Healing for the Earth, Day 10: Feeling Grateful

Hellooooooo out there fellow Earthlings!

How y'all doing on this big blue marble of ours? Let's keep it BLUE!

This is DAY 10. I'm a third of the way done, but this Healing for the Earth business is really helping me tune into the vibration of love and........

GRATITUDE!

Today I woke up late at like 11AM and ate mint Milanos for breakfast. Hey, I'm not perfect! There's no one checking in on me, so why not?

But then I thought, geez, it's gorgeous outside. I just want to get OUTSIDE.

Humans, like plants, can wither without enough natural sunlight, fresh air and clean water. Luckily there's lots of space out here and I was able to walk to the beach without bumping into hardly anyone.

On my walk, I talked to my mom on the phone who was in the process of creating face masks from her old bras, I kid you not. She needed to go to the doctor for a check up and didn't have a mask. We've gotta do what we've gotta do in times like these.

When I hung up with her, I smiled. I love my family. They are funny, nuts, generous and kind. They are probably like any family. You can't live with them, but you can't live without them either. Anyway, I'm grateful to have all of them in my life.

And I then thought about my lovely partner Scott. Wow, what a blessing to have such a sweet, kind, insightful, spiritual, FUNNY, loving man in my life. Blessed beyond words.

Then I started thinking about all my friends. Wow, so many friends that make me laugh or friends who have helped me in a time of need or friends who have encouraged me. I began to recall memories of many friends as I briskly walked to the beach in the sun.

Then I started to think about the sun, cherry blossoms, my comfortable shoes, the fact that I CAN WALK. So much gratitude. Have I taken it all for granted?

On the beach, I found that the medicine wheel Scott and I made three days ago was still there untouched. I stood in front of it with my shadow in the middle.

 As I stood there listening to the waves on the shore, an eagle flew over my head and landed in the pine tree behind me and began to sing. "I hear you!" I said to it. GRATITUDE for the eagle who came to visit too! Here's that eagle SINGING!

And then I walked back in the sunshine to the lovely home that my family is so graciously letting me stay at while they are in Arizona and I felt enormous gratitude.

And then I opened the fridge to find that it was full of food. FULL of FOOD. There is plenty to choose from. I have a choice. I can CHOOSE!

And then I had a 1 hour training to be a faculty tech support person at my college. It's a new job for me and I'll also be teaching. I don't consider myself a techie, but I'm willing to learn more. I have a job. I will have enough money.

Food √
Shelter √
Water √

Immense gratitude for having those three things covered. The rest is icing on the cake. Yes, things have changed. It's not like it used to be and everything is uncertain. But the truth is:

IT'S ALWAYS BEEN UNCERTAIN!

We think we have it all figured out and we know what will happen, but we don't. We have no idea what will happen in any given moment and these strange times are proof of that.

When I operate from a place of gratitude, I realize I have everything I need (more than I need in fact) in this moment and it helps me to then reach out and help others. I'm excited that I get to support my college in an area of need. I feel grateful for the opportunity to help. I am also grateful for the opportunity to do 30 days of healing for the Earth on this blog. It's connected me deeply to the Earth and so many like-minded people. It's been a powerful experience. And WOW am I ever grateful to MOTHER EARTH! Where would we be without her?

 Stay tuned for many guest speakers here. I'm not the only one who has something to share.

What are you grateful for?

Going Backwards at Full Speed

Hello fellow Earthlings,
I'm alone in Sequim today and I've been really contemplating what this life is for? Don't get me wrong, I'm not at the end of my rope, but sometimes it feels like I'm going backwards at full speed.

