Engaged Spirituality & Mystic Activism

Heartful Prosperity: Core Practices for Thriving

It seems that everyone is seeking a new relationship with the issues and experience of prosperity and abundance. Our old, habitual patterns have proven out of sync with today's energies, needs, and expanding consciousness.

Over the last year, I noticed this theme arising in a wave of inquiries I was receiving from clients, readers, and Ivy Sea Online visitors. They were all asking: how can I find a new, healthy relationship with prosperity and right livelihood that aligns with my spiritual (or philosophical) values and practices?"

When such a theme becomes evident, I know that Spirit is tapping me on the shoulder with a new assignment!

This seemed fitting, because my own journey has included deep dives into a different, or deepened, understanding of these issues.

After the flurry of inquiries, I decided not just to make this a focus of individual consultations, but to create a PDF guide that would allow a more flexible self-study for those who needed that.

Heartful Prosperity: Core Practices for Thriving, condenses some of the pearls from my own journey, along with some of the wisdom and specific practices I found most helpful ... not just in coming to a new understanding of 'spirit centered prosperity', but for opening to, aligning with, and receiving Divine Guidance and 'more than enoughness' that exists always, within and around us.

You'll find more information about Heartful Prosperity here.

Blessings and joyful thriving!

Jamie

Slow Food? How About 'Slow Business'?

You might have heard the inklings about the fabulous 'Slow Food Movement', pioneered by Carlo Patrini of Italy, whereby the cultivation of appreciation, mindfulness, awareness, and sensuality is suggested as an antidote to the poison of our frenzied, 'fast food' (and fast everything) culture.

In other words, with the Slow Food Movement, you replace 'fast food' and 'eating on the go' with an attention to eating fresh, local food that is prepared at a gentle pace at home and is savored and enjoyed, perhaps, in the company of loved ones. Or, you simply allow the time to cook yourself a fresh, lovely meal and eat it as if it was a meditation. There is also an emphasis on 'shopping and growing local' and Nature-friendly approaches.

The more I read and learned about the Slow Food Movement, the more I realized that it embodied some of the key principles that I have endeavored to explore and share through Ivy Sea, and that I researched and wrote about in Big Vision, Small Business.

The primary difference is that, where Carlos Petrini is talking about 'slow food' and mindful agriculture and eating, I've been talking about 'slow business'.

What would Slow Business look like?

When we hear such a thing, we might immediately associate 'slow' with something negative. This would be an automatic response that comes from an indoctrination in the 'fast is better, bigger is better' culture.

Yet when we think about it, mindfully and heartfully, we know that our frenzied, urgency-worshipping, fast-everything culture is not optimal; in fact, we have plenty of evidence -- perhaps even in our own experience and life -- that 'fast' and 'urgent' are often unnecessary and harmful.

With 'Slow Business', as with Slow Food, we simply become more mindful, more aware, more skillful.

We have a greater sense of why we're doing what we're doing, and that 'why' is linked with heart-centered intuitive guidance about our own purpose, deep values, and 'right livelihood' than the old way of externally defined 'should do, or I won't be successful' thinking.

With 'Slow Business', we emphasize connection, in our actions as well as our vision or mission statements. We embody and demonstrate a true respect or valuing of the opportunity we have to share our gifts, skills, and 'pearls of experience', and to express our vision and purpose through our livelihood.

We extend this respect to all beings: in our way of relating to other people within and outside of our business or organization; in our decision-making, where we reflect on the ripple-effect and consequences of our actions, intending that they be positive and life-affirming.

We seek to explore, embody, and express deep values and the principles of 'holographic business' (read the article in the Transcendent Leadership Portal at Ivy Sea Online; there is a link from the Ivy SeaZine mentioned below).

We approach our work as a master-craftsperson approaches his or her art; we're artisans of business (or livelihood), creating a work of art in and through our organization or business, whether we're a larger group or a one-person enterprise.

In 'Slow Business', we weave a tapestry of positive connection and collaboration, seeing plenty and potential in the opportunities to co-creative with others on behalf of, and for the benefit of, others as well.

With 'Slow Business', as with living with greater mindfulness in all areas of our lives, we have a sense of what's 'enough' for us, so don't go into a frenzy of anxious seeking to acquire more than we actually need for living and expressing our purpose.

'Slow Business' simple means slowing down and visioning and acting from our center of being, our hearts, our 'Divine Essence' (whatever you might choose to call it), and make choices from this center, rather than 'fast business' where you're simply reacting and making hasty choices regardless of their ripple effects or consequences.

