Running doesn’t stop the pain, or turn the dark to light.
Jamie Sams and David Carson, Medicine Cards
New Year’s Eve morn, -14 below,
the world is awake, in gentle first glow.
I look out the window, facing due west,
the one at the sink where my eyes seek to rest.
Now a view of the scruffy old pine and red oak
and the ground under cover, a downy white cloak.
In sight is a mound of rounded grey rock,
one that certainly is not part of our stock.
It is large but not large and odd in shape.
I stand steady and still and try not to gape,
in wait, with focus, and vision unclouded,
a small movement twitch as two ears are sprouted.
The rock unfolds into rabbit, huddled in cold.
He thinks unseen, like my once two-year-old,
with eyes shut tight, he thought himself hidden.
Now this pine, low in needles, must be forgiven.
It offers little for shelter from mighty eagle;
a fragile net for his fears, so sadly feeble.
Hour after hour, day after day,
I check as rabbit sits in endless display.
Why are you here little one? Where is your home?
The spirit message dawns as I gaze at his form.
Fear turns us cold, rigid with fright, the
what if’s create fear for all, not yet in sight.
As we create our worst images of life up ahead,
we bring into form that which we dread.
We hide ourselves away from all that we love,
as we fear that the worst will pounce from above.
While fear of true danger is a friend in our day,
creating fear for our life keeps delight at bay.
On this day we acknowledge a list of our fears;
we write them, speak them, and bless with tears.
We come into our breath and blow them away.
Sacred Source, take them, we cry, without delay!
Our truth is our guide and has always been so.
Our heart is relieved as now it can flow.
I will not fear for you. I will not fear for me.
When ready inside, you will hop from this tree.
On this new day of living, it is surely enough
to be present and strong with a will touched by
love.
We will persist. We will have changed.
With resilience through loss, we now feel
unchained.
Today, you are off, if I am not deceived.
Your message was given, and now received.
Spirit of Rabbit seemed to demand rhyme in telling his story, a first for me. Fun to write and fun to read, it kept me hopping through and through. Dr. Seus most certainly the Muse!
On Going Resource List
Jamie Sams and David Carson. Medicine Cards: The Discovery of Power Through The Ways of The Animals. Bear and Company, 1988.
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…eagle power of Spirit reminds us of our connection to the Divine in creating vision for our life…
Life is like a landscape. You live in the midst of it but can describe it only from the vantage point of distance.
Charles Lindbergh
There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect messy life.
Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance
On this cold winter day, we gaze out the windows facing north to the river, watching the chickadees, purple and yellow finches, cardinals, and woodpeckers scuffling for feeder space. We lose ourselves, entranced in the beauty before us.
Suddenly, it is quiet as we watch them all fly off into the bank of spruce that shelter our home.
We look up and see the two eagles fly in from the north following the Rum River to our house. As the river cuts left, so do they, with a tight bank, wings unfurled, bellies facing us. They fly a couple of loops and then continue south. They then return to the north and circle back and give us more north to south loops and exhibitions. An hour later I check, and they are still flying in circles overhead. I am reminded of the Blue Angels flight demonstration we saw years ago with the pilots looping, banking, showing us all their stuff as they proudly flew. Today, this display of flight feels more personal, close to the heart, inspiring, touching my imagination.
I ponder the eagle view of the world, the broad scope with intense focus, the vision that informs, instructs, reminds us of who we are and where we are headed. Our view on terra firma is small and can easily narrow in our day to day living. We get lost in the minutiae of our days, the details of managing our lives. We get lost in our busyness and the highs and lows of our experiences. When we take time to pause, we wonder, where am I headed, what do I need, what do I consider important and of value in my life? Am I living what I value?
We find that it is more often our losses, fears, and anxieties that bring us to our knees, our chair or cushion, our prayer or meditation, our journal. The times when we review the vision for our life born from our intuition, our creativity, and our imagination. We remember then and deeply question who we are and where we are headed. It is then we enter the interior landscape, the sacred seed of our existence, the light that shines within.
