Golden Threads

The depth and vastness of the Great Mother’s love shows up in many forms, as the glorious springtime bounty, raging rivers, majestic mountains, earthquakes, landslides, and forest fires. Being in the joy of springtime, it is easy to wonder how all is not right in the world.

Yet, when the floods, fires or earthquakes destroy homes, humans grieve the loss of what was always impermanent. Some shake their fist at the sky. We often fail to recognize nature’s way, the natural cycle of death and rebirth that fire, flood, and earthquakes bring.

Read More

Sacred places hold a deeply rooted energy that transcends time. Old houses, places of worship, ceremony, or memorial, (abandoned or in use) are sacred.

Stone houses that shelter generations, where babies are birthed, elders die, meals are celebrated, and sorrows shared are proof of our existence and consecrate a place. Homes are human sanctuaries and refuge from a harsh world. Evidence of life lived with the land, with presence—an old water pump, remnants of a garden with a rusty gate, a grave marker—feel holy. Even when the evidence no longer remains, there seems to be a vibration remaining.

Read More

A Message from Love:

Light coming in, light pouring out

No more war inside yourselves

No more war among you

Read More

Golden Threads features poetry from guest blogger, Kayla Sweet. Kayla is a student, writer, visual artist, and mental health professional living in Northern Indiana. Kayla’s undergraduate studies included psychology and fine arts. Currently, she is pursuing graduate education in consciousness and transformative studies. Kayla is interested in healing, sustainability, social change, and transformational leadership.

Read More

In the current crisis of global proportion, we are portaging only what is essential and still useful from the old paradigm through this liminal space to a new body of uncharted waters that is not yet visible. Many of the layered portages that lead to ancient wisdom have been abandoned or dismembered as a result of the industrial age.

In the context of our own fragmentation, the demands of modern culture have disabled our vision and memory of these openings into the natural world. However, finding one opening into nature inevitably leads us to another threshold. Once we connect with our longing, perhaps we enter a park, garden, or atrium, we pass through the doorways of remembering and rediscovering our relationship with Mother Nature and ourselves. These linking portages lead us to subliminal, remote, mystical landscapes--a beach, mountain, or river--offering respite from the chaos and commotion of modern existence. Some of these passageways are difficult places to traverse, particularly emotionally, as we come into knowing our own part in the desecration of the planet.

Read More

Finding our way into a deeper relationship with nature may become more localized and regular, daily even, given our circumstances. The inherent desire that we all feel to be among trees, water, and sky is growing louder than the distractions of modern life, particularly in an environment that may be quieter and slower since we have been ordered to or chosen to stay-at-home.

Despite the enormous gap between modern people and the natural world, exacerbated by our generalized lack of participation, Mother Earth offers up the possibility of continuously experiencing sacredness. Her hand is open to us at all moments. However, it is not until we open our hearts, minds, and bodies to her holding us that we feel buoyant in her care.

Read More

I know I am present when I see my child’s joy, and I feel the warmth in my chest. I know I am here, in my body, when I find stillness before my next step feeling the approach of the hummingbird. He buzzes and hovers behind me before he sips from the daffodil in the garden. I feel comfort in this exchange.

In the morning, from the kitchen I hear the familiar ringing of a spoon circling the bottom of a coffee cup, stirring in the cream. This is the sound of love, commitment, and ritual of the coffee my husband brings to me in bed each morning. I hear those morning bells, I feel connected to the day.

Read More

So much of American culture demands that we achieve, succeed, and meet the next bar held out in front of us. We have forgotten who we are and why we are here. Taking an honest look at our inner landscape, finding spaciousness to really reflect on our feelings and needs can be the most vulnerable thing we do. It is hard to sit with ourselves when we might feel pain or are uncertain of what lurks in the deep hidden pockets of our consciousness.

Read More

Currently, the political divide illuminated by the non-cohesive leadership and mixed messages in the media played out like a game of telephone among family, friends, and colleagues starkly reveals a deeply fractured American culture. With a focus on solutions that are both projected outside of ourselves and disconnected from our basic human needs, we seek absolutes from elected leaders who are unwilling to say they do not know what the future holds.

Read More

What we do next matters. The vantage point from which we can hold both our current divisions and our need to connect is quite possibly a panoramic view we have not yet stepped back far enough to fully see. Our perspective for now is a moving target that keeps changing, rapidly, as the pandemic imposes itself and elected and natural leaders offer guidance, instructions, and sometimes mandates. Perhaps it will be the forced behavioral restrictions that catalyze our creative nature so that we might settle back into our most basic human needs and our connection to the Earth adding significant momentum to the necessary cultural shift to change the course of what we do next. 

Read More

This viral pandemic has many of us beside ourselves with what to do with our time. The slower pace or screeching halt has jolted us from our desk chairs, driver seats, and rat-race run. Our lists are shorter, scattered, or do not matter. The world around us has gone quiet and still. The hierarchies that structured our systems a month or so ago now offer false comfort and rules that no longer make sense. In the midst of a world of chaos, we are also beginning to hear whispers, calling us back into our own remembering.

Read More