Healing for the Earth, Day 16: Turn off the News and Turn on Nature

Hello Earthlings,

How are y'all doing out there? Are you getting rest? Are you getting out in nature or at least breathing in some fresh air?

The news is pretty prevalent on the internet and TV right now. It's all over the place. Some of it is very important information that we need to be aware of, but watching the news and tuning into the thousands of news posts on social media 24-7 can make a person go crazy. Seriously. It's not healthy for fellow Earthlings.

You could probably get all the news you need to know in an hour or less each day. I find it healthy to maybe select a few credible places where you intend to be informed and leave the rest.


Here's a little video I made on my walk in the rain today, where I didn't see a single soul, so I was able to keep my social distance from other Earthlings. Out here in the countryside, it isn't hard to do. My counselor calls my channel of choice the Nature Channel. I like that one.

I'm aware of the turmoil out there, but I have decided that it is not helpful to the world if I'm in turmoil too. I can have compassion for what we as a species are going through. I have been offering love and support individually to several friends and collectively in my thoughts, prayers, chants,  drum sessions and meditations to all beings and our planet. This may not feel like much to some, but when I tune into the bigger picture and offer this gift of peace and healing, I find it to be so powerful. It tunes me in with all the other millions of people doing the same and collectively I can feel that energy.

The other thing that can offer so much incredible healing to Earthlings right now is tuning into the EARTH that we are living on. Yes, this big blue marble we call home. This crisis is not a human problem, it's an Earth problem. If we separate ourselves from nature and our planet by making ourselves the only important beings here, we are going to suffer.

In nature, ALL is there for us. Our water, air, sun, fire, material for our houses, and food has always been there for us. It's what sustains us and keeps us alive, actually. And the animals, particularly the wild animals, are speaking. They are literally SPEAKING! I now understand why our ancestors had such a strong connection to the land and animals. They understood very clearly that without them they could not live. Indigenous people have always known this. In my meditations I feel we are being called as a species to WAKE UP and remember that we are also part of nature and to survive we need to work in harmony with it.

I know, from all the news, that we are to keep ourselves 6 feet away from all people other than our family members and partners in order to flatten the curve of this virus. I'm respecting this, We Earthlings are also supposed to sanitize ourselves by washing our clothes, our bodies, our hands, etc. This is working very well. I'm proud of everyone for doing their part.

  I'm also enjoying the gentleness and quietness of our species who are normally so loud and dominant in the world.

We may be loud in our homes, but outside all is quiet. I hear a heard of elk walked down Cannon Beach in Oregon. A herd of ELK! When I see Earthlings outside now, here in the countryside where I live, they walk so mindfully and contemplatively. They keep huge distances from each other and respect space. They look so beautiful, as if they have just woken up to this precious planet that we all have been rushing around on.

You don't have to walk far to hear the quiet stirring of nature again. You don't have to do too much to feel that it has changed and a big part of it is that we are not running the show out there now. We were sent to our rooms! And those who venture outside for a walk, at least out here where I am living, have found a way to connect again.

On the beach today, way off in the distance, I saw a fellow Earthling walking alone in the rain and she was beautiful, the way she moved. And it brought me back to a time before our time when we used to walk like that, paying attention to the direction of the wind and the position of the sun and the sound of bird calls. Behind some logs on the beach, I found the medicine wheel I made with by boyfriend before the lockdown happened. I was delighted to see that it had remained completely untouched for over a week!

Today I spent time in meditation with a few friends virtually. We spent about an hour in silence together. Afterwards I felt so much peace and gratitude. We are all in this together. Be gentle with each other. There's so much love out there. There is so much healing happening! Thank you, each one of you, for doing your part.

Healing for the Earth, Day 5: Creature Comforts and Whatever You Need to Get You Through the Day!

Hello fellow Earthlings,

It's strange out there, isn't it? What an interesting time to be an Earthling. Today's little video is about saying OKAY to creature comforts and whatever gets you through the day! Yay!

Today was a day of paperwork and getting things done, so I didn't get a chance to be out in nature much, except to see the last rays of sunlight as I drove to Safeway to pick up provisions. You can be sure that the entire aisle of toilet paper was empty and there was no hand sanitizer in sight. In fact, there were signs up limiting these items to two per person. Earthlings are so interesting, aren't we? Not a single animal uses these things. We wear clothes, use hand sanitizer and toilet paper and drive cars and go to store houses that hold all of our food. This is what we do, many of us. While I was looking for Epsom salt, an announcement came on at the store that said, "Be sure to get your flu shot because you never know if it will be wild or mild out there." I swear that's what it said.