Just as turtle reminds us to walk slow on the earth mindful of where we plant our eggs— our creations, and bear reminds us to rest in this season, conserve our heat and energy for the coming spring and summer, so too does eagle power of Spirit remind us of our connection to the Divine in creating vision for our life, to boldly scan the horizon, take stock of where we are, look back to review and accept the life lived in its imperfections, then look forward and carry on.
What does it mean today that eagle came into my view? Maybe this pair was on their journey for food or just enjoyed the air currents in this day. While I can talk myself out of any meaning, I choose to trust what I felt in the first sighting of this pair—joy, delight, awe, and a reminder of a broad vision in my life, our life. Creating clarity for the journey, the values lived, the will to move forward.
At the end of our life, the full landscape will be in our awareness, but today I can also choose to look over the landscape of this day. Did I live what I value in this day? Did I bring full expression of self in this day? Did I bring kindness, compassion, and love in this day? Can I accept with loving kindness the imperfections, in this day?
As we enter 2022, we look back at 2021 with the challenges and the joys of living, the losses and the new life that came into our world, the disappointments and the surprises that added to our existence. None of it perfect, some of it beyond our comprehension, but all of it what we lived.
As we walk forward into 2022, we can choose to look back further and see all that has brought us to this moment, to this doorway. We scan the broader landscape of our life and say, yes, it is my life, all of it. Then, we look forward and walk through to a new year bringing all the wisdom and imagination that we have formed during our time here. We bring all of this to our new year. as we co-create with Spirit, each day, our future.
As always thank you kind reader for your presence here. Wishing us all, a new year of interior connection to the light within, moments of grace, full expression of self, faith in the future, and a vision that is formed in creative, intuitive, and imaginative self.
Happy New Year!
*the eagle photo is a free stock photo as in the joy of the moment we did not get one.
Walk in kindness toward the Earth and every living being. Without kindness and compassion for all of Mother Nature’s creatures, there can be no true joy, no internal peace, no happiness. Happiness flows from caring for all sentient beings as if they were your own family, because in essence they are. We are all connected to each other and to the Earth.
Sylvia Dolson, Joy of Bears
One love, one heart, one destiny.
Bob Marley
This week we walk into 2022. Whereas we might have floated into the year, or danced, cheered, or slept into it, this year as the last, Covid is at the gate taking tickets. He is a wily character, and we prepare ourselves as we wait to walk through. We have our tools as we each choose: our mask, our vaccinations, our booster, we keep at a distance, we dare not let down our guard. We thought we were done with him, but he is persistent having found a way to recreate himself. He is a living force in our world.
We do not want to start a new year in fear; it does not serve us well and creates an energy around us that is suspicious, paranoid, and hypervigilant. It creates our future. While Covid may be our future for some time to come, we need to find within ourselves a sense of peace with life as it is and an awareness of the world around us that breeds joy, compassion, kindness, and respect for all.
Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, I was educated both in the church and in school to understand human as the master of the world, dominant to all living creatures as well as nature. There was nothing we could not do, create, or envision. All the world was our playground, and we left our trash everywhere. Then our playground moved into space, and we littered the heavens with our debris. We caged animals, destroyed indigenous families, tore asunder mother earth.
In the year 2000, I created and offered a retreat on the paradigm of a creation myth envisioning and understanding that each creature tells us something about the All, God, Universal Consciousness; there is an energy or spirit that permeates everything, every rock, water, tree, wind, fire, every human, plant life, and animal; we live in an interdependent universe, the All, Spirit, God, expressing itself through creation, through us and all.
As I review this retreat today, it seems so simple and innocent back then, lovely concepts to meditate on and attempt to be aware of as we walk the earth. Now on the cusp of 2022, we understand these concepts as vital to our survival. To save the world we must remove ourselves from the place of control and power at the top to be one with, truly understanding and living interdependence with all life, with Universal Mind, energy, Spirit. The fishes and the seas and the birds and the air, and all plant and animal life will live very well without us, but we will not survive a moment without them.
