August Arrives – Day 628

Posted on August 1, 2020August 1, 2020 by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment

Photo: L. Weikel

August Arrives

Yes, by the time this post is read by any of you, August 2020 will be here. We will be seven full months into the cataclysmic year of 2020 and embarking upon month number eight.

Who amongst us isn’t freaking excited by the prospects? Huh? Come on. I know I can’t be the only one on the edge of my seat with anticipation over what revelations and curveballs await us this month?

Glad to See July End

Don’t get me wrong. I’m the last person to challenge worse. But I have to tell you: this last day of July has been a rough one. I’ll almost certainly write about what made today particularly discomfiting for me, but I have to sleep on it and assess the damage tomorrow.

But it’s not looking good.

Let’s just say the wild, torrential rain that accompanied some excellent thunder and lightning last night took an unexpected toll.

Biodiversity Project

I might as well use this opportunity to remind everyone that tomorrow is, indeed, the first of August. That means it’s time once again to lend your energy and intention to the Perelandra Biodiversity Project, which I’ve been encouraging participation in for well over a year now. (And just so it’s clear: I have no financial interest in Perelandra. I do not get a single penny for my enthusiasm. I simply love the concept and the sincere dedication of the organization and its founder to promoting our conscious partnership with Nature.)

This process, using Essence of Perelandra, is incredibly simple and quick. The whole procedure from start to finish takes no more than five minutes. And the loveliest part about it, in my opinion, besides the potential for fulfilling the overarching intention of restoring balance and harmony between all living things on your land or in your space, is the simple act of bringing awareness to the land on which you live.

Whenever I open Sacred Space, I specifically include and ‘call in’ the Spirits of the Place where I am doing the ceremony or engaging in sacred work. As a species, we’ve grown more and more oblivious to the sentience of anything other than other humans. Some people acknowledge the sentience of animals (especially their pets), but fewer and fewer still consider wild animals, insects, or plants as having a form of consciousness. It’s extremely rare for anyone outside of our brothers and sisters who retain their indigenous roots and connections to accord the land – and Mother Earth herself – sentience.

So beyond the explicit intention of restoring and healing the balance of diversity ‘in our own back yards’ that the Biodiversity Project fosters, I personally love the awareness it brings to each of us who engage in it. In the midst of these chaotic, uncertain, and oftentimes frightening times, engaging in this process asks us to simply STOP for five minutes and BE with where we are. It asks us to acknowledge our interconnectedness with All That Is. And it’s so incredibly simple and easy.

Simple – Like Wearing a Mask

The ease with which we might make an enormous difference in the energetic balance of our environment (including the environment within our own selves) by doing this simple process is akin to the huge difference the simple act of wearing a mask can make in protecting all of us and contributing to stopping the spread of the Coronavirus.

I guess I’m left wondering why we resist engaging in little steps that very possibly could make a humongous difference in the trajectory of our existence here on Earth. Are we afraid they won’t work and we’ll look foolish? If they don’t work, and we all die or the Earth becomes so out of balance that climate change inundates us (and kills us all in other ways besides the current pandeminc) to whom will we look foolish?

Community

Another significant benefit to engaging in the Biodiversity Project is knowing that I’m joining people all over the world in a collective and sincere effort to make things just a little bit better. I love envisioning the web of interconnected love and caring that is established when I contemplate our united efforts.

As August arrives, if you have a bottle of Essence of Perelandra, join me. Read the instructions here and take a moment – at any time during the 1^st day of the month – to help reclaim balance and healing for us all. We’re all connected. What benefits one benefits all.

If you don’t have a bottle of Essence of Perelandra – order one for September 1^st. Goodness knows, I’m sure we’ll need more and more intentions set for balance and healing by then.

And although I’m sure I don’t need to say it, I will say it anyway: Wear a mask. For you. For me. For us.

(T-483)

Turtle – Day 597

Posted on July 1, 2020July 1, 2020 by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment

Tohickon Green – Photo: L. Weikel

Turtle

Well, the post I wrote last night pretty much revealed the simmering concerns I have over the trajectory we’re on. There are so many threats being waged – daily – on our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. And these threats are being experienced by all of us, both personally and collectively as a nation and even as a planet. So it was comforting when Turtle showed up as my ‘pick’ today.

Of course, I’m referring to the tradition Karl and I have of starting our mornings by choosing Medicine Cards*, and chatting over a cup of coffee about how our selections might apply to the day ahead of us. Sometimes we may only discern the relevance of a particular selection after the day has unfolded. And sometimes a pick is obviously a direct response to something we’re thinking or feeling or worrying about at the moment we chose our cards.

In fact, sometimes I have to laugh because I realize that a card I’ve chosen is directly addressing something I’ve not even spoken of out loud – and barely admitted to myself. That’s one of the gifts of opening ourselves up to exploring our intuition and the unseen guidance that’s merely waiting to be ‘asked.’

Mother Earth

The message I received when I chose Turtle this morning was that my day would be enhanced if I reconnected with Mother Earth. I took that to mean consciously. Quietly. Introspectively.

