Dear Friends,
We are well into the new year as I step into my garden to listen, to open, and to receive. What wants to come through? What wisdom awaits me in the mini-wilderness of my ‘back-forty?' What guidance reveals itself as I slow down to listen beyond my outer-mind and the swirl of my daily routine?
From afar, the garden appears in its winter drab. The hibernation time (with energy reaching downward for rest and renewal) shows in the battered branches and thinning grasses. Scattered debri and pine needles cover every surface; twigs, leaves, and kindling abound. Upon closer inspection, however, I discover spring . . . as I am greeted heartily by spurts of growth everywhere!
I am delighted to discover plants, that have been hidden from sight, now growing in unexpected places. The transplanted whatever-it was? that died has popped up in the middle of the path. The which-a-ma-call-it that we grieved when it dissapeared is now 4-5 inches tall . . . returning in its old spot.
Nature teaches me. Again and again I receive wisdom when I listen to the language of nature. Today I am reminded that no matter how things may appear on the surface, there is a constancy moving below. This reminds me of the deep unconscious and the unfathomable, mysterious, and ‘miraculous otherness' that makes up the fabric of our personal and collective Soul. This reminds me to trust my life journey. Looking at my garden and being surprised by the growth there, I am delighted and awed . . . as I am each and every spring .
Nature teaches me. Again and again, spring returns. The discovery of growth in my outer lanscape brings a pondering: How is this pushing up of growth from below happening in my inner landscape? How are the drabs of winter shifting, ever so slightly, as the season of gestation and renewal turns toward spring and what David Whyte calls ‘the new life I must call my own'?
Nature teaches me. Again and again I remember my Self in the presence of nature's wholeness. Again and again I return to clarity when I sit or walk in the magnificent beauty of nature. Nature calls me to look more intently. Nature draws me into itself. Nature heals me.
I look inside. I listen. I remember. I am happy to re-discover that ‘the new life I must call my own' continues to include guiding groups to sacred places in nature. I am honored to walk, among those of you who will join me, into canyons and vistas of great majesty, plains of unique beauty, and lands of magic and mystery. And I am more than pleased to announce that registration is now available for two Earth Wisdom Retreats.
I wish you wild blessings and joy in the coming spring, and hope to sit in circle with you soon!
Much Love, Lily
Excerpt from The Winter of Listening, by David Whyte
. . . Inside everyone is a great shout of joy waiting to be born.
Even with summer so far off I feel it grown in me now
and ready to arrive in the world.
All those years listening to those who had nothing to say.
All those years forgetting how everything has its own voice
to make itself heard.
All those years forgetting how easily
you can belong to everything simply by listening.
And the slow difficulty of remembering how everything is born
from an opposite and miraculous otherness.
Silence and winter has led me to that otherness.
So let this winter of listening be enough
for the new life I must call my own . .