 I spent the holidays in a remote, small cabin with my family for 3 nights. Try that out. I dare you. Whatever you believed you were or how much you thought you knew what you were doing and where you were going, family reminds you of all the things you'd rather not dig up or get into. I'm talking about beliefs, politics, your foibles, those things you did (even though you don't do them anymore) that define you for life. "Remember when..." It's like family has put a big stamp on your forehead. A tattoo, if you will, that says, "Loses keys, is DIVORCED, doesn't have children, posts too much on Facebook, has an easy life, doesn't care about others, lives paycheck to paycheck, doesn't have it together." The stupid thing is that I actually care about what people think, particularly my family, but they will never, ever completely get me because they aren't interested in getting me. They are just interested in coming together, with all of their individual beliefs and ideas about how this life should be lived, and celebrating the holidays together because that's what families are supposed to do and we are family.

 For the most part, we were able to do that. We cooked together, complemented on each others' cooking, walked together in the snow, talked, sat in the hot tub and around the fire. We recalled stories and mingled and played games and all was well and I did feel happy to be with them because, after all, we never know how much time we've got with one another.

What I discovered is that as long as we stayed away from all the things that each of us really believe in, we were good. As long as we didn't really scratch more than the surface of each person's life or interests or what made them really tick, we were good.

Until we weren't good. Until we were going full speed backwards down a snowy driveway heading straight for a garage door with my boyfriend at the wheel. He had lost control on the ice. The only thing I really wanted to do was jump out of that car into a snow bank and disappear. But we were all in this together, like it or not, and it was a family effort to get us out.

I thought my sister's family was already merrily heading down the road heading towards Leavenworth. The right back tire of our car, the Suburu my dad and step mom rented, was stuck in the snow bank. We all got out to evaluate the situation and I heard my brother-in-law shout from the top of the driveway, "Are you guys okay?" Well, I was actually relieved that they were still there. My step mom, who has bad knees, and I cautiously made our way to the bottom of the driveway and let the others work it out. They took a shovel and dug dirt up and put it under the tires and spread salt around and made cracks in the ice with a shovel. Eventually, my boyfriend gunned the engine and made it to the top of the snowy slope alone. The rest of us were at the bottom of the driveway and it took some effort to get my step mom up the driveway as she doesn't walk much these days and especially not in icy, snowy conditions. It was a group effort that took about 30 minutes to solve and it wasn't long before we were all on our way again.

And maybe that's just it. Maybe family are actually the people who soften the blow when we are going backwards at full speed. I say this from the warmth of my mom and step dad's house in Sequim, Washington. They are snowbirds and leave the Pacific Northwest for Arizona each winter. They have given me the chance to stay in their house this winter and write and teach my online class at the college. They've given me the gift of this space, even if they don't fully understand me or how I live or what I am doing.

Today I called my boyfriend on the drive out to Dungeness Spit. I can't get cell phone reception at the house.

 "I don't think I know what I'm doing anymore or what this life is for. I feel really bummed out," I said.

"You have a great life, Kathy. I know I can't convince you of this, but you do. I'm sorry you are feeling sad."

We've had our own challenges, my boyfriend and I, mostly in the financial arena. In all other areas, he's a great match for me and we really get each other and love each other deeply. I've had some health challenges lately and sometimes I become scared that I don't have long to live, but yet there's lots that I'd still like to do.

My girlfriend Sherry keeps a gratitude journal. I'm thinking of starting one. How did we become such an isolated society? Life is not easy sometimes. Lately I feel like there's a dark cloud over me. I keep looking up to see the sun and just see clouds. Perhaps it's because I live in the Pacific Northwest. There's a reason why people escape to places like Arizona and Florida in the winter. It can get very depressing here.

Despite the darkness and the cold, I walked for three miles or so out on Dungeness Spit today. I listened to the waves crash on the shore and when the water receded, I drew my wishes in the sand with a bamboo stick. I wrote, in capital letters, HEALTH, BOOKS, LOVE, HOUSE, TRAVEL.

 And then a gigantic wave formed in front of me, crashed and moved like lava towards my wishes erasing any trace of them. I walked on the clean slate of beach in front of me leaving only footprints and even those were devoured. I couldn't leave a trace if I wanted to. And I learned that I wasn't going backwards, not really. I was just going. Maybe that's all I need to do.

