August 2016 e-Newsletter on Nature as Healer
“If you live the questions, Life will move you into the answers.” – Deepak Chopra
Dear Friends,
Over the past few weeks, I found myself facing a very peculiar and profound possibility. With my heart feeling so heavy with deep sadness at the escalating violence, racism and acts of revenge taking place throughout the world, my only recourse was to turn away and renew myself within the arms of Mother Nature.
I walk, taking in the awesome beauty and abundance of the creative presence of itself, everywhere I look. I find myself able to shift immediately into a stunning blissful and ecstatic state, so humbly in awe of the glory and grace of a Divine presence that is never absent, always surrounding me and living within me…It does not merely erase the deep sadness and grief I feel for the state of our world, for humanity and for Mother Earth. What strikes me so profoundly is that I am able to hold these polar opposites in place simultaneously! It almost feels manic and yet, I am deeply present, open and feeling all of it, walking in the now.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., once said “We must be tough-minded and tender-hearted – at the same time. Both clear sighted and compassionate. Both critical and vulnerable.”
One of the greatest human capacities, he pointed out, is to hold two opposites at once, letting ourselves become initiators of something new.
When I traveled with the Grandmothers, they would typically remind us that we are constantly dreaming our world forth, through our thoughts, through the words we select and most importantly, through our actions. Our dreams and intentions have power and what we put our attention on grows.
- Are we feeding fear or are we feeding love with those dreams and intentions?
- Can we keep fear from hardening our hearts and closing our minds and instead transform our grief and anger into love in action?
These are questions that we might ask ourselves again and again, as a wake up call.
Dr. King also counseled that, “Fear involves the misuse of the imagination.”
This month, I would like to ask you to put your imagination to good use. I begin to dream a new world by asking, “What If..?”
Will you join me in engaging your imagination in a human project not dictated by fear, hatred or anger? Simply ask yourself, “What is the world that I am longing for? What is the peace that I crave? What is the future i wish to bequeath to the next generations?”
Do not seek to find answers from the intellect; it only knows what it knows from your past. Let’s instead become initiators of something new, letting our dream-state, give us information through our sensations, feelings and thoughts.
Ask “What if?” …and follow where ever it leads you.
Just imagine what a world this could be.
Bright blessings,
Dr. Melissa