The arms depicted in the image above are collective arms, not the arms of one benevolent being but the arms of every one of us bringing through and living out love, compassion, kindness, and forgiveness. There is much suffering in this vast world. There is also generosity, kindness, and giving hearts. As I sit with this image and recall everything on earth including the children, the abuser, the farmer planting the seed, the developer burning the rain forest, the warrior saving lives, and the dictator killing for greed, I acknowledge that I must accept every bit of life as one energy force being lived out through each unique personality. Personalities that have become distorted in their development, some lost in greed, fear, or addiction, and others who live gently, filled with light and love, and a wide array in between. Life on earth is a vast field of differences.
I can begin to feel overwhelmed when I stretch these thoughts out further and further. Then, I realize that as I return to the core, my breath, the seed of these vast thoughts, I remember, it is all one web of pulsing energy. Active love that is either circulated and transformed or impeded and halted. It is simply me and you being love, allowing flow in and through us, or becoming rigid in our pain, fear, or hate, and stopping the flow within and without.
In showing care in our day, responding with action when needed, understanding, listening, truly listening, every one of us could in this way do much in acknowledging and upholding animal life, the vegetation, those we do not like or even despise, as well as those we know and care for; we will then actively embrace the world together, in community. This is not easy work. It takes courage, conscious living, and will. There are many days when we fall short but we wake up the next day ready for another challenge.
This we can claim: we are not the master but part of; we are not dominant but interdependent; the laws of the universe are meant to be lived with, engaged with, brought into relationship to.
As we step into 2022, we walk with courage, allowing joy, peace, and love to enter our hearts and radiate out to all life. Our pleas for help are answered in varied ways and it is up to us to respond, each in our unique way. We live creation. We watch for the ways we are being lifted so that we might live our best lives. We open to the energy of the universe, dance with it, play in it, create in it.
May life’s blessings shower upon us, may all love surround us, may our hearts be filled with peace. May we all live through the core of our humanity as embodied spirit.
Happy New Year! ¡Feliz año nuevo! bonne année!
frohes neues Jahr! с новым годом! Shanah Tovah!
saehae bok mani bada! Buon anno! Szczęśliwego nowego roku!
Xīnnián hǎo! šťastný nový rok! hauʻoli makahiki hou
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
Martin Luther King Jr
The darkness declares the glory of light.
T.S. Elliot
December is a busy month of celebrations with many focused on the arrival of light. It is not by accident that these holy events take place in the darkest days of the year. Hanukkah is known as the Festival of Lights. Bodhi Day celebrates the day Siddhartha Gautama achieved enlightenment. Solstice or Yule is a pagan celebration on the shortest day of the year celebrating the return of the sun and is a festival of rebirth. Christmas is a day of honoring the birth of Jesus the Christ. In John 8:12, we read that Jesus referred to himself in these words, “I am the light of the world.”
We all know what we would consider a dark time, individually or collectively. Times when we have lost our way, said goodbye to a loved one through death or betrayal, lived through battle in war, devastating illness, and any condition when we feel separated from our inner life. We have learned to fear the dark as a place where we can get hijacked by disturbing thoughts, lack of hope, painful memories, or a feeling of emptiness. As children we grew fearful when the lights were turned off. Not trusting the dark, we saw monsters in the corner; what was once our favorite yellow toy truck now is an animal waiting to pounce. When we cannot see, we do not know how to orient ourselves. Our imagination grows wild. In our fear we don’t think to wonder what it is we are really seeing. We want light. We want what we perceive as truth, reality.
Life cannot survive without light and the smallest of seeds cannot germinate deep in the soil without the rich moist darkness surrounding it. We will not die from lack of sunlight, but prolonged lack of light will bring us to illness which will then take our life. These are references to light from an external source, the sun, or a light bulb but what this season is really reminding us of is the light within each of us. A light that has gotten clouded over, diminished, or forgotten. It is what Jesus spoke of in proclaiming himself ‘the light of the world’. Here he is speaking of the internal light that so radiates from him he becomes a guiding principle available to all, a source of spiritual light. Buddha also found that light source as have the rare few who continue to guide us and help us find our way.
As adults we can still fear the dark for many reasons. Trauma, despairing thoughts, layers of insecurity and doubt, and all the conditioning we have learned that keeps us from our true self. All the mental junk mail that arrives daily and that we have not filtered out, over time creating a perception of self and of the world that does not serve us well.
