Gazelle on Speed

I sat down in our meditation room.  I set my intention to meet new friends and/or to gather new information.  I closed my eyes and let my mind drift to fogginess.

Quickly and silently, I was transported to a place of heat and dust.  I glanced around.  I was in a desert like place.  I wondered who had called me to this place.  I heard a noise – like galloping of small horses.

I looked around and saw the Gazelle and knew she was a Spirit Animal.  She called out as she ran past, “I called you here to show you what I know about speed.  I hear humans talk about speed as a state of elation.  Speed is a tool.  For all animals, the faster you move, the easier it is to avoid being someone else’s meal.  Or, conversely, the faster that you move, the easier it is to have food.

The humans who use speed are not using a tool that helps them to hunt or to avoid being hunted.  These humans on speed actually paralyze themselves and allow themselves to die.  It is amusing, to us wild things, that humans call speed a trip to the wild side when really it is a trip to paralysis.  The product that you use has an irony in the name for although it seems to speed things up in the body, really, it is simply speeding up things to a place of death.  We wild things think it should be called “Stop”.

We tell you that speed matters whether you are running, flying or swimming.  Think about what I have said the next time that you hear the word, “Speed”.

Blessings,

Judy

March 1 2024 Signals Spring

A sleeping world emerges to new possibilities

Weakening winter's icy grip 
And birdsong and bleating lamb
Announce to all the promise
That in due season
Creation bursts into life.
And whilst leaves that fell in winter
Lie upon the ground
Soon to feed the earth
In nature's wondrous cycle
Of death and rebirth
Within the tree is a stirring of new growth
-Author unknown

Yes, the onset of March  and the promise of Spring.  Longer days, warmer sun, and the thoughts of birthing and planting.   This is what occupied the minds of our Ancestors.   Every spring equinox, they honored the Sun for returning after its '’sleep”.  How will you bring in Spring this year? 

Blessings, 

Judy

About Death

Picture from a site called Legacy.com.  

Earlier this year, my mother-in-law passed away and then I found this beautiful poem that describes how death looks....Right now the world is looking at death almost daily and it seems that this poem fits for that as well.....

DEATH IS NOTHING

Death is nothing at all, 
I have only slipped away into the next room. 
Whatever we were to each, that we are still. 
Call me by my old familiar name. 
Speak to me in the easy way which you always used. 
Laugh as we always laughed 
at the little jokes we enjoyed together. 
Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me. 
Let my name be the household word it always was. 
Let it be spoken without effort. 
Life means all that it ever meant. 
It is the same as it ever was; 
there is absolutely unbroken continuity. 
Why should I be out of your mind 
because I am out of your sight? 
I am but waiting for you, for an interval, 
somewhere very near just around the corner... 
All is well. Nothing is past, nothing is lost. 
One brief moment and all will be as it was before, 
only better, infinitely happier 
and forever we will be one together.  

~~~Henry Scott Holland (1847-1918)~~~~

May all in your life be gentle!

Blessings,

Judy

Horse’s World Compared To Ours

One of the universal symbols of freedom is the horse.  It has strength, speed, intelligence, and a nobility that touches peoples’ hearts. Some of the best stories and legends are about horses.

When I saw this picture, I quickly went to a place of wondering what this Earth would look like if Horse was in the place of dominance that Man is currently in.

Would Horse have let the planet get to the state that we are in now?

I believe that under Horse rule, the following would never have occurred:

• fast food – they have grass and dried grass 
• cars – in fact, I don’t think they would have even invented the wheel 
• shopping malls 
• open pit mining 
• gas and oil drilling and spills and the death of many water creatures 
• logging 
• urban development and sprawls 
• tobacco/cigarettes and cigars 
• paint 

I am sure there is a whole list of things to be added here.  Go ahead and suggest things to add to the list.  I will update this blog later with all your ideas.

Blessings,

Judy

Living in Balance

 

One of the hardest things about living is that with all the good and enjoying life, every once in a while, we come face to face with death.  Death of a loved one, other family member, or friend.  For all the living that we did with them, now the time has come where life is no longer.

Most of us push back at the unfairness and bad timing that we feel when a person close to us dies.  We have to make arrangements to go to the funeral.  We may have to make travel arrangements.  We may have to leave our home which is our safe place or sanctuary.

Death seems disruptive and blows up the balance that we have been living in.  Yet Death is part of Nature.  It brings peace to those moving on.  If the person was ill and suffering before death, then Death brings some peace to the family.  

This week is about changes and with Death comes many changes.  May you all find ways to deal with the imbalance.

Blessings,

Judy

Healing Grief - A Process That is Different For Each Of Us

 

                                               - Picture by Judy Hirst along Highway 40 

 Generally, we associate grief with the death of a loved person or pet.  For some reason, and it is different for each of us, we feel angry that the person/pet had to die at this time.  At some point, many of us are angry at God for allowing the disease or illness or even age to take the object of our grief.  And with our grief, we internalize it, until, one day, it simply needs to come out.  The release happens by way of tears.

I was at a funeral recently where this poem was in the program, and I found that these words helped me heal some grief that I felt.  For some reason, thinking that the person would become an active part of nature gave me solace. Our Ancestors have known this for centuries.

NATIVE AMERICAN PRAYER

I give you this one thought to keep --I am with you still – I do not sleep.

I am a thousand winds that blow,I am the diamond glints on snow,

I am the sunlight on ripened grain, I am the gentle autumn rain.

When you awaken in the morning’s hush, I am the swift, uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.

I am the soft stars that shine at night. Do not think of me as gone – I am with you still – in each new dawn.
——Author Unknown

Sometimes, we just need to sit in a quiet place and let the grief come out of us.  What if, however, the grief is for a different reason than loss of life?  What if it is a personal grief over the loss of a job, or lover or whatever?  Grief is a mental or mind activity.  In the book, “The Buddha and The Way To Happiness” by Tien Cong Tran, Ph.D., one finds the Buddhist definition for grief on Page 44.  It reads, “GRIEF: “And what, bhikkhus, is grief? Whatever mental painful feeling, mental unpleasant feeling, painful or unpleasant sensation results from mental contact, – that is called grief.””

The meaning of this passage, seems to me to say that grief is what we make it.  The opposite than is that we can unmake grief. While that may be true, it is very much an individual action.  Just as each of us will heal a cut on our body in different ways and times, each of us will heal our grief differently.

I know that I am still grieving – it just does not hurt quite so much. 

Blessings,

Judy