When I went into the forest a few days ago, for the first time, I experienced nature speaking to me.
Not as an abstract or poetic metaphor, but as a sentient, creative and intelligent force.
It felt weird and new… and also not weird at all.
It wasn’t a passing whisper of wind, or a fleeting delight at her jewels. I was not just appreciating her beauty in an objectifying kind of way, as I had before.
This time she drew me in deeper, into presence with myself, and into surprise moments of conversation and tender exchange.
Leaning into the support of a giant tree wrapped in ivy hearts, I was able to fully ground and come home to myself, for the first time in a while. The relief. To exhale deeply, and feel the energy flowing through me, between me and my surroundings.
This sensation of coming home to myself, of fully and anchoring within, and to the earth beneath, is so priceless.
I felt my place in the web of life – not as an abstract concept, but as a direct, embodied knowing. Sensing the energy flow, in me and beyond me.
I settled, and felt welcome here on earth, at a new level.
🌿 And her message?
She invited me to stop hiding, and start living as my real self more. To share my intuitive gifts, and to experience this earthly dimension more fully, while I am a guest on the planet, and in this form. To let my heart call the shots more, in everyday ways.
To release the fears borne of an imagined separation from source, and to lighten up a little. – Or a lot! Yes, to live with lightness, and more joy.
The childhood wounds and ancestral traumas are healing, and now it’s time to play…
Before this, I’ve always felt a tinge of guilt and sorrow, a kind of imposter syndrome, whenever I ‘chatted with Mother Earth’.
Conversations with her, (or ‘at’ her really, circling inside my own head…), could range from fraught apology or despairing eco-anxiety, to effusive thanks for continuing to nourish us despite the horror we inflict on her, to a sheepish request for support and renewal in times of sorrow.
I realise now how unnecessarily laden with complexity and ego much of my relationship with nature has been.
In this moment, she spoke to my heart and through my whole body, and let me feel how simple and intwined our relationship is, when we are not burdened by human conditioning or blinded by the filters of our wounds.
We are all Gaia’s oracles, if we could only allow it.
A simple, sensory exchange, a few words, and a sprinkle of symbols along the path home, as the confirmation wink.
Same lifeforce energy, different shapes. Same beating heart.
Oneness… and yet distinct duality.
Paradox.
And all of it held, in this eternal moment.
Presence, beingness, simplicity… You are already ‘it’, and you are already ‘there’.
Exhale.
Trust. Peace. Release. 🌿
A few days later, I’m reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Big Magic’, and I read these words:
“Do you love nature?” – Yes I do.
And then…
“Do you believe that nature loves you in return?”
Wow, nice timing. A few days ago, I wasn’t so sure, but now I know. – Viscerally.
Gilbert describes it as as ‘somewhat pathological construct’ to believe that nature has no inerent sentience.
It denies any possibility of relationship, when actually, ‘it’s clear that the earth is communicatnig with us just as much as we are communicating with it’. (‘Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear’, Bloomsbury, 2015, p. 202)
And so, she urges us to embrace the ‘arrogance of belonging’, and to get busy with our chatting and co-creating.
Nature loves us and welcomes us here.
Everything is energy, including us, and we are interracting with everything around us, though much of this is beyond the realms of sensory perception.
The Earth is calling us out of our perceived separation, to move beyond our wounds and defences, and into creative, courageous living. Back into remembering this living relationship with everything around us. Even if that means feeling the pain of all the destruction we have caused.
She wants each of us to feel our belonging here, and to express our unique essence and gifts while we are here.
So it’s time to get on with it.
We’re having a profound impact on the world around us either way, so we might as well do it consciously, and listen.
Having danced past the age of 40 a few years ago, I care less about those who may dismiss these intimate experiences as sentimental anthropomorphism or woo woo, and much more about connecting with those who resonate.
We have no time to waste.
We are multidimensional beings, and powerful creators. Even more so, when we co-create in close partnership with the natural forces, not in isolation from them.
With this remembering of belonging ‘out there’, comes a deeper coming home to myself, a settling into my own heart and body.The beautiful human heart, magical energy portal, midway between the heavenly realms and the Earth beneath us.
When we can feel ourselves, and feel our connection to our host planet, new perspectives and creations become possible. And these become more infused with our heart and soul.
Coming home, there may be tears of loss from having thought ourselves separated. But this is a healthy and necessary part of retrieving our place within the web of life.
Away from all the mental flitting and fretting, I am looking forward to fully embodying this ‘arrogance of belonging’, and to seeing what magic and creations may flow from this.
So simple, yet so vital.
✨🌿✨
Whoa! We are definitely of the same “tribe” if you will.
My birthday 4/21 just passed and my talks with trees and life matter or inanimate objects too has been solid ground for all of many moons
I stumbled to your writing here because of “Too Much,” I had read it on the Facebook.
I looked up the writer.
Your name came up too.
I read yours;…convos with trees. Okay! around my bday had a powerful wonderful whispering message sent from her that was as clear as yours too. Must watch Stevie Wonder’s “Secret life of Plants.” How serendipitous it all is!
Lovely seeing you and much thanks for sharing the love❣️
Marie I just spotted your lovely comment,.a pleasant surprise whilst sorting through all sorts of strange wordpress spam! I just listened to the Stevie Wonder track – thanks. Keep enjoying the beautiful grounding conversations. D x