With 'Slow Business', you're experiencing joy and plenty and creativity right NOW, versus the frenzied 'always trying to catch up' that is the hallmark of 'fast business' and 'fast life.'

And oddly, though we've been conditioned to fear being 'left behind', we all remember the story of the race between the turtle and the hare, where the turtle's deliberate, steady, mindful pace outruns and outdistances the fast-hopping hare every time.

Slowing down can seem frightening, but that's just old conditioning talking. In reality, a greater mindfulness and awareness yields better choices and far-better outcomes.

And you get to enjoy your life and livelihood along the way, instead of constantly placing that enjoyment 'out there' somewhere in the distant future.

Read the rest of the April 30th Ivy SeaZine, from which this article was excerpted, at Ivy Sea Online.

Sincerely,
Jamie

Chasing Perfection, Missing The Magic That Is Now

What are we really doing, and what are we really robbing ourselves and others of, when we hold an image of 'the ideal', of 'perfection', that time after time real people, circumstances, or even we our selves do not -- and cannot -- meet?

We all do that, or have done that, in various ways. Holding a rigid image of perfection or an ideal, and then projecting that exacting standard out onto the people and situations of our lives, and measuring them one against the other. Of course, the 'real' always fails to meet the unmeetable expectation.

Why? Precisely because it is real.

An imaginary ideal of the perfect mate, or the perfect situation -- the fantasy woman or man, or job, or whatever -- is safe. It seems perfect because it doesn't speak, it requires nothing of you, and your own needs, habits, and rough edges don't bump up against it during the daily course of things. It seems neat and tidy, not messy and status-quo disrupting. It allows us to retreat into the old comfort of known fears and self-protecting habits.

And, in this fantasy that we escape to, we never ask what it took of us -- what it required -- to create the ideal, or to see a person as an ideal mate, or friend, to be the ideal mate or friend, or to see the ideal elsewhere. It just shows up that way, and is untarnished by other real-world influences, including our own 'stuff' and projections and moods.

Of course, there are costs and drawbacks to living with a fantasy of perfection that nothing measures up with. We can't kiss it, hug it, laugh or cry with it, hold or be held by it, make love with it, at least not in a full-sensory flesh-and-blood way. It's always out there, untouchable, and leaving us here and now, in our self-policed isolation and unconscious addiction to the drama of 'not having' and 'not enough'.

And because we never bump up against it, learn from it, laugh and adventure with it, we don't grow or expand in any real way. We stay static, fantasizing about something we can't experience right now and that can't touch us and move us out of our complacency and into what the Poet David Whyte calls the fierce edges of life.

This was the topic of the movie The Stepford Wives (1975, 2004), where criticism, dissatisfaction, and flaw-seeking of the real-world mate and lifestyle led to the creation of a seemingly utopian gated community and the seemingly perfect, albeit mechanical spouses that had been manufactured to conform to some ideal of perfection.

Of course, even in the film, the ideal gated community and the remote-control operated spouses ended up being flawed. And boring. The dark vein of conformity beneath the surface appearance of perfection was more than a little bit frightening. The mechanical mates malfunctioned regularly, and occasionally blew their circuits when their wires got crossed. The carefully engineered Stepford scheme imploded on itself as a result as real life seeped in through the cracks.

In our culture, we have a focus on constantly striving for unobtainable perfection, and, paradoxically and often tragically, an ingrained belief that we're entitled to instant gratification and having our real lives improved by 'virtual reality' without any effort or discomfort or patience required of us. Just take a pill, pop on the virtual-reality headset, or slip into Fantasy Land, and voila -- instant happiness, just not real, and not here and now.

Even in our spiritual or self-mastery practices, our perfectionist programming, ever seeking the elusive ideal, carries us out of our mindful, loving-kind, and compassionate natures, and out of the present moment, to conform with the over-striving, hyper-competitive 'battle' that we've been taught to believe we can actually win, and that fuels itself on fear, anxiety, stress, and discontent.

Many spiritual teachings speak about this, and tell us not to get blindly seduced by and addicted to the worldly and material quests and illusions, lest we find ourselves lost. They tell us that we don't have to find ourselves, because our truest Selves have never been lost … just paved over. They tell us that the Kingdom of Heaven is around us, if we adjust our focus to see it and open our hearts to feel and sense it. That tell us that what we nourish with the fertilizer of our heartful attention expands and grows.