The Sound of a Different Drum

Hello fellow Earthlings,

There's something we are born into here on Earth. It's called family. And sometimes, even though you love them all very much, you have to wonder how you got the family you did. Some schools of thought believe that our family members were our enemies in past lives and we are here to work out our karma with them. If you believe your family is PERFECT, then congratulations! Maybe there is nothing more for you to learn in this lifetime. I think there's a reason why it's hard to hang out with family for a long time. In the beginning, we are so happy to see everyone, but as time ticks on, we realize how different we all are and we wonder how we ended up with the lot we got. Some family members have not spoken in months and some have sons, daughters, mothers or fathers who they have not seen in years. I am fortunate in that I am still in contact with all of my family members and see them when I can. Even though we all get along fairly well and manage to catch up, share and have fun, it's hard to meet eye to eye on all subjects. In fact, some subjects we just steer clear of all together. It's easier that way.

But every now and then a comment will creep its way in and it takes me right back to when I was a child seeking approval from my parents. It makes me question the path I am on. I start to wonder about myself and think, "What's wrong with me?!"  I'm not living like these people at all. I've chosen a very different path and I play a drum with a VERY different sound. Are you sure these are my kin?

Well,  to be honest, I don't think I have ever been a pack animal. Not ever.

I play a very different drum and at times I sort of wish I were a pack animal. It's not easy to forge your own course in life or take the road less traveled. Along the path, you meet up with people on other paths who look at you through narrowed eyes that seem to say, "There's one who went astray." And at times it makes you feel very isolated.

I have felt isolated, but I will not change the path I'm on.

A deeper sense of myself, deeper than my ties to family, calls me. I am a stranger, at times, even to my loved ones. Yet, I love them, each one of them, for who they are.

This morning, my boyfriend, who stayed with my family for two days, left to go to work in the city. He knew I had been feeling a little down. I felt judged by my family for my decisions and for my lifestyle. Maybe it was my own sensitivity or maybe it was my need for approval, but I didn't feel good.

With loving eyes, my boyfriend, looked down at me and kissed my cheek and said, "Don't cast your pearls before swine!" I had never heard that before, but I knew what he meant.

Each one of us holds in us the jewels of who we are. So precious, these gem stones are! So brilliant and beautiful! Yet it is so easy to dim our lights and to even trample over our own pearls for the sake of fitting in with others and not rocking the boat.

And then there's judgement.

It's so easy to dish out judgement of others too. Why do we do it? Why are we so curious about others' lives? Why can't we celebrate our differences? Why can't we say, "Well, it's not my path, but I'm happy that you are so happy on YOURS! I celebrate your journey. I celebrate YOU!"

Strangely, we humans forget that we are all connected. We forget that we are part of a HUMAN family and that the way we act towards each other can have a ripple effect on the whole. I am not immune to judgement. I don't always suspend my opinions of others. I don't always have everyone's best interest in mind all the time. But I'm trying to understand. I'm trying to realize that I'm not isolated or in this alone and that each person I meet is just as deserving of love as the next, even though I may not understand their choices.

So, this morning, I walked through the silence of the house we are all sharing together and felt a calm. I felt the quiet of everyone sleeping snuggly in their beds and all was well. I felt a deep love well up in my heart that I still have family near me. My father, mother and step parents are all alive and well. I have a great sister, brother-in-law and nephews. How lucky I am!

 And with these thoughts, I slipped out of the house, up the road and into the woods.

I walked into the thick of trees and smelled the earthy, herbal smell of Salal berries and tasted them. Next, I popped an Oregon grape into my mouth and winced at the sourness of it. Finally, further down the trail I spotted an Evergreen Huckleberry bush growing out of an old stump. I reached up and plucked the small berries from the bush—a sweet and sour taste. All different, these berries, yet here they were in the same forest existing together.

