Close Your Eyes and Dream: Body of Wisdom, Pink Moon
I have wrinkly hands, and both hold something small, not quite delicate, no. More surprisingly strong and supple. In one wrinkly hand is the flower of a clover. In the other, the little hand of my granddaughter.
She drags her feet in the earth to see dust kicked up, hops like a frog who just found their legs, and kicks a rotted walnut along the path. My lips smile as her little strong arm tugs in all directions on mine. Mother Earth feels to be brimming, the grasses growing tall and fast, rainbows of flowers and leafy greens filling out the garden, a big haul of Easter egg radishes lined up in the kitchen for chopping into radish kimchi. Spring will turn to Summer tonight.
The path winds down a terraced slope, patches of flat ground rooted with apple and serviceberry trees, elderberry and currant bushes, yarrow and Echinacea and comfrey flowers. My granddaughter is young yet skilled at navigating. She lets go of my hand and skips off rocks and logs, arriving quickly below, light on her feet.
I may be older now, but I feel light on my feet today too. I have always been an old soul, but today my heart feels especially young like the twinkling lightning bugs becoming just visible at the forest’s edge.
My wife sits at the patio below, gathered with our family and friends. I hear her laugh dancing up through the music, conversation, and crickets.
Our gathering brings neighbors, friends who are family, family who are friends. Those dear souls who we live with here on this land, who we have been in relationship with for decades, learning how to make peace and beauty, making harmony from our messy early life wiring, healing alongside the soil and water.
Children squeal and splash at the edge of the pond, some of the older kids joking and throwing lines to maybe catch a fish. Tonight, we smile, we laugh, we play. We sing, oh how we will sing. And we eat, how we will eat the bounty of roasted meats raised with care on the land, fresh and crunchy salads of cucumbers and soft buttercrunch leaves, sugar snap peas. New fingerling potatoes with salt and butter. Grilled baby zucchinis. Buttered sourdough bread. Desserts of raspberry, blueberry, strawberry, gooseberry, all the berries until our fingers are stained red and blue.
Tomorrow the feast will continue, favorite treats brought by our neighbors and harvested here. We will feast, and we will circle. In our circle, we will bless and honor the land for holding us. We will share the ways of community we each are finding for peace. We will share what troubles our hearts, and who whether human or plant or animal or waterway in our communities most needs support. We will grieve for the losses we have seen since last we met. And we will dream together of gathering again in a year, and our descendants in 100 years, and as far as 7 generations into the future. And we will call for guidance to show us the way to the bounty, harmony, and love of those dreams.
Thank you for journeying with me. This is a practice of vivid future dreaming. Can you taste it, feel it? Is your heart moved by it? How does your dream of the future taste, smell, feel?
This practice was inspired by Norma Kawelokū Wong from her book When No Thing Works, many thanks to a dear friend who gifted it to me.
If this moved you, I invite you to join us for a deep dive into the imaginative practice of dreaming at our Sacred Sisters circle on Tuesday 4/15, Community Dreamweaving.
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What is it about dreaming? I’ve been using a sensory practice of envisioning my future life for several years now, and have become familiar with what makes it potent. 1. Imagining how you want to feel and actually feeling it before it happens takes advantage of positive neuroplasticity and rewires your brain for experiencing it more. 2. Sensing into what alivens your heart and soul creates clarity around where you want to head, what you value, where to put your energy. 3. The energetics of your dream experience seem to ripple out into the web of life, bringing your co-creation nearer.
What I appreciated about this written practice of imagining further into the future (whether 50 years, or 7 generations) is that it showed me where my dreaming is potent and fluid, and where it feels foggier and in need of cultivation and clarity.
I am probably most well practiced at vivid dreaming of abundant gardens. I’ve been dreaming that since my early twenties!
I’ve gotten more clear around how essential healthy relationship is to a more beautiful future, and to the future I desire. I feel that in the dream I shared, in the way that a commitment to communication, collaboration, and healing has birthed a mutually supportive, co-creative, multi-generational, safe community that prioritizes care for those who are in most need.
In my dream I feel the pulse of cleaner streams, restored forests, nourished soils.