A spiritual mentor recently said, "The opportunity is really about asking, 'Can I love and cherish what's right in front of me -- do I choose to work with and appreciate this wonderful, flowering gift in the present -- or do I distract myself with the illusion that there is something better over my shoulder, the allure of finding better treasure in the next field?'"

She continued, "The restless young soul is at odds with the wisdom wanting to be born in and through us, and with one another."

The Jungian Analyst and Author, Marion Woodman, spoke of our addiction to perfection, and wrote, "... perfectionist standards do not allow for failure. They do not even allow for life..." 

Yet the allure of the fantasy tugs at us. We expect circumstances and other people to conform to its glossy ideal; get frustrated, angry, and even resentful when it and they do not; and then wonder why our dissatisfaction, loneliness, anxiety, and suffering seem to increase.

And in doing so, in seeking Stepford lives, jobs, partners, friends, and even Stepford Selves, we rob ourselves of the beauty, magic, laughter, and love within us, around us, and in the present moment.

In constantly keeping our eyes to the horizon, without ever shortening our glances, we miss the perfection that is right in front of us, and it passes by unappreciated, or unnoticed.

What magic, what beauty, what blessings, and what Love is in your midst right now, awaiting your full-hearted presence and appreciation of it? Are you willing to cherish what's in front of you right now, and work with the beautiful, flowering gift in the present?

Blessings and Beauty on the Way,
Jamie

'Culture of Urgency' is an Empathy Killer

Most of us have heard it, probably more than once. And we've surely felt it, and been caught up in it at some point. Or perhaps we're still caught up.

I remember that, when I first became aware of the 'Culture of Urgency' that I'd been entranced by, I was consulting on several change-management communication projects, to several different large-sized organizations. One was a healthcare system; all had corporate or organizational cultures that emphasized, or perhaps idolized, 'urgency'.

As I conducted a wide variety of conversations with people throughout the organizations, it also became clear that the organizations of 'urgency' had something else in common: a culture with norms of rudeness, curtness, brusqueness, and high levels of stress and problematic communication.

We might also notice this in urban areas, in which a fast-paced culture seems inevitably paired with incidences of 'road rage', rudeness, disconnection, coldness, or observations such as people stepping over persons slumped against buildings, without a so much as a glance.

In San Francisco during the dot-com invasion, longer-term residents of the City noticed that, as the culture was permeated by people flocking in for the 'get rich quick' technology boom, those less-civil observances became more and more the norm. For example, San Francisco was awarded the distinction of having one of the highest levels of pedestrian injuries, because people were more routinely rolling through stop signs or red lights and hitting pedestrians.

These observations, as it turns out, are not unusual. Research by people such as Daniel Goleman, author of the book Emotional Intelligence, indicates a connection between empathy and compassion and our ability to be present enough to choose them. The faster the pace, the more distracted or in a hurry we are, the less we choose our innate capacity to empathize or be compassionate.

Perhaps this is why civilizations, as they became more industrialized, urbanized, automated, and high-tech, may also seem to be, upon study, more brutal or less compassionate. It would be interesting to delve further, but from the information available, it's at the very least a fair question.

Goleman, in a TED talk, emphasizes that all individuals have the capacity for empathy and compassionate. We are innately 'wired' or created to connect with and empathize, and from that sense of connection and empathy choose a compassionate, altruistic action or response. When we do things that help us to slow down, center ourselves, be more present, pay closer attention, we are more likely to act from this innate capacity for connection, empathy, compassion, and loving kindness.

Spiritual traditions have historically emphasized practices such as contemplation, presence, attention, prayer, and meditation. There are some philosophical traditions that have emphasized the same, though in a non-spiritual context.

Each of those helps us to disengage from our culture-induced (and well-ingrained and reinforced) addiction to urgency, to speed, and perhaps the adrenalin addiction that accompanies with it. Practices that help us to slow down also help us to detox, and by doing so, re-engage with our innately 'Divine' qualities, or, as Abraham Lincoln put it, the better angels of our nature.

Given the current state of things, where the costs of our speed addictions and cultural idolatry of 'urgency' are horribly evident, what used to be 'a luxury' or 'a waste of time' -- through the lens of our addiction to urgency -- has now become essential not only to the better angels of our nature, but to the wellbeing of Mother Earth, Gaia, and all of us who are supported by it.

Giving our attention to those practices and ways of being that help us to slow down, and approach our 'doings' in this way, is a great way to allot our energy, time, and attention.

So don't just do something, sit there. Go slowly, and notice.

To listen in and watch Daniel Goleman's TED talk, follow the link.

