Well, we’re almost at the end of another year; they seem to fly by these days or is that just me! I always like to use this season to reflect on the year and to send blessings of gratitude to everyone and everything that I shared it with, both the good and the bad, for there are lessons to be learned from each and we should be grateful for them.
Most of you will know by now that I love spending time in nature and I always include Mother Nature in my thoughts of gratitude as well as all of my family and friends, we are all children of nature after all. Giving thanks for the beauty, peace of heart and mind, the abundance of food and creatures she blesses my life with is an important part of my seasonal rituals, especially whilst gazing at the night sky, which at this time of year seems so clear and close that I could almost reach out and touch the stars.
Gratitude is no about just saying thanks for turning up, it’s much more than that; sending positive vibrations out into the universe with as much power and gusto as you can manage, doing it from your heart and soul. Hugging someone dear to you and telling them that you love them and are blessed to have them in your life and asking those you may have hurt for forgiveness, that’s gratitude. There is no half measures with Mother Nature and there is no half measures when it comes to gratitude, you have to give it your all to be heard and understood.
Meister Eckhart said, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice,” but think how much more sincere that prayer would be if you shouted it out to Mother Nature herself!
So it only remains for me to send out a loud shout of gratitude to You, the readers of my little life muses; to Debra for putting up with me for three wonderful months in her home earlier this year and for allowing me to share my thoughts in her newsletter. I could go on and on but here is not the place to do so, but if you stand outside one clear moonlit night you may not only see Father Christmas on his sleigh, you might hear my shouts of gratitude echoing around the universe.
Have a very Merry Christmas everyone and I’ll see you in the New Year – Thank YOU!
Happy Holidays and Blessings to you for the New Year! I am looking forward with anticipation to the changes 2011 are bringing. Steve Tallamy and I have decided to co-author a book together. I have been working on my book for some time, yet it was missing an element I could not put my finger on. My “Ah Ha” moment came while reading the “The Ringing Cedar Book Series.“ These books are power packed with information that you will not find just anywhere! Steve Tallamy has a love and respect for Mother Nature that is all consuming, in a kind and loving way. As my writing is of a spiritual nature, I knew the book needed to include Steve’s insights into the lessons nature holds for us. Co-creating is fun as well!
I would like to thank Steve for the articles he writes each month for Living in Courage. Steve will be contributing to my Living in Courage Newsletter, and also shares a daily quote Monday through Friday on my fan page on Facebook for Living in Courage. Here is Steve’s December article and a photo of his garden in Poole, England.
A Lesson To Be Learned From Nature
Well, it happened again; Mother Nature sprinkled Poole, where I live, with a couple of inches of snow and the town came to a grinding halt. Side roads were virtually impassable, schools were shut and transport system (I use the word loosely) disrupted. It happens at least two or three times every year, but we never seem to be prepared for what some other regions of the world wouldn’t blink an eye at. But I’m not here to talk to you about the deficiencies of my local council, (although if you’ve got an hour or so to spare then give me a call) I’m going to tell you about what I noticed whilst cocooned in my flat I watched the chaos outside my window.
The birds seemed to carry on as usual; the shrubs continued to bare their berries and looked even more striking with a dusting of the white stuff, shoots searching the light managed to break through the snowy crust that was my garden border and even the insects managed to scuttle around leaving their intricate tracks to show they were still at work. Nature did not shut down, it continued on its cycle of life as if nothing had happened, despite the cold blanket covering the ground, it continued to do the only thing it knows how to do … survive and grow.
The whole scene seemed to put modern man into perspective, always wanting to have power and control over everything it touches, yet reduced to the role of a meek slave to Mother Nature’s elements. As a race we tend to forget our real roles whilst here on planet Earth and I think there is a lesson to be learned from the way nature focuses in on itself and just gets on with doing what it knows it was designed to do, always giving its best effort no matter what the conditions, but maybe that would be better told in a book, who knows!
