Woke around 3:45 last night, and realized I had disturbed peace from an activity I had participated in the previous night. As I sat on the couch, in the still, dark house, and watched the energies moving within, I realized that if I want to release the energies as a path to healing, I need to honor all of the energies of all of the beings. I can't treat my energy with honor and respect, and not respect the energy of others.
That was a profound realization, as we are surrounded by energy all the time. What I understand this to mean, right now, is that whenever a disturbed peace is happening, the underlying energetic pattern is active. When the underlying energetic pattern is active is the prime window I have to clear, to heal, the energy and restore it to the Highest Original Source. So. That means that, no matter what is going on in my life, when my peace is disturbed, my highest priority is to honor and release the activated underlying energetic pattern. This can be inconvenient. Our culture values filling our time, making commitments, and keeping those commitments. But...what if those are only surface distractions, to a deeper truth, that we are immersed within a massive energetic system (Gaia), and that when an energetic pattern is activated then that is *always* the higher priority? This felt true and completely mind-blowing in the moment... But, we do not heal alone. We heal together. When I heal my own underlying energetic pattern, and release it, I am returning it, restoring it, to its highest original source. It is an act of respect, of honor, to recognize disturbed peace and the underlying energy and to work with it as it arises.
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The words we use matter, and how we use them matters. Calling things what they truly are, matters. One of the great lessons of the past 2+ years in the woods has been to feel the distinction between power and force. And, to recognize that our culture uses the word power inaccurately - because what we call "power" in our culture is actually, most of the time, actually "force."
In the woods, I have come to feel that True Power is felt inside the body as a sense of peace, dignity, bliss, respect, openness, truth, and complete wholeness. These feelings are completely independent and irrespective of external circumstances. In other words, they do not depend on what anyone else does, says, feels, or thinks. Everyone else is completely free to do as they please, believe as they wish, and feel as they feel. And people can then come or go as they please, without disturbing this peace. There is no need to control another person, subjugate them, or change them in any way - peace is independent of how anyone else acts, feels, or agrees. Force, on the other hand, is experienced as disturbed peace; a need to have something or someone behave in a certain way, or be different, on the outside. It depends on controlling an outcome, a person, or a situation. This includes having an agenda (as opposed to having a respectful conversation that is open to the input of others, and the subsequent open process). Force also includes judging a situation, person, or circumstance because judgement implies that anyone knows better than another what is right for them; they feel superior to another. Likewise, force includes a feeling of being either inferior or superior. It also encompasses withholding or managing a truth, or trying to create perception, rather than speaking the plain truth. In a nutshell: power is internal peace, and force is disturbed peace that needs an external solution. What is astonishing, in this framework, is how much of our culture, our interactions, our hierarchies are lived in force, not in power. And this matters because when we feel in our natural, Divine, state of power, we make radically different choices and behaviors on the outside. We cannot create on the outside what we do not possess on the inside. Cleaning up the pollution, the dysfunction, the abuse of force, the disequilibrium, the unsustainability on the outside requires first cleaning it up on the inside. Moment by moment, imbalance by imbalance, discomfort by discomfort, what we heal in the inside, we inevitably heal on the outside. And, there is no judgement implied in this information - it is the culture we are all swimming in. We learned, acquired, or inherited these beliefs or energetic patterns. Of course we believe what we believe...until we see it differently. And, once we know differently, we can give the beliefs back, we can return the ancient energetic patterns back to the highest original source. Finding ourselves in force, using force, believing force, or even feeling a barrier over the heart, is a call to return to peace. The good news is that it is possible. All the time, in every circumstance, we can release anything that is not ours to carry. (And, anything that is not our true nature is not ours to carry.) Clearing the thistles from our paws feels so damn good. And then, peace restored, we do differently. Right action follows, filled beyond measure with the power of the soul. This is what the woods knows. Thalassophobia. It’s a fear of big, open water. I’ve had it ever since my kids were born. This week my younger son and I attended a marine biology summer camp in Key Largo, which included two snorkel trips every day, in the ocean. On the first trip we saw 4 shadowy sharks, in cavern-y, dark expanses, and my fears opened wide. So, as I entered the water the following day, I shared with the ocean that I wanted to “know my true nature.” (I do this a lot when I enter the woods, it’s awesome!). I opened my heart, and began swimming. Just like that, the words, “you are fearless and wild and free,” entered my brain, and then...everything shifted. I remembered. I remembered that anything that isn’t my true nature is an acquired, learned, inherited belief or energy pattern - and that I could give it back. I could give back this fearful energetic pattern. And, that just on the other side of the fear was my true nature. It has been there all along. Almost at once the ocean was a magical, free, curious realm, full of adventure for this playful mermaid. Up and down, in and out, nothing was off limits. And the feeling hasn’t really diminished since that experience, even now, back in the car heading home. SO. My takeaway, that I’d like to share, is that when one is feeling anything less than fearless, wild, and free, we can always ask to know our true nature, and then listen to the feeling, answer, words that appear. And, even if we don't hear an answer that we recognize, we can choose to give back an inherited, acquired, or learned belief/energy/story that is a barrier between our awareness and our fearless, wild and free nature. One way or another, we can restore our power. |
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