Blessings,
Jamie

Be the Change: Mind Your Thoughts

There is much talk about 'being the change' we wish to see in the world, as inspired by the sage counsel of Mahatma Gandhi. For most people, 'being the change' means taking action 'out there', which is actually 'doing' the change. And this 'doing' of the change may or may not be in alignment with higher values or spiritual tenets of Love, loving kindness, compassion, and so on.

'Being the change' is an inner process that reflects itself in aligned outward action.

And what change are we intent upon being? The wisdom of sages and ages tells us that 'being Love' is the ultimate of soul's purpose, and all that aligns us with the Love that we are, and releasing the 'not Love' that we are not but have learned that we are, is the wisest of practice. Release what you're not: fear; remember and embody what you are: Love.

One of the greatest 'dropping who you are not' practices is to realize that many of your thought patterns, your habitual reactions and beliefs, are part of the 'not you' -- not really you, not at heart and soul. How do you know what those 'not you' patterns, thought habits, and beliefs are? 

A primary tell-tale sign is through body wisdom - how you feel when you're thinking about, speaking about, or acting from those 'not you' patterns. If you feel anxious, fearful, constricted, harsh, separate tense or tight, it's one indication that there is a 'not you' patterns trying to get your attention so that you can see and release it.

If, on the other hand, you feel expansive, joyful, calm, kind, compassionate, 'inner smiling', connected, and grounded, it may be a good indication that a 'that which you are' pattern or thought response is trying to get your attention ("Pick me!").

Many of us long ago became disconnected with our Feminine nature and natural body wisdom, because we slowly migrated much of our 'doing in the world' away from our 'whole body' and into our heads -- something that is understandable in a culture that values only the intellect, so-called 'logic', and rational, analytical thinking. I know, because I locked away my innately compassionate, visionary, intuitive nature in favor of developing and living from my analytical nature because it's what was celebrated and valued in my American, 20th Century culture. While those are handy traits available to us, living only from them creates horrible imbalances that we see in our own lives and in the world.

By noticing when you're in judgment, nonconstructive criticism, scarcity based 'win-lose' (I gotta get mine or I'll get none) thinking, or fear (If I don't do this, something horrible will happen), you can notice the unbalanced Voice of Culture getting your attention so that you can choose differently.

Choose. It's a choice. And in order to make the choice, day by day, moment by moment, we have to be aware that there is a pattern that does not serve us, and does not serve the wellbeing of humanity or the planet.

Change your thoughts and you change the world. Notice, moment by moment, and choose, choice by choice, Love rather than fear, and you will be the change you wish to see in the world.

How can you tell?

Often, I'll hear from people who are at a loss as to which option to say 'yes' to, and which to decline. These are individuals who have a deep yearning for a way of being and doing and living that feels more heart-centered and soul-aligned.

All of us, at some point or another -- and perhaps more often than that -- feel separated from our inner-guidance, or guiding star. And even if we feel as if we 'know the answer', spiritual practice has made us aware that sometimes our 'knowledge' is itself disconnected -- an inheritance from a culture in which too long the intellect has presided without connection to body, spirit, soul, or wisdom.

So if we can't trust our 'old knowing' -- that habitual pattern of judging and deciding -- how can we know which choice, which direction, which action or inaction is right for us?

Early in the year, I came across a quote from the Sufi poet and mystic, Hafiz. It has, in the days and weeks since, proved a reliable guide and practice for discerning the path or option that is in alignment with my heart and wisdom, versus that of 'old mind'.

"What is real, what is unreal? That which turns up the corners of your mouth, trust that. ~ Hafiz

That which turns up the corners of your mouth, trust that. Nothing else -- whether we have been taught to perceive it as 'real' or as 'unreal' -- can be truly reliable without a confirming sense from our own intuition and wisdom, which often uses our bodies to signal.

If the corners of our mouths are truly and spontaneously 'turning up', and if we practice following this spontaneous response into our bodies and feel it deeply, we'll feel that the 'smile' reaches outward from our core, our hearts, and it feels that every cell in our body is smiling. And thus the corners of our mouths turn up.

This 'turning up', this smiling inwardly and outwardly, may feel gentle, passionate, energetic, or quiet, but at its source, there is joy.

Lots of love,
Jamie

Jamie Walters is the founder of Ivy Sea and the author of, among other things, Big Vision, Small Business, the critically acclaimed conscious-enterprise and spirit-centered right-livelihood guide published by Berrett-Koehler. She is a respected horizon-walker and guide for humane business, right livelihood, and engaged or embodied spirituality -- including the embodiment and expression of the Divine Feminine, and a 'reconnection' to your Divine Spark.