The fragrance of these berries, pine sap, and wood created a heavenly fragrance as I trotted along the wooded path with Long Pond on my left. There I saw a gathering of birds in the pond together. There were ducks, Canadian geese and a few Heron all living, drinking and eating within the same pond.

I felt my body meld with everything around me—fragrant smells, birds chirping, the touch of a soft wind through the trees, the taste of a variety of berries. Everything all blended together and I was part of it all, yet I was a unique and important element to it all.

There's nothing wrong with the sound of a different drum. Mine is made from elk. I made it by my own hands. I smoothed the wet hide over the round wood with my fingers, feeling the essence of the animal that would make a sound in my hands. That animal lives through the drum and me, yet we are distinct and different.

It's okay to make a different sound and play a different drum. What would our world be if we were all exactly the same. And there are no mistakes or ways in which we should have done things differently in my book. There is just life flowing, flowing, flowing. Things dying, things falling apart or coming together. It's all part of the great symphony of life. I don't need to please anyone in this world. I don't need to play my drum to suit you. I'm here to make my own sound and you are here to make yours.

Divine Earthly Experience 3: Connection and Solitude

"Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone. Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music."—Khalil Gibran

Good Evening Fellow Earthlings,

Here's something to think about:

You can't be together until you can be alone.

Yes, I believe that.

When my ex-husband walked out and left our marriage a year and a half ago, I had gotten used to him sleeping in the bed. I had gotten used to our rituals. For over 12 years of marriage, we had slept side by side and from my perspective, we were happy. We laughed, read to each other in bed, snuggled, talked about our dreams and ideas. There was a comfort in having him there. I felt like he was my rock, that we had each other's back, that no matter what happened in our marriage, we'd figure it out. From that foundation, I felt comfortable to be alone. I would go on silent meditation courses and go out to my family's lake house to write for a week by myself. I was comfortable alone because I knew I wasn't completely ALONE. My husband was there, even if we were doing our own things and pursuing our own goals.

But the day he walked out and ripped the carpet out from under our marriage, I thought I was going to die. One day we were picking blackberries down the street and making muffins and singing and enjoying the sun and the next day he was gone. Just GONE. He had an affair and left. That was it. He never returned to our house and bed again.

In the days that followed him leaving, I never felt so alone. I would reach out for my partner in bed at night, half asleep, and realize that there was no partner. My heart would race. I could almost feel it pounding in my throat. I had heard that it was possible to die of a broken heart and I was pretty sure this is what it felt like.

As much as the pain and loneliness was very real, I refused to sleep at family or friends' houses. I wanted to feel myself completely. I didn't want to take prescription medication, drown my sorrows in alcohol, or move to a commune. I wanted to FEEL everything, even if those feelings were unpleasant. Many people reached out to help me at this time, but oddly I wanted to be alone. Writing has ALWAYS been my way of working things out and seeing the bigger picture and I filled many journals during this time. I was 46 when my husband left. I thought I'm getting older. Is this my destiny? To be alone? 

I had gotten used to doing so many things together, but now I was trying to pick up the pieces and do many things by myself. Two months after my husband left, we were scheduled to lead a yoga and writing retreat in Sedona, Arizona. I had thought about canceling it, but friends encouraged me to do it anyway. Two good friends stepped up, came all the way to Arizona and helped me do the retreat. I had never done a retreat without my husband, but it was all women and it ended up being one of the most empowering retreats I have ever been a part of. One woman on the retreat said, "Look at it this way. Now that your husband is gone, you can do and be whoever you want. You are free!" I had never thought about it that way. I was free to define myself anyway I chose to. I was no longer in a partnership. I used the opportunity to develop my healing and intuition at Psychic Awakenings in Seattle and I took a burlesque class that changed my life. It was so incredibly empowering to be with a group of women and create a new identity on stage. All that pent up sexual energy came flying out of me when I danced and so it's not surprising that I got asked out pretty quickly.

