Life in an out-of-time place is flowing, easier, filled with grace. Please take time, with frequency, to step out of the stressful daily lifestyle that is humanity’s fate at this time. Go into the woods. Go to the ocean. Put your feet in a cool mountain stream. Sit on rocks. Appreciate the trees and all the plants that Mother Nature has placed in the pleasing way that only she can do. We call her work artful, for her landscapes are so beautiful.
The above photo is of a site along a road on the North Carolina side of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Bees and butterflies were busily extracting the sweet nectar of clover and other wildflowers, sometimes returning to take a bit more, sometimes two or three gathering together on the same flower. The mountainside was abuzz with the sound of several different kinds of bees who zipped and swooped about with purpose. It was a truly happy place, alive in the way that Creator has always intended.
When was the last time that you stepped out of time to savor the splendor of the natural world? We miss so much when we stay in the confines of our cut off-from-nature lifestyle. Please get out into nature for some restorative time away from the gadgets that literally bend your minds. Turn them off! Leave them behind! You absolutely won’t regret it!
There was a time when children played with abandon in the great outdoors. They lay in the grass, watched the clouds, observed the world all around them. They filled themselves, albeit without conscious intent, with the goodness of Nature. They created worlds through their imaginings. Be like the child. And allow your children to be free without organized activity so that they can be moved by the spirit of Nature. Their brains will be enhanced, their creativity magnified. So will yours. We know this to be fact.
Several people met during this camping trip have asked Barbara if she is camping alone. They, men and women alike, are amazed. Why is this surprising? Women have been stepping out of the roles delegated by the time of the patriarchy, fortunately an age that is long overdue for closure. Just like the sunrise above marks the beginning of a new day, humanity is waking up too. If you notice who is speaking out, often leading movements that call for the restoration of sovereignty for health and ecological sanity, you will become aware of the rising feminine. There are more and more clear, strong-voiced, strong-willed female leaders of great courage who are serving on the planetary frontlines. Are you encouraging yourself, your daughters and granddaughters to be strong of spirit in such a way? The role of women is changing. We say emphatically: Good, good, good! So be it and so it is! The world can become a more loving place only when the feminine stands in equal partnership alongside the masculine. This will create balance.
The TREES have this request:
“Come into the woods, reside beneath our canopy for a while. We are life and we are shining examples of the creation that ensures sustainable coexistence. Mother Earth needs us to process the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. Our roots, which descend into the interior of her body far more deeply than you might imagine, share the fruits of our labor with her in her subterranean spectrum. Our roots connect us with our tree family as well. This way we know what is happening to the larger tree family along with what the needs are in different locations on Mother Earth. We are alive. She is alive. She is conscious. We are conscious. The capillaries deep within your physical bodies look like the roots we extend into Mother Earth’s body. Only with such fine lines can the deepest recesses receive the benefits needed for healthy existence. This is true with your bodies-they are the microcosm of the macrocosm. Mother Earth is your macrocosm and yet she, in the larger Universe, is a microcosm of the great macrocosm. What is without is within. Creation truly astounds with its intricately designed movable parts.
Grandmother Twylah Nitsch, Seneca elder and head of the Seneca Indian Historical Society/Wolf Clan Teaching Lodge, taught her students that we are: One body, One heart, One mind, One spirit unified through the Law of Love. We are One.
It is with your highest well-being that we communicate these thoughts to you today. The five deer quietly moved behind your campsite at daybreak to remind you that the Fifth World of Unity is coming. Deer, it is said, fearlessly climb the sacred mountain to attain spiritual awareness. They descend the mountain undaunted by those who would seek to detract and pull them down, then, share what they have learned. You will find this teaching and many others in the book, Medicine Cards, by Jamie Sams and David Carson (St. Martin’s Press, 1988).
Continue to accelerate your spiritual growth through the practices you already utilize along with those that we have been sharing. Stand sturdy in Faith, Trust and Surrender. There truly is a light at the end of the tunnel. Restore yourselves through nature-based practices so that you can hold the Lamp of Peace high for others who are searching for the Light!
We love you and thank you!
*Nyah Weh Sgeno!
Thank you for being!
*Da Naho! Nyah Weh Swenio!
It has been said! Thank you, Great Spirit.
The Spirit of Nature
*Seneca phrases of blessing taught by Grandmother Twylah Nitsch,
Seneca elder, during Wolf Clan teachings.
I am in a state of reluctant leaving. Slowly I dismantle all camping gear that has inhabited Cosby Campground Site #74, Loop B, in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The four days here have provided respite from the world at large. I think of people all over the world who do not have what I have = simplicity, an uncomplicated lifestyle, and, the blessing of having minimal possessions to weigh burdensome on my day.
How glorious it has been to hear the sweet bird songs greet each new day as well as the sound of tree frogs that have hummed me to sleep each night. In the morning, as the sun rises in the east, its rays shine through the canopy of the tall, light-green leafed trees to touch upon the darker coniferous trees who wait below to receive the light of day. As I look atop the ferns into the deeper recesses of the woods, the place where bear, deer and turkeys casually roam, a ball of orange light that is surrounded by a vibrant green essence catches my attention. Once acknowledged, the presence of the nature spirit fades back into invisibility.
Surely I will look green to those whom I encounter upon leaving this soul-filling sanctuary. I feel green! It seems I have sprouted leaves and moss. I have become a Nature Spirit! I am filled with chlorophyll. Full of love, I am full of Mother Nature’s love. She places her hands upon my crown to reassure that she is never far away. She asks: “How can we be separate if we are one? It is your mind that is separating in anticipation of your leaving this rainforest. A practice is called for to reinforce our connectedness:
Breathe in the mountain air
Open your pores to the
Lovely green of my plants
Open your feet to remember the brown substance of the forest floor
Fill yourself with the sound of the rushing brook
Feel the coolness of my chilly waters
Notice the stars that shine above at night,
Twinkling along with the fireflies who
Cavort carefree through the
Lower regions of my forest
Breathe in the air that is fresh,
Purified by last night’s dramatic thunderstorm when
The thunder bounced in response to lightning’s
Electrification of everything
Seen and unseen.
You are in a place of restful, peaceful magnificence…
Just as Mother-Father God, just as Creator has
Intended from the beginning of time.
Om Mani Padme Hum*
Samastha Lokah Sukhino Bhavantu**
I am not apart from you.
I am here, within you and all around you.
Mother Nature
* “In dependence on the practice of a path which is an indivisible union of method and wisdom, you can transform your impure body, speech and mind into the pure exalted body, speech and mind of a Buddha.” Shambhala.com, A Talk on Om Mani Padme Hum by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Jeffrey Hopkins, translator, Jeffrey Hopkins and Elizabeth S. Napper, editors, 2012, Snow Lion Publishers.
** May All the Beings in All the Worlds Be Happy, sathyasai.org. This mantra was updated by Sathya Sai Baba in 2008 to be chanted instead of Lokah Samastha Suhkino Bhavanthu in recognition that there is more than just the people of this world.
August 13, 2021, transcribed by Barbara J. Woolley, Messenger
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