Learn more about Jamie and Ivy Sea at Ivy Sea Online.

Stillness

In contemporary times, the pace of daily life is frenetic, magnified by constant 'doing' and never-ending influx of noise from cars, televisions, radios, iPods, cell phones, and the various other machines that are part of our lives. This 'noise' doesn't just make its way into our hearing, but also our sensing and feeling -- 'noise' is vibration.

As bodies and souls show the increasing fatigue of perpetual motion, noise, and agitation -- with increased rates of illness, depression, fatigue, and so on -- many people feel a deep, unheard and unanswered yearning for quiet, ease, grace, and joy; they feel a deep need to slow down and soothe battered nervous systems.

Stillness is the only pathway to what we seek, both in terms of what our bodies, minds and souls crave, and also the creative perceptions and approaches needed to resolve modern-day problems that threaten to overwhelm us. Stillness is the doorway.

Yet for many, the ability to settle into stillness seems impossible, so acclimated are they to constant sensory stimulation and mental chatter, and so out-of-touch with the age-old Wisdom and practice of how to find the harmony and restful oasis that is always at our center. To restore our familiarity with the pathway to stillness becomes a discipline requiring daily practice, and though one can feel the benefit almost instantly, it is not a case of instant gratification or 'quick pill' to stillness.

For the first time in many years, I find myself in New York at the Winter Solstice, and for the first snows of the season. In San Francisco, where I've lived for many years, the incoming familiarity of thick fog brings with it a quietness and a sense of stillness.

Here in New York, the snow brings a similar and even deeper stillness. Watching it fall gently and almost silently -- it does make sound for those who listen carefully -- becomes a meditation in and of itself, quieting and slowing and soothing the system, and clearing the way for connection with Higher Guidance and the soul's voice.

When the snow falls heavily, even those who most resist slowing down must bow to Nature or pay more immediate consequences. The roads become slick, and drivers must become more mindful and cautious; visibility decreases, so one's field of vision becomes by necessity shortened. Upon arriving to one's destination, one is more grateful for having arrived safely.

And in the New York Winter, one's body acclimates more readily to circadian rhythms, our bodies and minds moving with the arriving or receding light into wakefulness or a drawing inward. We want to slow down; we want to go inward, though this inclination often collides with and deeply challenges our programmed addiction to stimulation.

A spiritual mentor and wise woman I interviewed for a Feminine Wisdom project I'm researching said to me, "I've learned that if I don't make room for stillness, it will come looking for me."

Many of us have experienced this: We ignore the voice of our soul calling us inward, inviting us to slow down and get still and listen, and we find ourselves ill, or clumsily injuring ourselves, and stillness finds us.

Of course, many of us protest, citing the necessity of our very busy, frenzied lives. Yet even in the speaking of it, we know it's not true. We know that it's our 'busyddiction' talking, and what's really showing itself is a lack of discernment, of mindfulness, and of real freedom from the voices of culture. We could clear the clutter, prune the to-do's, slow down and get more still. But we have to break our addictions to speed, stuff, stimulation, and gadgets, and own up to our responsibility for our wellness and the quality of our lives first.

Ultimately, as has been the case for millennia, it is in and through stillness that we find Wisdom and a calm center from which to more mindfully, joyfully, and skillfully move along with the comings and goings, doings and beings of our lives. In stillness, a new wealth and richness becomes apparent in our lives. We hear our own song, and sense the songs of others, attuning to One great song.

In Joy,
Jamie

* For additional musings on Stillness, read my blog entry and review of Into Great Silence, the wonderful documentary.

Making Silk Purses From Sow's Ears

Earlier this week, one of my anam cara (soul friends) and I were enjoying a telephone catch-up, as we often do, and Carmina said, "Well, Jamie, if anyone can make a silk purse from a sow's ear, it's you." We both had a good laugh over that one.

I appreciated the good-humored reminder, though, that it's a practice -- a form of 'engaged spirituality', perhaps -- to look for the silk purse in the sow's ear, or to be open to the alchemy that transforms something that is seemingly tough or undesirable into something fine, meaningful, and rewarding.

As the proverbial wisdom goes, we don't always (or even often) have a choice in some of the circumstances and events that come into our experience, but we can choose what we ultimately make of them.

Wishing you a magical day of finding silk purses.