If we cannot live without external sunlight, how do we survive in our soul’s journey without awakening to the light within? Meditation and contemplative prayer are avenues to that light. When first learning to sit in meditation or contemplative prayer with eyes closed, we can feel anxious about what we might find. What is supposed to happen? In the inner dark and quiet we experience the jumbled thoughts of our mind, the lack of direction, the desire to be done now, the impatience for light and the opening of our eyes. We are outer referenced and want the light to be on.
The more we practice the more we learn to trust the inner darkness, the quiet, and the workings of the mind. If we bring curiosity, we see the shadow self, all the personality aspects of self we don’t want to admit to or don’t recognize in consciousness, but in themselves are keys to our healing soul, and in recognition and patience open an avenue to the light. This is a common truth for all no matter our political or religious or social beliefs. The billionaire as well as the one living on the street. Our hate and discrimination will not light our way. Light is found in our hearts of love, our compassion, care, and kindness.
In the early 80’s, I was asked to preach during advent, the waiting time before Christmas. It was three years after a dark time in my life, the death of my infant daughter and my continuing struggle with health issues. I was asked to share how I found light in the darkness, what brought me forward, gave me hope in this advent of my life. Simply put, it was light. I consciously chose light, hope, love, and compassion. It has taken me years to understand those words more fully as I continue to live into that choice; I continue to learn and to understand. Like the seed deep within the moist dark humus, we can only grow into our fullness or languish and die. There are not a lot of options.
In that darkness, I learned more about who I am. I looked closely at what was needed to help me to grow— the dung that we place on the garden for the natural nutrients. This is not clean, tidy work; it is digging, weeding, nurturing, pruning with honesty and courage. Choice is not made on one day and then see what happens; choice for light and love is made daily, becomes a discipline, a practice. An embodiment of courage. But in that moment of choice, it also felt natural, an ‘of course’ moment that I had to trust and see where it led me. In doing so we begin to recognize, even briefly, this light in each other. The inner light becoming as important as the outer.
During this season of light, we are reminded. We celebrate. We take stock of where we have come in life. Feel gratitude for life’s blessings and the connection to spirit, the All. To whatever being we have chosen as our guide, our guru, our reflection of what can be, we celebrate the birth of the light of the world, in our hearts, in our very being. We celebrate the return of light in our days. We honor and bow to those who have achieved this rare human occurrence.
May the darkness of these days increase our awareness of all the light there is to see.
Where There is Despair, Hope 18 x 24 Acrylic by Janis Dehler
All Hallows Eve is upon us. The veil between the physical realm and the spirit realm is thin, as I experienced it upon my mother’s death. A sacred and holy time when we feel the presence of all that is beyond our finite sense of reality. It is the eve before the day of the saints; those who have now become the ancestors; those who we look to for their inspiration and guidance; those who we will become as we in turn decay into food for the soil in a mutual exchange from walking this earth feasting on its abundance. The children dress as goblins and ghouls as they stand up to the dread and anxiety held for this final transformation. We bring laughter to this day as we allow the child within to face her fear.
In this covid time, dying feels closer as we witness the illness, the deaths, the fires burning across the world. Where do we find hope? Where do we find peace for our tender hearts? What do we bring to the alchemy we conjure in turning fear and divisiveness into kindness and caring?
Like the seed that sprouts in the crevasse of rock, the green of will and desire rises and flows, weaving and connecting, bringing the persistence of the living to this momentous time. Let us not shy away from remembering, acknowledging, and honoring all that dies while deciding carefully what we wish to carry forward. It is choice at its finest. Not through the idle movement of habit but through conscious awareness of all that we are and wish to become. Not against something but with, not away from but towards. Knowing that each moment of life is a moment of death as everything changes, cells die off, and memories fade. Forgiveness transforms resentment, love envelopes hate, kindness covers cynicism. Growth and beauty strive forward from the depth of darkness to the brilliance of a new dawn.
“Is not this a true autumn day? Just the still melancholy that I love—that makes life and nature harmonize.”