I would like to end by wishing every one of you a very happy, safe and healthy Christmas and a very special 2011. As you will probably know by now, Debra and I are working together on a book and I will also be contributing to her Living In Courage newsletter so I know that my new year will be very special indeed, so Thank You Debra for inviting me to be a part of your life and wonderful new adventure.
As I sat at the beach recently contemplating life, growth and the New Year, a tree seemed to whisper my name. This beautiful tree that I sat before was sharing it’s wisdom about remaining rooted to the center of our core, as it remains rooted to the earth, connected to Mother Earth, to source, just as we are.
The branches that are rising up from the earth are bare, twisted and gnarled. There is a feeling of this intense journey that it has been through, as we have been through in our lives. Rising above are these beautiful branches, full of growth. Leaves and flowers reach out north, east, west and south to the light, enjoying the sun, moon and stars. . Swaying with the wind and breeze, withstanding any challenge with dignity, grace and peace. This tree just continues to flourish, growing in different directions following the natural path of it’s life, direction and source.
I feel this is a wise illustration of how we can live our lives in courage and joy, in a most natural organic way. After all Mother Nature is our “Master Tutor!” Freely providing her gifts and secrets for anyone seeking her wisdom and love. I am grateful, very grateful for all Mother Earth has to offer.
Here is October’s monthly post by Steve Tallamy. Happy Birthday to you this month Steve! No better way to celebrate the beginning of fall than with a birthday. Steve has been such a source of inspiration for me over the years. I am grateful to be his friend.
Autumn Regeneration
I love the month of October, to me it is the month of regeneration, a time for renewal after the heady days of summer. It also heralds the arrival of autumn here in the northern hemisphere which gives me a good reason to go into the garden and really get in touch with Nature (not that I need a good reason to get my hands dirty).
This time of year the earth is still warm and with the autumn rain it is damp enough to regenerate those plants that have yielded of their best throughout the flowering season. Many perennials can now be dug up and divided; giving the opportunity to take away the dead and decaying parts and to replant the young fresh new growth which is already developing.
By doing this you not only increase the plants winter survival rate but you get a lot of new plants for free, each with the soul of the original Mother plant living inside them to share with family, friends and neighbors. What better way of giving and sharing your love of Nature could there be?
Another reason for me loving October is that it is my Birthday! But I don’t look upon it as a celebration of my birth some 58 years ago: I look at it as a time of regeneration, just like it is for the perennials in my garden. I can chop out the dead and unwanted habits, thoughts and beliefs and give the new knowledge and consciousness I have gained over the past months a chance to grow and expand. To me the best thing of all is that it gives me the chance to share all of this with my family, friends and neighbors, like giving them a new plant I can give them a new and stronger me, I can share my expanded self, my ever growing love for Nature and Mankind with everyone in my life..
If more people took some timeout to regenerate themselves (and it doesn’t have to be in October or on your Birthday, any time will do, but the sooner the better), this wonderful planet we all share will soon become the place that in our hearts we all truly desire it to be. Why not give me the best Birthday present I could wish for and pop into your own garden of life and do a little regeneration. Not only will you make me happy, you will be giving your own survival chances a big boost and those of your loved ones and Mother Earth too.
The theme of Debra’s Newsletter this month is Friendship and whilst reading it I was reminded of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s line from his poem ‘Youth and Age’ that, “Friendship is a sheltering tree.” That makes me feel a warm glow growing inside of me, the same glow I feel when I am amongst my true friends.
The other friendship that gives me that feeling of warmth is my connection with Nature, a simple connection that helps to keep my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds. It helps to remind me that I am a cog in the machinery life and of the whole grand scheme of things, so I need to be in sync with Nature to enable me to do my share of the work in taking care of the World I live in not just for myself but for everyone else and of course for future generations to love and enjoy too.