I was hesitant to go out with my current boyfriend. I thought I needed more time alone. I believed that I needed to spend a good deal of time with myself first before getting in a partnership again. At the same time, I had felt deprived of affection in my marriage and here was a man that was funny, joyful and ready to shower me with affection—a kind of affection I had never known before. I'm sorry, but I wasn't going to turn THAT down, it's what I wanted more than anything. Some friends cautioned me about going out with another man too soon. I could see their point. After all, it had only been six months and my divorce hadn't yet gone through when I went on that first date. But everything in my body was telling me yes, yes and YES! So I went with it, and it was beautiful and it still  is beautiful almost a year later.

I read somewhere that you can be in a partnership with someone for 20, 30 or 40 years and not have too much growth within the relationship. Couples get comfortable and patterns set in and before you know it, you are moving through the motions with one another. That spark that once ignited the fire between you has sort of dimmed and you have no idea when that happened, but you are comfortable. You know what to expect and there is comfort in THAT. In a way, I believe that is sort of what has happened in America. We were comfortable and perhaps we needed a WAKE UP CALL! We needed an overhaul. We needed to GROW! Trust me, there will be an overhaul and there will be GROWTH.

Being in this new relationship has absolutely accelerated my growth! I feel like I'm on the AUTOBAHN of healing. It helps that I'm with a man who meditates, is an EXCELLENT communicator, is in touch with his feelings and has done plenty of his own healing. I feel like I've jumped through a thousand hoops with this person. We don't let anything fester. Things get resolved quickly and then new things appear to be resolved. So it is with and through this intimate connection that I am healing so many parts of myself. How can we grow if nothing is reflected back to us? How can we grow if there is never any conflict, upheaval or chaos? How can we grow if we never step outside our comfort zone? It is through connection that we can see how much alike we all really are. We ALL have parts of ourselves that need to be healed. Not one of us here is perfect or we wouldn't be on the planet. We are here to connect, love and LEARN. I believe that it is through connection, a deep soul connection, with others who are also willing to grow and learn, that we can evolve. That CONNECTION with others is KEY.

But so is solitude. The two go hand in hand I believe.

But before I talk about that, here's something to ponder: If you decide you don't need a partner, that you prefer to be ALONE or that you are not interested in a relationship because they are too complicated or you can't find the right person or this or that, you may have gotten too comfortable being alone. When you are alone, you get to call all the shots. No one is there to ruffle your feathers or trigger you. You don't need to worry about anything being reflected back to you because you are the only one THERE. It's easy to HIDE OUT in solitude. It's easy to become DISCONNECTED. You may have even convinced yourself that it is safer this way. Being alone is another kind of comfort zone.

I believe there needs to be a balance of coming together on an intimate level and being ALONE. I have made good friends with myself. I enjoy my own company. When I'm alone, all my ideas, thoughts, observations come flooding out. I have time to process what it is like to be in connection with people and particularly with an intimate partner. When I'm in solitude, I can step back and assess  the progress I have made. I can see if I like where I'm standing.

I feel fortunate that I have a good balance between being alone and being with my boyfriend, but I have no idea what the future holds. Do any of us? Do we really know? Even from the deck of our comfort zone, with a glass of wine in hand, enjoying the view, have we really figured it all out? What if you were to lose all of that tomorrow? Would you live any differently now? What would you say to the people in your life? Would you change anything?

I am not claiming to have all the answers. More than ever before, I'm feeling around in the dark and every now and then the light comes through. I'm not sure of anything, but I'm sure of this: a plant can't grow in a box. It needs sunlight, water, good soil and LOVE. It is dependent on the other to LIVE. We are the same. We need each other. We need interactions with each other. Through our deep connections and interactions we realize we are all in this together. If we can just realize this we will realize we are never alone. And once we realize we are never alone, we will be perfectly content to be just that.