Tag: nature
On Being a Bridge

On Being a Bridge

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Recently I wrote about the Doorway to Oneness and how I found myself connecting deeper with Nature through playing native flutes outdoors. I concluded the ingredients for me are natural beauty, intentional breathing, willingness to open and surrender to the place, laying down of my defenses and opening of my heart and mind. One of the necessities, I thought, was being isolated from people I don’t know…but that was challenged at a beautiful waterfall.

I seek out quiet places in Nature, away from boisterous crowds and especially tourists. Anyone that follows my social media posts knows I have been lamenting disrespectful tourists that descend on these ancient mountains. The theory that I need to be away from people I don’t know in order to surrender and drop into Oneness was disproven by an unusual experience.

I stopped by my favorite store in Cherokee, Medicine Man Crafts, to pick up some elderberry tincture and talk with the owner about native flutes. One of my intentions is to co-create music with Nature through native style flutes and I wanted a flute created by a tribal member, to offer a stronger link between the land, flute and ultimately the music offered as a gift to the Spirit of Place. The flute I was drawn to was made by Daniel Bigay. He’s a member of the Echota Cherokee tribe of Alabama. (I recently wrote a piece called Echoes, about playing flutes in the Smoky Mountains…Echota tribe–Echoes….this is getting officially weird).

After leaving the shop I drove to a local waterfall on Cherokee tribal lands and took the flute with me up the snowy trail. I wanted to dedicate it at the waterfall to help heal the planet’s waters, a sort of life mission for it.

As soon as I arrived on the bridge at the base of the falls and began playing, I felt someone coming up the path and stopped playing. I walked to the far side of the bridge to provide social distancing. He said, “Please keep playing.”

Even though I was a bit shy, I did. Playing a wooden flute in temperatures hovering just above freezing is good to begin with but warm breath moving through it soon causes sound issues as it condenses on the chilly wood. And my fingers were so cold I could barely continue. 

His ten or eleven year old daughter arrived and walked over to listen. It didn’t sound tremendously awesome because of the condensation, but I kept on for a while. 

Finally, I stopped playing and said hi to the girl then put my mittens over my fingers to warm them. Meanwhile the wife and a troop of very loud, rowdy teenage boys arrived and I gave up playing on the bridge. I walked to the far side of the area and played again, once my fingers had thawed, standing on large rocks, gazing into the creek, sending along wishes for clean water and peace.

Then I decided to walk down the trail, through the large group–my mask in place and some of them wore masks. But instead of walking down the trail as planned, I felt drawn to stop under a rock outcropping near the bridge. I began to play again. This is very unlike me. I want to be away from people. As the family walked back down the trail past me, the dad told them to be quiet and listen. The energy shift was dramatic. They quieted down, quit roughhousing and dropped into a completely different energetic space. I could feel their respect.

The sweet notes floated over the trail, echoed off the walls of the cliff and found a way into the hearts and minds of this rowdy group. I was shocked.

Rather than try to isolate myself when I play, I can open to Oneness amid rowdy humans and hold the intention of calm and love and that can actually change those around me in a positive way.

I’ve been playing as a way to build a bridge between Nature and myself, to open to Oneness. Now I feel called to play to connect Nature and me and other humans. This new flute is bringing powerful Medicine to my life already and it obviously wants to bring this same Medicine to other humans. 

This little A minor flute is a bridge and fits perfectly with my life intention. I went through a spiritual dedication ceremony many years ago and my spiritual intention for life was, and still is, to be a bridge between Nature and humans. It seems an important new ‘friend’ has come to support this mission.

I assigned this little flute a life mission of helping to heal Earth’s waters. It clearly shared its mission with me–to build a soul connection between humans and the natural world… with anyone who listens. May it be so.

Creativity

Creativity

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Creating something from nothing is an act of magic. It is an act of courage. We move into the realm of possibility when we surrender to the force of creativity.

And it is a force. But what is it that calls us to tap into that force? What moves us from ideas into action?

I imagine a gigantic cauldron of star dust, a cosmic soup, that contains every possible particle of the creative process. I lean over the cauldron and dare to look into its depths and touch the surface with my finger. It ripples and boils with potential and invites me to dip my hands into its richness. I stir that soup of infinity and watch as ideas bubble to the surface. Yes….that! And that! Oh, wow, look at that!With gratitude I enfold the ideas into a medicine bag for safe keeping and journey back to waking consciousness, ready to create.

