain offers green shade and cool days of mountain beauty. By living surrounded by these hardwoods, the full impact of seasonal shifts literally comes into my home and forces me to pay attention to the miracles happening in Nature every day.

And like seasons of Earth, our lives have seasons, too. This home and these magnificent mountains have cradled me for over five years now. My creativity has expanded, my path become more clear and my work has been launched into the world in increasingly bigger ways. For all of these things, I am profoundly grateful. The shedding of leaves from trees here reminds me that I must also let go and move forward, as the wheel of the year moves forward. Now the time has come to release this home, these mountains and trees…wild turkey, bear and all of my wildlife friends here and move to my next home.

While I feel sadness about saying goodbye to this place, this amazing place, I look forward with anticipation of new tree friends…wildlife, river, bay and Gulf friends that crawl, fly, swim and walk on four legs. Already the deep sense of place of Magnolia River calls me to come and commune with Her and be nurtured by fresh, clear water of this sacred place.

And so I wait and listen and let my heart fill with gratitude for this place I say goodbye to and a new place already whispering my name.

The Basis of Our Self-Destruction

The Basis of Our Self-Destruction

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There was a mass-murder of beautiful tigers, lions, wolves, cougars, bears and a baboon this week in Ohio. I understood that fear was the basis for destroying these beautiful and, in some cases, highly endangered animals but it seemed to me that raising a gun with bullets took only a little less effort than raising a gun with tranquilizer darts.

In my grief and horror at this needless destruction of animals in Ohio, I realized that human fear is the basis of our path of planetary destruction. We fear not having enough food, clothing, video games, electronic toys–money–and so we consume at alarming rates, at rates that are literally annihilating everything precious, everything sacred. And I’m including the human species as well.

Have you ever stopped and watched birds like pelicans feeding? Even with an abundance of food, they only take what fills their bellies. There’s no fish-bank or pantry in some posh pelican pad where catches are stored for days when there may be lack. They live so much in the present moment that there’s no stress over making sure they have more than the flock down the beach.

Kind reader, you might argue that there’s no higher brain function of reasoning and so of course pelicans and most other animals don’t project themselves out into the future. And I understand that; however, have you ever wanted the freedom to not be so consumed by your own consumption? The pelicans might have an answer to our path of self-destruction.

Two days ago I heard about a huge school of sharks that had been finned in a nature preserve off the coast of Columbia. People came into the protected waters and caught hundreds of sharks, cut their fins off and dropped them back overboard still alive and doomed to die. All for the Asian market demand for shark fin soup. Murdered for an unnecessary delicacy. I wept for those sharks and for the tigers, lions, cougars, bears and baboon….but mostly I grieved the ignorance and apathy that so many humans continue to exhibit toward each other, animal species and Earth itself.

A Carrie Newcomer song came to mind and I share part of it with you, dear reader and offer a nudge of encouragement and gratitude for your compassion and love shared with all life.

“I heard an owl call last night
Homeless and confused,
I stood naked and bewildered
By the evil people do.

Upon a hill there is a terrible sign
That tells the story of what darkness waits
When we leave the light behind.

I am a voice calling out
Across the great divide.
I am only one person
That feels they have to try.

Light every candle that you can
For we need some light to see.
In the face of deepest loss,
Treat each other tenderly.

The arms of God will gather in
Every sparrow that falls,
And makes no separation
Just fiercely loves us all.”

“The arms of God will gather in, every sparrow that falls; And makes no separation, just fiercely loves us all.”

To find out more about my work, to order one of my books on the relationship we have with nature, please visit Turtle Island Adventures.

Dream or Prophecy?

Dream or Prophecy?

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I awakened at 5am with the strangest dream of my life. This blog is about the relationship of humans and nature and ultimately, the dream is about that. I feel strongly compelled to share it as is recorded verbatim from my journal….here goes.

In the dream….“I went to a bank with my husband and three employees were very forceful about taking my money and putting it into a retirement account they recommended. I refused and two men, on the way out of the bank, grabbed us and tried to inject us with syringes filled with some white-pink thick substance. They got my husband on the first try. I escaped twice but on the third try they got me as well. The substance in the syringe made us helpless to refuse whatever they wanted. They separated us so we would fight less. They took us to some sort of facility where they regularly injected us until we were totally under their control. Over time I realized what was happening and became aware but pretended to still be brainwashed. Secretly I was planning to help release everyone from their bondage. The bank was keeping people brainwashed and hostage and taking all their money, having it diverted from personal accounts to these ‘retirement’ accounts. They had power over us because they kept us separate from those we loved on the inside and outside.”

Dream continued, “As time went by I saw others, just a few, who worked there, keeping us in this brainwashed bondage. I would look into their eyes and know if I could trust them. If their heart was evident in their gaze it was easy to see. If not, I’d quickly glance away so they wouldn’t suspect I was aware, awake and trying to start an internal revolution to free us all. For the ones who were awake and had hearts of compassion, I would whisper things like–‘you know this is wrong’ and ‘help us end this madness.’

