Going Home: Finding Your Roots
Feeling like there's something missing in your life? Maybe you feel the need to attend a seminar or retreat in search of the "light." Well, if that's a bit lofty for you, maybe planting your feet firmly on the ground is exactly what you need after all. Consider my own experience on one spring day, as I watched with fascination as a furious rain scattered across my bay window. I became detached from whatever I was doing and absorbed in analyzing the splash patterns on the glass.
Then it hit me. A moment later I was in the yard, without coat or shelter, exceedingly drenched and loving it.
Odd behavior, you say? Impulsive maybe, perhaps even weird based on conventional standards. But I was yielding to a basic need to bond with my mother, my first mother, from whom we all share our beginnings.
In our youth, most of us were scolded by our well meaning human mothers for refusing to come in from the rain, for soiling our clothes while endeavoring to make the best mud pie ever. (For that matter what child can resist a good puddle?) But, the child knows that these things breathe life into him and the natural world is his home.
Sadly, we also live in a world of synthetics and climate controlled dwellings designed to keep the elements of nature at bay. No wonder then that we have lost touch with our mother. How can we, as adults, regain the innate wisdom of a child, and find our mother again?
We simply need to allow ourselves to fully experience her.
If you've ever tended a vegetable garden, you already understand the rewards that a relationship of mutual nurturing can bring. But, there is more to appreciate. When you walk and talk among the plants, and place your hands in the warm soil while tending to their physical needs, there is more taking place than a barter for mutual nourishment. There is an exchange of pure energy.
This energy can be harnessed. It is the gift of our mother, and it is given freely, again and again, simply for the asking. All we have to do is accept and channel it to help ourselves and others to grow, to flourish, and to heal.
You don't have to be a Shaman, or a Wiccan priest/ess to explore raising your own personal level of energy by connecting with the Earth. But, you may have to re-learn to be receptive to her. Make a conscious effort to stroll through your garden or a wayside patch of earth each day, regardless of the comfort level of the weather. Even if you spend much of your time in a stale office, or city apartment, chances are there is an accessible window that affords a view of some aspect of nature. Of course, a lot could be said for raising your own generation of "greenlings" in indoor containers too.
Really look at your environment, as though observing it for the first time. Have you ever watched a very young child or an animal take in their surroundings? Exercise the same intense curiosity. Gradually, you will begin to notice what you've been missing. It might be the intricate grain found in the bark of a tree, or the way a sprig of rye grass bends to meet the breeze. Try looking at these objects from a different angle, and by shifting your focus slightly off course. With practice, you will not only be able to actually see the energy fields of natural articles but, eventually, you will learn to feel and interact with this energy. It is yours to celebrate and embrace in your everyday life. And it will make you feel empowered.
It's important to all of us to feel a connection with something fundamentally meaningful, whether we seek to manifest its goodness in our career, our family, or the spirit. As members of an extended family of living beings, we are utterly dependent upon our mother for guidance in these matters as much as we are in those that are life sustaining. Our mother has a voice, and speaks through the wind, the trees, the landscape and through ourselves. It is a universal language. All we need do is listen.