It’s easy to ignore the creative ideas that enter our minds. It takes courage to follow through and even more courage to share what we create with others. But here’s the thing: the act of creating changes the world for the better, even if we never share it with another soul.

So here’s an invitation to dip into the cosmic soup, lovingly take the ideas that surface and use them to create something simply for the fun of it. When we do this we change the world.

To see more of my creations, please visit my website and explore the BOOKS page, SPIRIT MEDICINE DESIGN page and PHOTOGRAPHY page.

Life Happens

Life Happens

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Summer morning flight from home

Today as I was flying I felt the greatest sense of freedom. A huge hawk developed interest in the drone so I had to bring my bird down as the hawk could have been super-destructive to my aircraft. Then I watched the hawk play in the late afternoon thermals. And when it lost interest in my bird, it flew over the mountain top so I could resume operation. And flying…and freedom.

Summer afternoon flight from home

Flying in the bigness of open land reminded me of diving, of floating weightlessly in water. There was a sense of expansion and a loosening of bindings. Diving does that for me and so does flying the drone or visiting amazing natural environments. At one point, after I landed her to change batteries, I felt so anchored in the present moment and everything else…EVERYTHING…was gone. It was just my awareness of dirt and sky and mountains. It was good…seriously yummy feeling.

Flight this afternoon at my neighbors farm

Too often we allow ourselves to become mired down in worry, fear…no need to list the distractions that can tear us away from the present moment. The more I am able to be truly present in that expansive, joyous moment, whatever distracted and sucked my energy from me evaporates.

In the sweetness of life…that present moment

Diving, flying my drove, hiking along the creek, playing my native flutes, watching the fire, walking the spiral labyrinth…whatever I do that brings me into the present moment is where I find sweetness of life. So it seems I need to do more of the things that support my soul, that nurture my spirit.

Ireland…one of the sweetest series of moments I’ve ever known

What brings you into that sweet place in life where everything fades but the present moment, the beautiful moment where life truly happens.
Stepping Sideways

Stepping Sideways

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This morning as I walked along the sacred paths of rock and water and sky, the sun barely peeked through rain clouds. Plop, plop, plop of rain drops added to the ahhhhhhhh flow of the creek as water rushed and swirled over rocks.

I stopped at a beautiful little shelf of rock where water pours into a boiling pool of crystal-clear water. The voice of the water sang a steady flow of ahhhhhhh and I began to sing along….ahhhhhhhh. Then I went up the scale using the same sound and found my heart opening to the water, rocks, trees, sky…salamanders, birds…to all life. 

As my walk continued I sang and listened to Nature respond to the sounds moving up from my being. I felt a part of everything around me as Oneness expanded in my being.

At some point in the bath of Nature sounds, a question began to form. Why don’t you just step sideways out of the polarity, out of choosing sides, away from the madness. What would that be like?

Continuing the walk I allowed the question to bubble in my mind, in my heart, like the water rushing over rocks into pools of water. Flowing with the idea, my body relaxed and my mind felt relieved. How amazing to step out of the chaos, to give up the intense energy of being caught in polarizing forces and step to the side, as if stepping into a large crack in a mountain. 

It wouldn’t mean giving up my ethical values or denouncing my citizenship. It wouldn’t mean I stopped caring about what happens in this country, in the world. It would mean removing myself from the insanity of polarizing forces that are ripping not only this country, but many countries apart. And of course every person.

I was reminded of the story of the Tuatha de Danaan, an ancient race in Ireland, who at some point in their existence were said to have simply disappeared into a subterranean or hidden existence. Maybe they stepped sideways out of a warring world.

Energetically, if we step out of conflict and remove our energy given to one ‘side’ or the other, we stop adding to that strong polarity and begin to empower ourselves by not giving energy to conflict. It’s not that we give up or remove our concern and caring, it’s that we just step out of conflict. As I walked and played with this idea it felt like entering another dimension. 

Recently I have commented to friends that it seems we are polarized into two dimensions. Neither ‘side’ can see the other’s point of view and in fact both ‘sides’ believe the others to be destructive to the country. There’s something unusual about the intensity of that vast gulf between the two ‘sides.’ So what if some of us step sideways, out of conflict, out of that energy of blame and exist in a realm of peace. 

“There comes a shift in perception, when one’s closest allies are the invisible forces of Nature. Where does reality begin and end? What is actual and what is reflection?” Colette O’Neill wrote this and raises questions to ponder…I simply want to know what happens if I step sideways out of world of conflict. I’ll let you know….

Maybe.