What feels foggy is when I widen the lens. I want the pocket of peace I see in my future community to be a microcosm for the larger web of peace, collaboration, diversity, and mutual support across the country and around the globe.
How we get there? Oof. Feeling into that question, STUCK, is what that feels like inside.
In Wong’s book, she shares a vivid far horizon story (the name she gives her envisioning practice), 7 generations into the future. Inspiring.
One phrase that caught my heart came up as she described folks gathering from all over the world to converge around the ongoing practice of waging peace.
Waging peace.
Waging peace.
I’ve spent some days repeating this to myself like a mantra.
Waging peace.
I’m trying to live that mantra. Inside myself, where sometimes parts can war. Warring parts inside me lead to warring parts outside me. Warring parts outside me lead to warring parts inside me.
Waging peace.
I’m feeling a deeper commitment to the practice of Non-Violent Communication. If you haven’t explored this method of communication before, I highly recommend it. Here’s an easy read on it.
What would it take to live in a peaceful world? I want to live and breathe what it takes now.
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I know it’s scary out there. With you. Waging peace and dreaming with you.
Speaking of dreams, I have been working on one for a while. Starting this late spring, I’ll have some Eco-Somatic Offerings available. Think: immersed in nature. Digital detox. Blankets spread on grass or woodland floors, quiet rustling of leaves, gentle sensory nature walks, and transformative experiences for mind, body, spirit, soul.
If you’re interested, whether in a 1:1 or small group experience, reply to this email to let me know.
Water drops reveal an intricate web on a misty afternoon
Somatic Tool of the Month
Enjoy this somatic tool, and find more like it in my self-paced course The Somatic Journey Toolkit.
This is an outdoor practice, although you could also practice inside if you have a wider energetic reach. (Or practice with your chair, couch, a bed, etc).
Choose a place outside where you can be held by a being larger than yourself. Perhaps under a tree, feeling their roots spreading deep and wide underneath you. On a rock outcrop, sensing into the mountain underground. On the bank of a stream or river. On a forest floor, sensing the vast mycelial web below.
Sit or lay down on the earth. Ask the being (tree, rock, etc) if they will hold you. Notice any felt sense of a response. Feel into the support below you. What does it feel like up close to the surface? Out wide? Down deep?
As you breathe, practice softening your body with each exhale. Notice the places of holding or bracing. Notice the support beneath you. Pendulate slowly your awareness between places of holding… and then back to the sense of support….places of holding…. And then back to the sense of support.
Notice any changes, any places that have softened more, or perhaps places still holding. Any sensations in the body, emotions, or messages that have come through.
If you feel called after the practice, you may journal on or contemplate what you experienced around being held and supported, especially by a being in nature.
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Invitations into Offerings
I would love to weave with you on your healing journey. Here are some opportunities for our paths to cross:
Somatic Journey Toolkit - For folks feeling dysregulated and disconnected, who desire resilience, ease, and liberation from the stuck patterns in your nervous system, this course is designed to help you:
Feel more confident, at ease, and resilient in your ability to regulate your nervous system and emotions
Feel more free, having shed layers of stuck emotions and survival energy
Feel more authentic and connected to your needs, emotions, and desires with a stronger, more stable, embodied sense of self
4/15 Sacred Sisters Circle: Community Dreamweaving- Together we will unwind from the daily stress of life and create a nourishing container for our hearts, imaginations, and souls to access and express our dreams. Dreams may be personal, for our closest community, or for the larger collective. What is the life and world you dream of? Through movement, rest, meditation, art, and ritual we will plant our dream seeds to grow in the larger web of creation. *Facilitated by Me
5/6 Sacred Sisters Circle: Womb Activation - Do you ever feel disconnected from yourself? From your intuition? From your body? From your light (and your darkness)? As a woman, your womb is your portal back to yourself and your internal power. Join us as we take a womb journey through body literacy, embodiment practice, and feminine energetics in order to help you release, reconnect, rejuvenate, and reignite that spark inside. *Facilitated by Nicole H
1:1 Somatic Coaching - Let’s center your body and nervous system as anchors in your healing and personal growth. I help people who want to spend less time living in survival mode, shed stress and societal conditioning, and come back home to their hearts and bodies.
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