To listen to rather than read the following, click to play the article voiceover above.
For background on this series, head over to the welcome letter or find the entire series on the roots section of my page.
When you first cross the threshold into an outdoor space - your neighborhood, a hiking path, the ocean, a park - it can feel as if you are this dominant character amongst the scene around you. The sound of your thoughts or of your actual footsteps being the loudest sounds in the scene. Energetically you may even be leaning out trying to listen to the sounds or efforting to see what is around you… an outward doing versus receiving.
Instead, if you come into stillness or slow down to an extremely slow pace, you can eventually fade into the background of the natural world. Try this if you have the time for your own experience will greatly outshine the description of my own. It can be a subtle and profound shift… one of being center of the world to being IN the world, a part of the whole… sensing into the shared consciousness of the aliveness in the trees around you, the flutter of a creature’s delicate wings, the crawling path of an insect, a gentle gust of the wind… all happening on their own. And then there is you, a simple component of this larger whole. We can certainly create ripples around us - a birds song will change when you walk by, sometimes less so if you move slowly. Or if you are being still or calmly existing in the space, a moth or lizard (depending on where you are located) may come close by going about their day versus hiding in the depths while you clunk around. In a strange way, each part of the environment actually becomes more clear than when you were forcefully trying to notice a single piece of it. Try it sometime - sit back, be still, and feel into the interconnectedness of the natural world.
Your being is too a microcosm of an alive ecosystem. Even though we have brought in topics in isolation over these many past weeks because our human brains like tidy categories, isolation is an illusion. The relationships you have to the mind, the body, the spirit, the breath, to change, to conversations with others, to how you carry yourself and how you carry out your days are intimately intertwined.
Sometimes, however it is hard to feel these relationships when focusing on one of these topics so intently and in isolation.
For this closing letter, fade into the background of your own being. No need to barrel through this as you may do with other tasks in your day, your thoughts being the loudest in the scene. Sit with me for a few moments or do this when you have free time… settle in noticing your body in the space you are in, sensing yourself as a mosaic of physical matter, of breath, a heartbeat, voice, your dreams, your skills, the environments and circles you occupy and wander through. Become a witness to where your energy flows out and where you are refueled… you could take this into its own meditative reflection for however long feels right. Feel free to pause the audio and come back when you are ready. While in this wavelength of awareness, allow it to bring into clarity what has taken root this past season.
As the Spring nears her end sending us into the full bloom of summer, sense into what you have been watering. There is no right or wrong. Has a work project been taking center stage, or a relationship, or perhaps a spark from one of these letters - have you been breathing more deeply, seeing the world through the lens of the cycles, tuning in to how you greet the lands you visit, finding free movement each day? Perhaps it was a mantra that carried you through this season or a creative seed that was planted and grew. Perhaps it was grief, a challenging time that led to the strengthening roots of friendship or support.
I deeply love the image of our own beings as a great tree. Spreading our roots deeply into mother Earth, connecting to her universal wisdom that flows through her core, finding stability in our own ways that we can come back to over and over. Moving up through our own trunks filled with creative saps and hollow channels for sharing and receiving our light… to the heart space where we get to branch and love and share and sway with the world. At the crown of the tree, feeling the whispers of our guardians and our dreams.
Deep roots allow this tree to grow stronger, to connect with the mycelial network of all life.
I will recap where our journey took us, the offering of the roots that I revisit often. Hold in mind our intention that this was never a checklist to get through… rather an awareness and curiosity of our inner great mystery… areas to play with and to see which may have called to take root.
As we began this letter, remember that we can hold awareness of the whole while bringing individual aspects to the forefront… the awareness of the whole itself can allow this to automatically unfold. We can often learn more about the breath, for example, in the context of movement or in conversation versus zeroing in on it in a secluded moment in time. Come back to these intertwining foundations whenever they may call you…
Awareness of the nature of the mind, greeting your own inner storyteller and practicing the capacity to interrupt outdated patterns
Re-inhabiting our sacred vessels and transforming the relationship to the physical being
The breath as our great alchemizer and the link to our aliveness
Movement as freedom and invitation to our wild selves
Relating to the natural world and one other with reverence for the lands and presence in our beings
Dancing with the cycles of life and joining the currents of their sacred flow
Igniting magic through rituals in your day to day
A deep acceptance and embodiment of your own light
~
I will leave you where we started, with the words of Clarissa Pinkola Estés
“The doors to the world of the wild self are few but precious. If you have a deep scar, that is a door, if you have an old, old story, that is a door. If you love the sky and the water so much you almost cannot bear it, that is a door. If you yearn for a deeper life, a full life, a sane life, that is a door.”
- Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves
We’ll take a break next week and begin our next series the following one.
May you honor the summer solstice next week with intention and celebration. May you dance to the sun, give gratitude to his warmth, and most importantly, remember your own guiding flame is within you.
With immense love,