And more dream….One day, enough of us decided to overthrow the system. Outside authorities came, knights of honor in present day time. Inside we fought back until all the gates were opened. Those still confused and ‘asleep’ and unaware were being helped. I was working to find records of what they did to people. Each person had a card with their photo, assets and how they’d been brainwashed. I grabbed handfuls as evidence and also to help deprogram those still under the bank’s sick spell.

Dream continues….I saw a line of people being shuffled out and my husband was there. They had been using him for physical labor, working him to death. He didn’t recognize me or know me but followed me when I approached him. He, like so many others, was completely under their spell.

During the chaos of breaking free and simultaneously being rescued, I awakened (physically) and got out my journal to write all of this exactly as it happened in the dream. My commentary follows.

I think this is what is happening to us in the world. We are brainwashed by banks and corporations to give them our money which they use for their own gain–to get richer and richer at any cost. Our financial system, our economy is the root cause of inequality, injustice, pollution, war, famine…..our economy and the ‘gain as much as possible at any cost’ mentality threatens to annihilate all life on our planet. Until we become aware and stop blindly accepting doses of the poison they feed our minds, we are slaves to a system that ultimately is failing everyone, everything.

After this dream, I feel inspired to call for an internal revolution of awareness and awakening so that we become the masters of our own lives and our economy can shift from one that takes and takes and leaves only poison for us and the planet, to an economy that operates on the principles of life-sustaining practices. Joanna Macy says this, “Dire predictions notwithstanding, we can still act to ensure a livable world. It is crucial that we know this: we can meet our needs without destroying our life-support system….To choose life means to build a life-sustaining society. ‘A sustainable society is one that satisfies its needs without jeopardizing the prospects of future generations.'” (Last quote by Lester Brown). A life-sustaining society operates within the carrying capacity of its life-support system, regional and planetary, both in the resources it consumes and the wastes it produces.”

What kind of world do you want? It is a choice each of us makes every day by the choices we make.

This is what it looks like when profit-at-any-cost rules our world. I believe we can do better. What about you?

To order my books on nature including adventures in nature, photography and children’s books, please visit my website, Turtle Island Adventures.

Dance of the Dolphins

Dance of the Dolphins

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Paddling my SUP board on Mobile Bay and Weeks Bay this morning was a fantastic two hours of saltwater delight. The water was calm, the sunrise soft and inviting and I had two hours of dolphin bliss. And people wonder why I’m moving back to this place–this sacred, holy place.

I started in Mobile Bay and paddled through the pass at Weeks Bay. As I was making my way up the bay, I heard a HUGE splash. I turned around and saw fast-moving rings of water moving away from a large bottlenose dolphin. Another joined him and swam along side my board. Of course, I greeted them, said good morning, sang to them and laughed at their antics. In their hunting they turned head-down and their tales stuck up out of the water as they feasted. Dolphin tales, large sighs of air coming from their blowhole, calm water…what else could I ask for?

I paddled about 20 minutes with them as they fed and finally turned and paddled back towards the mouth of the bay. As I neared the pass, I saw misty blows backlit by the sunrise as a larger pod swam across the bay. How could I possibly resist another encounter? So I paddled back up the bay at an angle to intersect this larger group.

There were seven or eight in this group and one leaped out of the water right beside me, close enough to splash my board. There was one baby but the rest were adults. More feeding, more tails all around me, more cruises beside me. So elated was I, I about levitated off the board. I knew the meaning of joy on a visceral level.

After another 30 minutes of watching dolphin dance in the brackish water, I paddled back down the bay, through the pass and on to mom’s beach. My day was so blessed, so totally made awesome by these brothers and sisters of the sea.

After cleaning up and having my breakfast, I read where four dolphins had washed up in Alabama during the past week. The dead cetaceans consisted of a pregnant female and unborn baby, and a mother and baby. The mysterious dolphin deaths continue, all the more reason I am grateful for healthy dolphins frolicking and feeding.

If you pray, please say a prayer for all wildlife on the Gulf Coast. We’re still dealing with a LOT of unknowns from the oil spill. And while you’re at it, please say a prayer for the people here as well.

To order my books on nature, please visit my website, Turtle Island Adventures. You’ll find a children’s book on the oil spill, a photography book of images from many beautiful places in nature along with prayerful descriptions and a book of essays on the relationship between humans and nature, full of funny and inspirational stories.

P.S. These are stock image photographs. I was too busy communing to take photos. Sometimes the best photographs are those I never take.

City of Gulf Shores Allows BP Protestors at National Shrimp Festival

City of Gulf Shores Allows BP Protestors at National Shrimp Festival

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It took an attorney volunteering to help this group of concerned citizens get a permit to peacefully, non-violently gather at the National Shrimp Festival, but Gulf Shores finally gave permission, after turning the group down twice. The attorney pointed out to the city that they have a constitutional right to peacefully assemble. Legalities….

So if you happen to be at the National Shrimp Festival at Gulf Shores, AL please be sure to check out Lifeguard Stand #2 and learn more about what’s REALLY happening to the Gulf of Mexico, its beaches and wildlife. Those slick BP ads are simply not giving both sides of the story.

© Simone Lipscomb 2024