Whilst out walking the other day I watched a young family enjoying the countryside; taking for free what Mother Nature had provided for them, foraging for blackberries, elder berries, wild garlic and hazel nuts. The kids were having so much enjoyment and were amazed and thrilled at what their parents were showing them. I wished them all to “have a lovely day,” to which the young girl replied “Oh we will, isn’t Nature wonderful!” A tear came to my eye as I walked away thinking to myself that if more parents did things like that with their kids I could rest assured that our World was in safe hands.
That little girl had found a friendship, a friendship that will live in her heart forever. I can’t think of a better way of introducing kids to Nature than by taking them out into it, whether it be the back garden, a local park, the woods or even the seashore and letting them see it, feel it, hear it and taste it (under supervision of course) for themselves. Give them the freedom and opportunity to make a lifelong friendship with Nature; you could just be saving the World!
My friend Steve Tallamy is a guest writer here at Living in Courage. Steve has written “The Neglected Garden” from the heart. Steve is a nature lover who is very connected to Mother Earth, and her beautiful kingdoms. I look forward to sharing his articles once a month, which are sure to be filled with wisdom, humor and guidance. Visit Steve at http://stevetallamy.com/
We have all seen that piece of wasteland in our neighbourhood that the developers get their hands on to turn into luxury flats that no one in that area could possibly afford to buy. Or we have taken over a new home where the once beautiful garden has long been neglected. The first thing we or the developers do is to bring in the troops to dig, burn and spray to indiscriminately clear the land of everything that once grew there. Come the spring the land is barren, no colour, no scent, no shape or form. Except if you look close enough the shoots of those deep rooted tough old thorny brambles and thistles. These hardy plants (they are plants, not weeds) survive and will flourish again, multiplying year upon year. Even if we build our new homes or construct new gardens on top them they will eventually push their way through in their desire to live.
These words came to me not when building a new home or giving my garden a makeover. They came with a brand new awakening from inside of me. For years I have been on the path of finding the real me, to make a better life for myself, a life of happiness and love with a good chunk of financial stability thrown in. After beginning my new program of healing, things are become clearer day by day, slowly but surely, bit by bit, I am learning more and more about myself. Now, I see my former self as that neglected garden, the troops as the many so called Guru’s I have listened to and believed; the digging, burning and spraying are all of the self-development books and videos I have read and watched. I turned myself into the barren landscape of no colour, scent, shape or form, having stripped myself not only of the unwanted plants but the ones I needed to keep but didn’t recognize. Of course the brambles and thistles of my deep rooted fears now had plenty of room to flourish; choking me with even more self-doubt than ever before and without any shape or form to build upon, my soul became a neglected wasteland again.
The lesson we can all take from this is to look at our gardens before stripping them bare, seek out the beauty, the shapes and forms of our lives that we love and enjoy. Do this before we clear away the brambles and thistles, nurture the roses and fruit bearing trees and come springtime there will be a balance in our garden and more harmony in our lives. But never forget to prune and feed it from time to time or the wasteland will return stronger and more powerful than ever before. Having a love and respect for Nature is having a love and respect for yourself, for you and Nature are one.
Happy Memorial Weekend everyone. My amazing friend Nicole McKinney shared this post on her blog BCAD Group. I would like to share it with you as a source of inspiration and direction. Ellen has gained a great deal of wisdom on life’s journey. I find she shares this wisdom honestly with the graduating students of Tulane University in New Orleans.
I thought I would change the tone and theme of my post today and provide some humor as well as some inspiration. We all know Ellen Degeneres. I find her so funny. For those of you who do not know, Tulane University is located in New Orleans. As of today there are many who are suffering the ravages years later from Hurricane Katrina. A city with so much history and vibrant with culture….almost drown at the hands of mother nature. As this brave city shows its resilience, this speech from Ellen reminds each of us to be who we are. The power of believing in yourself will be the milestone that allows each one of us to make our most profound contribution. I came across this post from a daily feed called Splendora. Gina Pell, the founder of this trend zine as I like to call it, always finds such interesting things to cover on her weekly radar! Enjoy — I sure did.
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