Sing To Me Just Like That: Teachings from the Living World about Resilience, Beauty, and Grief

If I could pocket this mountain for good, I would. My heart lifts every time I see her, ripped white skirts, unkempt hems peeking beneath velvet cloudscapes. It was this land that called me to her seventeen years ago and I have loved every moment of my Cascadian mentorship. Words really drop off here as I try to express what this time, in this place has meant to me. 

Deep bows to the land.

A regenerative burn is moving over me now, clearing everything that I have accumulated and built over these many years, opening the brush so I can better see how I am living/not living according to my core values. The ground of me is feeling more and more empty. I am trying to not resist the heat of this burn, the alchemy of this opportunity. 

Initiatory soul-making is not for the faint of heart but something draws us forward nonetheless, perhaps it is what poet David Whyte calls “that small, bright and indescribable wedge of freedom in our hearts.”

That wedge of freedom knows that after the burn something verdant sprouts from the nutritive ashes. That new growth/new life will be sprouting for my family in a lovely co-housing community on 125 acres of land in Vermont. Yet again the land spirits call me forward.

This is a five part writing series that I have created over the last several months, exploring my sense of loss and the possibility of renewal over leaving my home in the Pacific Northwest. Each element, "Flower," "Forest," "Wind," "Ice," "Flame" is my own creative take on the traditional elements (of earth, fire, water, wood, and metal). They are meant to be read in sequence.

This is what wanted to come forward. As always, thanks for reading!

Photo: Ganapathy Kumar