Today I decided, after feeling anxious about work and my future housing situation, that I was going to give myself some comfort and it is OKAY! I stocked up on snacks, which included a little chocolate. I put on my favorite cozy socks which have stars and moons on them. I turned on the gas fireplace for a bit to warm up. I took a long shower and washed my hair. I gave myself comfort today because it's what my body and spirit wanted. I will probably curl up in the bedroom and watch Netflix. I haven't watched anything in a long time, but today I'm cutting myself some SLACK.

I love you all for being here and doing your best! You are doing GREAT!

Peace, love and light,
Katherine

Divine Earthly Experience 1: Endings

Good Morning Fellow Earthlings,

I write you from my boyfriend's LOVE SHACK. Today is the second to last day of 2016 and a New Year is ahead of us. I'm letting go of A LOT. How about you? For the past year and a half I haven't written much. To be honest, I spent a fair amount of the last year and a half hunkered down in my Seattle home feeling a bit lost. My ex-husband, the subject of my former book and blog, Lessons from the Monk I Married, had an affair and left our 20-year partnership and 12-year marriage. It was the hardest thing, other than my birth I suppose, that I had to go through. My identity and life as I knew it had been stripped from me. I didn't know who I was or how I fit into the world I had created.

 I felt adrift, clinging to the few solid things in my life (my home, my friends, my job) like pieces of recognizable debris floating past me in a gigantic sea of unknowingness. Even those things that felt solid started to blur as I traversed new territories.

I oscillated between feeling ready to burst forth with a new identity and new life to feeling like hiding under the blankets of my cozy bed, afraid to meet friends and family who were ready with their condolences and offers to help. I was embarrassed that I had wrapped my own identity up so tightly with that of my ex-husband's that I could not even imagine what we could or would be when things fell apart.

But somehow, out of the ashes of a once vibrant, happy, adventurous partnership, with the same ups and downs as any relationship, I arose with a new sense of myself as an individual. I realized I was stronger than I thought I was. Grief took me on a trip through denial to acceptance of my situation.

But I'm not perfect, by any means. I still fall into anger and sorrow over what happened, but with each day that passes, I feel more and more that this was a gift. Indeed, new beginnings are often disguised as painful endings and I was long due for a new beginning, so much so that it took a seismic shift, an earthquake, an eruption, a storm to descend upon my marriage. It had been written well before it had happened. I saw the ending in my dreams.

All the passion that had been pent up in me. All the love that I extended to my partner that was continuously pushed away came pouring out of me wanting to be fully expressed. I took a burlesque class where I became VENUS ON FIRE.

Venus on Fire, Oddfellows Hall, Capital Hill, February 20, 2016

I created on stage everything I felt inside that had somehow been denied. It was strange, but I felt I needed witnesses. I needed to be SEEN for who I was. I was passionate, fiery, angry, sexy, strong, lovable and beautiful. On stage, I emerged out of a shell like the Bottecelli painting The Birth of Venus; I was a docile, pure-white vision of beauty who became a fiery, red Venus, like Pele, Goddess of Volcanoes. I owned my life, direction and sexuality. I could be whoever I wanted to be.

I started to feel so much confidence in myself. I knew what I wanted in life and I believe that's how I attracted my current boyfriend, a very loving, mature, affectionate, passionate man who shined a light on all my broken pieces and reflected so much beauty and love back to me. I also received incredible healings and insights from Psychic Awakenings, a place where I learned to ground and own my space; A place where I learned to trust my intuition and abilities to not only heal myself and gain insight into the person I was becoming, but also where I learned to be an intuit and healer for others. I'm currently in an 11-month Clairvoyant Awareness Program there.

I learned to trust my intuition above all else. When I learned to let go of things not needed in my life, a new life, full of travel, love, happiness and joy entered in. But it didn't just show up until I showed up to do the work. I had to face my pain, sorrow, anger, fear and loss.

So goodbye 2016! It was a year of healing. I will say that as much as I cowered under the blankets of my bed, I also faced life full-on. I moved through grief. I still fall into it from time to time, but I'm ready to come outside. I'm ready to show up in the world and live OUT LOUD. Look out 2017!

How was the ending to your year? Is there anything you are letting go of?