Finding my medicine
During the last night of a recent camping trip with my wife and daughter I abandoned my tent, electing to sleep with the stars and the moon. The mountain air gently stirred up sensual scents of sap, rich dirt, and the waning spring blooms of the Sonoran desert below. Gratitude filled my heart and a deep reverence guided me to feel what a privilege it is to experience such peace, calm and harmony in a moment. I woke up the next morning at 4:30a to the birds singing a new day to life. Even my groggy morning brain knew that what it was witnessing was a miraculous birth. When the birds wake up the world doesn’t have its color yet--just blacks and grays and the promise of more colors hiding in their all encompassing spectrum. It is the birds’ song that calls the color into the day which in turn cues the bugs to start buzzing about and the flowers to open. What a blessed way to start the day, witnessing its unique creation cued into being by the vibrations of the bird nation!
A few weeks back I watched thunderstorms form in the mountains above Bozeman, Montana. The mountains out there in Big Sky country have such powerful breath. Their exhales release snowmelt scented sweet by the trees and loaded with minerals for all the plants and animals. Breaths that sweep past with a raw power that erases any doubt living in me that the water cycle is broken, or that the Earth is doomed. And the stars? Well, I don’t have words for the stars yet. I may never. I keep hoping they’ll come but they can’t help but zoom away at the speed of light trying to catch a taste of that star magic!
After over 10 years of practice and study in the healing arts I am still amazed at what those sights and smells evoke in me. I hope that feeling stays forever. Feeling amazement means there is magic present in a moment. When listening to and courting the magic of the earth we can jumpstart a healing process within us. Nature heals as a natural expression of itself. Our very human challenge is to slow down and humble ourselves enough to listen and be present with the healing. Easier said than done! Here’s how the process usually works for me. I begin with a deep, primal awakening of the senses. My breath shifts, my physical activity increases, my sense of connection to all things grows exponentially, my nervous system resets. When I fully immerse, when I elect to sleep under the stars, a longing emerges from my depths that unlocks the vulnerable places inside of myself that haven’t been touched for years or decades. Being in the woods is one of the safest places for me to feel the discomfort of the healing process. Nature is the sacred container for the ceremony of life. The set and setting is the context that you are bringing with you on the trip.
My set and setting have changed significantly in the past few months. As I have attuned to my new chosen path and vocation I have made some important discoveries. Namely that my identity was so necessarily wrapped up in the concepts of ‘career’ and ‘industry’ that what I thought I was going to do hasn’t really matched up with where I am being led. I thought I was just going to get a website going and smash out blogs and a podcast and monetize it and create a funnel for coaching and and and do do do! But it turns out that I was spinning some pretty nice looking illusion of what my life would be like so that I could feel safe. My training as a healer who works with Earth Medicine has taught me to peer beyond illusion out to where my dharma path runs. In doing so I am relearning how to walk with the medicine I have been gathering together all these years.
You see, my placement atop the mountains and amidst the plants and animals of this world are no coincidence, nor are they simply 'vacation'. I listen deeply with my whole self to go where and when I am needed. I quest to the places where the ancient earth medicines still can be found, where if you ask in the right way the plants will sing you a song and the trees will take away your heaviness without you even needing to ask. When you sit with me in your healing process, I sing to you from these places to bring about healing. I gather up the vibration of the mountains, the plants and animals to place in your energy body for healing. Throughout all of my travels, trials, tribulations I have gathered sacred ingredients to share with you. My medicine is a wildcrafted wisdom, harvested sustainably and given with deep love and respect to share with you for the benefit of all.
My healing is your healing.
Your healing is my healing.
Our healing is all healing.