George Elliot
On Tuesday the sun shone brightly, the shadows creating a sharp contrast to the bright yellows, reds, and oranges of the maples I passed along my walk. I stopped to photograph a tree and thought of a painting this might inspire. The smile arising on my face was delight and on I went to the next beauty.
On Wednesday, the sky was gray and overcast the entire day moving into rain in the afternoon. On my return from an errand, I turned down Central Avenue and noticed the stately red maple to my left as it stood out in size and color among many. The size of the tree spoke of longevity while the depth of color drew me into my heart. As I looked further down the hill the deep rusts, golds, and reds almost into purple did not thrill me as on a sunny day but brought me to a moment of peace. I began to notice that in this light on this day the colors took on more depth as if I could enter them and rest in them, be held in them for this moment. These colors did not tantalize but beckoned, did not scream but whispered.
As the day moved on in my chores my eyes would alight on the mums in display at my front door that on a sunny day would draw my attention with their stunning color. Today, I experienced the color in my body as warm, solid, and enduring.
At the end of the day along towards sunset, I gazed out our windows to the river. I chuckled to see the wild turkeys running through the yard after stopping to graze on the seeds dropped from the bird feeder. As I sat at the dinner table my vision moved along the rust colored table cloth to the greens, golds, oranges and reds of the mums in the centerpiece, out the sliding doors to the red/purples of the Amur Maple toward the river. The sky was soft and darkening and I felt the desire to pause, to weep, to enter a place that draws us into the soul.
In the season of autumn we are moved into our natural rhythm, from spirited sun dappled joy to the soul depth color of being, allowing the need to open to as we move from bright lights to inner darkness. In quiet, deep, listening and inquiry, we draw life from the stillness. In this place, grief is attended to, sorrow is transformed, compassion soothes our pain. We become one with rather than the one stepping out of the moment to photograph.
We do not stay long in these depths. It is a journey we flow in and out of in a moment, an hour, or a day. Today the sun shines brightly again and I long to walk amongst the color.
“Notice that autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature.”
The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears, or the sea. Karen Blixen
A friend recently asked if it is okay not to cry as others do. I have encountered this question in the past from clients and at times from myself. Tears are curious things. They can come unexpectedly, unwanted, in torrents, or gently and softly, and not at all. And then we wonder, why?
Tears might come as a simple moistening in the eyes, or gently fall while experiencing another’s pain. They might come quite suddenly in a joyful moment, and we feel our heart burst open. We can feel cleansed after a deep cry. Our body relaxes, softens, and as we breathe and quiet, we might become aware of a larger space within. There are tears after a profound loss that can feel as if we will drown. There are also the tears after humiliation, betrayal, standing up for yourself when all you want is to be angry and confront, and then out pour the tears. Then that feels humiliating. Sometimes tears come after prolonged laugher, the kissin’ cousin of tears, with at times moving into the weeping of deep pain that had been buried or ignored. It can feel as if we have no control, and we don’t. Not really. We can make ourselves cry but that takes some practice and may be a surface experience only. We can at times hold our tears back, bite them back, but then everything else gets all scrunched up and we tighten around the tears or the loss. We can feel like we have not cried at the appropriate time, like at a funeral. Then, a few weeks later, we are watching a Hallmark commercial or a movie or listening to a song and the tears flow, sometimes gently and at times into a sob. We may not find tears at all in a loss experience as our primary feeling might be gratitude or relief.
The tears after profound loss don’t necessarily flow freely. Not for me anyway. After I learned that my baby had birth defects and would not live, I was in shock and numb. I was brought to her in the NICU and on the way there had a panic attack. I could not breathe. Then I saw her in all the wires and machines, and she was beautiful. It was only later, back in my room, away from it all, during our priest’s prayer and blessing, as he placed his hand on my head, that the tears arrived. Even then they were painful but gentle. This loss contained a well of tears that took many tear sessions over a length of time to get to the depth of the well.
After my dad’s death, I went into action. There was funeral planning, a eulogy to write, family arrangements, making sure mom was attended to. It took a few weeks, and seeing I was starting to snap at my husband, for me to realize and own that the pain was being held in too long and I needed to take the time to go to the well. It was the same after my mom’s death except the first tears came in torrents soon after her critical stroke when I knew to my core where this was headed with the difficult decisions needing to be made.
