This is a reality I witness a lot of people struggle against. Wanting a straightforward path to follow their hearts. A clear step-by-step A to Z process. They feel confused and disappointed in search of their hearts in this way.
Over the years I’ve been asked the same question in different forms. The essence of this question is how does the spirit world connect to our practical everyday life? And recently someone asked me this question about plant spirits.
When I follow the thread of when poisonous plants showed up in my life, I continue to discover that they called me much sooner than I consciously recognized. In fact, every few months they show me another moment in time when they called me and I wasn't quite ready to say yes. For example, recently my husband started reading a book that I read not quite a decade ago. And guess who stars in the first chapters of the book? Poisonous plants :)
From the impact of childhood traumas to the ancestral burdens we carry, there is wisdom in the poison of our wounding.
Recently I was catching up with a dear spiritual friend of mine that I haven’t spoken to for quite some time. But we’ve had deep spiritual conversations and attended retreats together on and off for the last eight years.
Bridgekeeper. This is a title I heard given to me from the Spirit world many years ago on retreat. It’s a word that keeps returning time and time again. During meditations. During dreams. Synchronicities. And during sacred reflection time.
As I’ve turned this word over in my mind, heart, and soul, I’ve come to know that part of my sacred work in the world centers on bridge keeping. Which of course makes me a bridgekeeper.
This is a reality I witness a lot of people struggle against. Wanting a straightforward path to follow their hearts. A clear step-by-step A to Z process. They feel confused and disappointed in search of their hearts in this way.
Over the years I’ve been asked the same question in different forms. The essence of this question is how does the spirit world connect to our practical everyday life? And recently someone asked me this question about plant spirits.
When I follow the thread of when poisonous plants showed up in my life, I continue to discover that they called me much sooner than I consciously recognized. In fact, every few months they show me another moment in time when they called me and I wasn't quite ready to say yes. For example, recently my husband started reading a book that I read not quite a decade ago. And guess who stars in the first chapters of the book? Poisonous plants :)
From the impact of childhood traumas to the ancestral burdens we carry, there is wisdom in the poison of our wounding.
Recently I was catching up with a dear spiritual friend of mine that I haven’t spoken to for quite some time. But we’ve had deep spiritual conversations and attended retreats together on and off for the last eight years.
Bridgekeeper. This is a title I heard given to me from the Spirit world many years ago on retreat. It’s a word that keeps returning time and time again. During meditations. During dreams. Synchronicities. And during sacred reflection time.
As I’ve turned this word over in my mind, heart, and soul, I’ve come to know that part of my sacred work in the world centers on bridge keeping. Which of course makes me a bridgekeeper.
Many years ago in yoga teacher training my teacher Sri Dharma Mittra shared one of his favorite analogies that has stuck with me ever since. He explained that our bodies are like a cellphone. And Spirit/consciousness is the signal that moves through each of our cell phone bodies. While we each may have a different model of phone. Or a different provider. In essence, we’re all connected to the same frequency.
Plants communicate to us through their frequencies. When we harmonize our energy with theirs, we can open a two-way conversation.
Feeling these energies while wandering in a wild place when we are drawn to one particular tree, plant, or fungi. Or in other moments when we feel unwelcome in a place. Or the instinct to hug a tree and how dramatically different we feel afterwards.
If each of us were to sit down and trace our ancestral lineages back we would discover many things in common. But the one I want to focus on today is that earlier in our lineages our ancestors saw plants, trees, and fungi as having consciousness. Perhaps that perspective continues for you today. And was taught to you by your living ancestors. Which in that case, what a blessing! But for many of us, myself included, that worldview has been severed and lost. Broken and diminished.
An over emphasis on self-reliance is a defense mechanism that many of us normalize. Ignoring this pattern's shadow nature born from a desire to protect ourselves out of fear. And rooted in our unhealed heartbreak and yearning for meaningful connection.
When I look up the word self-reliance I find the following definition in the Oxford dictionary: “reliance on one's own powers and resources rather than those of others.” And when I keep digging I find a lot of references to an 1841 essay by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson titled “Self-reliance.” Where he argues for the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his own instincts and ideas.
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