With Joy,
Jamie

p.s. - For those of you who enjoyed knowing the derivation of such sayings -- like 'making a silk purse from a sow's ear' -- the phrase 'sow's ear' derived from the French word, sousier, which meant 'purse', and for peasants, a sousier would be made of rough, humble cloth, made with what was available to serve a practical purpose. Combining (or finding) beauty in something 'practical' is a worthy art!

Into Great Silence

At the suggestion of a spiritual mentor, I placed an advance-order for the U.S. release of the DVD of Into Great Silence, a stunning and affecting documentary Philip Groning, about a Carthusian Grande Chartreuse monastery located in the French Alps. It's an amazing film, and a revealing experience.

According to the summary provided by Zeitgeist FIlms, it was Groning's intention to 'embody a monastery, rather than simply depict one' and to provide viewers with a 'total immersion into the hush of monastic life'. The film succeeds fantastically on both accounts.

The film's 'soundtrack' features only the sounds of Nature, the weather, the chanting of the monks, and the sounds of a more hushed, slowed daily life. Only on rare occasions is conversation heard, and rarely if ever -- based on the film -- do the sounds of modern technology intrude.

To allow filming with minimal disruption, filmmaker Groning was invited to do the documentary without a crew and using only the natural lightning and candle light of the monastery, which ends up being its own special effect.

While watching the film, which is 160 minutes or so long (and worth every second), I noticed first a curiosity that only increased. What sort of person is not only drawn to, but also suited for, this life of utter simplicity, mindfulness, and silence?

What sort of person is of a constitution where deep listening, stillness, and sensing the Presence of God is of greater allure than all of the modern temptations, or even just the genuine pleasure of connecting through a dialogue with other people?

I watched with heart-felt interest in learning more about this unusual group of men. And as I watched, I noticed another sensation rising into my awareness -- my own impatience and preference for motion.

I noticed how much I genuinely resist stillness, not only because I tend to be kinesthetic -- where movement helps one think and can be meditation in and of itself -- but because the Presence that seeks me can often be found most abundantly and clearly in stillness. We often resist what we're most called to, particularly when it runs so counter the way of the dominant culture.

And I also noticed that, as I stayed with it, despite my inclination to fidget, to move about, I found myself feeling increasingly still within, seduced by the Presence found only through that sort of stillness, listening, and mindfulness.

The effects of immersing through the documentary into a Carthusian silence and simplicity stayed with me -- indeed, grew -- well after the film ended. It offered a powerful reminder of the vital and essential nature of stillness, simplicity, and devotion for the wellbeing of mind, body, and soul, and just how much most of us have become separated from that, with often unhealthy or even tragic consequences.

Along with many others, I highly recommend Into Great Silence, both as a genuinely beautiful documentary and as a meditation and prayer in itself.

Learn more about Into Great Silence at Zeitgeist Films.

Love,
Jamie

Healing Nature

It has been an intense Venus Retrograde timeframe for me, with some very major completions, closures, and releases over a six week period.

Even when completions and closures are natural, even when they're in our highest good, and even when they're graceful, if we've opened ourselves and invested ourselves and been present to the person or place or experience at all, their passing will be painful, and will leave us raw even as they may leave us richer to continue on our Way.

I delayed my return from New York to San Francisco for another week, for once heeding my inner-Wisdom that I needed a bit more time of healing and nurturing before heading back home.

And then I found my way to a wonderful riverside trail, where the ever-flowing waters, the tall oak and maple trees, the lush and verdant ground-cover, and the creatures that live within that ecosystem reminded me of the continuity, gracefulness, and healing power of Nature. I walked and prayed and listened and watched for responses all around me.

During two walks, several powerful animal totems made attention-getting appearances to give me their 'medicine' and Wisdom. Hawk, groundhog, frog, chipmunk, butterfly, grasshopper, and crane were the voices of Spirit responding to the questions and requests that I prayed.

The trees spoke as well. After I'd veered off on one path and right at that moment, a large, dead branch fell from its place high on a tall Maple tree in the woods to my left, just 15 feet away. The message? In Nature, that whose time has come is released. And I twigs in a particular shape continued to beckon for my attention, until I recognized the shape as a Rune sign -- this one a sign of protection.

When we remember our practice, and remember to blend prayer, inquiry, presence, and time in Nature, we open ourselves not just to powerful and empowering healing -- and a strengthened connection to our own healing natures -- but also to Wisdom and inspiration that will guide us on our path and over any perceived obstacles along the way.

With love and blessings,
Jamie