Not having tears does not have to mean one is numb. It does not necessarily mean the heart is closed. The mantra from my childhood goes, “If you are going to cry, go to your room.” It has been hard for me to fully cry in another’s presence. I have had to learn to trust that experience as it does not come naturally. My daughter is my teacher. I marveled since she was young how tears could flow naturally and freely in pain or joy. I treasured her free open expression and realized how the witnessing of her tears opened my heart. Some cultures encourage and live out a very natural robust expression. For others it is stoic. We are a melting pot of an array of expressions, and we cannot judge one against the other. And certainly, we cannot judge ourselves in our experience. At best we bring compassion and curiosity.
My response to my friend’s question? It is all okay. Tears are not required. Rather than, why am I not crying, I might ask; Is there something I am not expressing?What do I wish to express? In what way now do I want to express myself? Create? Build? Write? Sing? Laugh? In what way do I best express myself? Then, after the question, return to the heart and listen.
Tears are healing because they flow from the heart and there is a myriad of ways to express from the heart. When we do allow expression, we feel not only a deeper connection to self but to the greening world around us, to the collective whole, to sacred Oneness. In our honest open expression, we come to an inner silence, the doorway to the Divine.
In the teen years, life calls her forward,
Stepping out from home, family, childhood.
Not that she won’t someday return
but that she needs to scratch the itch of curiosity.
As many before, she walks out, alone among many,
challenging habits, ways of thinking, learned perceptions.
She asks: who sees me? Who acknowledges me?
What is here for me?
One day in the seeking future,
She sits in quiet, she listens to her heart,
In that moment of uncertainty, a voice is heard,
I see you. I know you. I believe in you.
Then the knowing arises,
I am seen as I see.
I am known as I know.
I am loved as I love.
I am home.
@Janis Dehler
A new work of art and a poem. Blessings on your day.
On This Late Summer Morn
On this late summer morn,
She sits where mind rests, prayers flow.
Wonder at the world of blame
Brings her head to bow.
On this late summer morn,
The sky dark from falling ash,
Our lungs fill, the sun remains
Hidden. Even he fears the heat.
On this late summer morn,
Thousands fleeing a war-torn country,
Our hearts fill, the moon remains
Hidden. Even she cries with the knowledge.
On this late summer morn,
Delta dead are piled into trucks,
Our minds fill, the stars remain
Hidden. Even they wonder at the folly of it all.
On this late summer morn,
She recognizes all that is sacred,
Sees the beauty in all creatures, all life,
Her heart opens with the embracing of it all.
@Janis Dehler
This morning, after the days of rain, I look out over the world of green. All has awakened and come alive with this moisture, this juice of life that calls all things forth in their innate beauty. Today that beauty is green.
How effortless it all seems. How every plant, tree, and shrub pop up, declare themselves, stand erect, and announce, “I am here”. None are shy, none are judging their neighbor while wondering why their leaves are bigger or shinier. None are fearful, angry, or holding resentment. All are simply being. Doing what they are here to do, offering shade, oxygen, digging roots deep into the earth to stabilize soil, flashing a spark of color, growing to be a table or a chair, each act an offering of self. An entire existence of giving.
Watering the earth with hose water barely keeps the green alive while rainwater brings life forth in a burst of growth, a spark of truth, a shout of joy, seeming to touch the very roots of existence. What brings me to this place of growth? What fills me enough so that I allow my own growth in seeming effortlessness? Is it watching a sunset, listening to music, or making music, drawing, or painting, being near water, looking in a lover’s eyes, writing a poem, digging in the garden, reading scripture, or sitting in silence and letting the inner voice speak? There are many ways to feel watered and nourished in life but what is the one true source for letting go of worry, judgement, and fear, while offering self to the world. The lesson appears so simple as I look at the green that surrounds me and yet, to embody this awareness requires something, a letting go. We want to ask, “How?”, and yet there is no “how” the trees tell us, it is simply, “is”.