And with Black Panther underneath, my sense was that in choosing to consciously root or ground myself, by giving myself an opportunity to step away from my laptop and phone (other than to take photos so I could share my experience in some small way with you), I very well might literally ‘embrace the unknown.’

I chose to pay a silent visit to my Tohickon, my source of sustenance and rejuvenation, and I was amply rewarded. A blue heron greeted me, bringing joy immediately to my heart. But it was my immersion in a holographic cocoon of hundreds of shades of abundant life force that filled my senses and helped me remember: there is so much more.

Grandmother Moon

And just now, right before I’m posting this, I took Sheila outside and was dazzled by the brilliance of Grandmother Moon. A catbird singing reminded me of my discovery of that beautiful gift last year.

And all I wanted to do was run inside and share all of this abundant sustenance with you.**

Night Shot – Photo: L. Weikel

*affiliate link

**One other thing? Don’t forget, tomorrow is the first day of July. If you’ve been making the effort to bring diversity and balance to the land on which you live (big or small) by participating in the Perelandra Biodiversity Project, make sure to set aside the five minutes it takes to engage in the very simple yet powerful exercise described here and here.

(T-514)

The Respite – Day 536

Posted on May 1, 2020May 1, 2020 by Lisa Weikel Leave a comment

A Sign – Photo: L. Weikel

The Respite

For once in a very long time I have essentially no idea what’s gone on in the outside world today. Not only did I refrain from reading anything on my phone, I also avoided watching any of my usual fare that keeps me up to date on the latest facts and figures of how our world and nation is coping with this unprecedented transformation. The respite was unintended but probably essential.

Yes, I know. There are many people who eschew the media and distrust it and the hyperbole with which much of what’s going on ‘out there’ gets discussed. But I’ve come to find some sources that do not so much inflame as explain. And I find doing my best to understand what’s going on so I can make reasoned and well-informed decisions for myself to be at least somewhat comforting.

I like knowing the truth, even if it’s not easy to hear it. The thought of being fed a bunch of lies just so I will supposedly feel good makes me want to rip my hair out. That’s because I detest lies. Lies rob us of first-hand experience of what is. And what else is there to life but first hand experience of what is?

Lies would have us believe that what we’re experiencing isn’t what’s right before our eyes. That’s maddening. That makes the part of our brain that makes sense of things constantly whir in the background, stuck in a whirling rainbow of a processing loop as it tries to make sense of something incapable of logical resolution.

Alternative Programming

Instead of paying attention to the current state of affairs, instead of feeling helpless as I watch people ignore science and instead choose to believe happy talk that’s calculated to have them act against their own best interests (yet again), Karl and I chose to watch two vastly different programs.

The first show we watched was the first episode of Mrs. America, which can be seen on Hulu. It has a pretty amazing cast – but I’d resisted watching it when I first heard about it because it is about Phyllis Schlafly.

I was tempted to just binge watch right into the second episode, but being reminded of the dumbfounding sexism that’s been part of our society for so long was demoralizing. The events depicted in that first episode were from when I was around 13 years old and the Equal Rights Amendment was in the process of being ratified by the states. I remember feeling that it was a no-brainer. I couldn’t imagine it not being ratified.

And thus it began. The backlash we’ve been living with ever since that time when women got this close to being recognized as equal to men. And therein lies one of the utterly maddening truths of my lifetime.

A Bit Better Feeling

There’s no question we’re hooked on the limited run program, Mrs. America. But we decided we needed to drop back to one of our absolute favorite programs that helps us reclaim faith in humanity, Call the Midwife, on Netflix.

If any of you haven’t yet started watching this treasure, I urge you to do so post haste! There’s never been a better time to give yourself the gift of watching this warm and wonderful program.

First of all, I believe there are eight or nine seasons. So you have a deep reservoir to dive into as this pandemic wears on. Plenty of time to get to know the characters, revel in their triumphs, and lament their frailties, all the while knowing (as you will, once you start watching) that somehow or another, even if things don’t turn out the way you hope for a particular character, something redeeming can be discovered in the ashes.

Call the Midwife lets us hang on to the thread of hope. Hope for humanity and hope for ourselves.

Just tonight, the two episodes we watched were set in 1962. The Cuban missile crisis was in full swing and it was fascinating to see the reaction of the English. I was only three when that occurred, so I have no memory of any of the anxiety that swept the world. But the parallels to how life-changing it would have been had nuclear weapons been unleashed to the devastation the entire world is watching unfold now was eerie.

Transformation

We’re most definitely in the midst of major transformation on many different levels, not only in our many societies across the world, but also in our own selves.

In some ways, I feel like I can’t escape the messages, even when I actively opt to escape for an evening. That tells me that the time for hiding our heads in the sand are done. Over.

The respite I had today demands to be repeated. The respite feels as important to the transformation as the bigger, deeper, more obvious ‘work.’ It must be respected as essential as any activism or awareness.

I wonder what May will bring to us.