Hello Friends!
As you may have noticed, my online presence is somewhat on the quiet side. Our culture today tries to convince us that in order to progress in this world, reach success and to create connectivity in this world then we need to be posting on our social media accounts - letting people know we are here, in case they forget you.
However, I am remembering more and more all the time, that in order to progress, create success and nurture connectivity with my people, my life and myself - then where I need to be is right here in the real world. And this is where I've been and still am. Hence, there is a distinct lack of consistency in my online postings and whilst I am absent on the interwebs, I can proudly proclaim: I am here, I am here, I am here!
My world has been one of growth in recent months (and years... It's an ongoing thing really, I've heard it may be a forever thing) and I have felt long, thick roots spreading out from depths of me. A few weeks ago, during a meditation, I saw myself as a tall tree - like a redwood. I could feel how far and wide my roots went and I felt solid and strong and powerful. A Mother Tree, next to me, said to me,
"Yes, we are strong and our roots stretch for miles. But do you think that this protects us from the difficulties of life? Do we not losing branches during storms? Do pests not ravage us? Do diseases not arrive on the wind and try to destroy us? Do we not watch our friends tumble to ground and return back to the earth? Even the oldest, strongest, most solid and most powerful of us experience the tough stuff in life. It's our roots, that ensure we have a good chance to stay standing. It's our roots that feed us and nourish us, before and after the shocks in life and keep us going."
This made me feel better. Whilst I feel more me these days, I notice that all the spiritual growth in the world doesn't protect me from the challenges of being human and living life. Nor would I want it to - I came here to be human. Not a tree, although in mediation I quite like being a tree, essentially, I am really glad I'm human. Being human is darn glorious (you know, when it isn't super sucking) and I choose being human - fully human with all the feelings - every day.
So, I am here, growing - in the way a human does. I suppose, the human equivalent of strengthening my roots may look a bit like this: nurturing my relationships and being in the nook of togetherness, going for walks to connect with the big wide world, eating all the food to feed and nourish myself and remembering myself, realising myself, recreating myself, reconnecting myself.
There are a thousand things I do to reconnect myself. I talk with my people, I read my books, listen to podcasts, go to therapy, write in my journals, meditate, listen to music, explore the world, cook and laugh and play and eat (always eating) and having fun and just anything that makes me feel alive.
It's the reconnecting - that connects me with me, me with the Divine, me with my people, me with the world. It's the reconnect that supports me in feeling here, in feeling present and it's in that, in that throughout-the-day connection, that I can feel my roots spreading far and wide.
What do you do to reconnect? Or continue to connect? What helps you to be present in life?
I'm going to leave you with a prayer, may it be with you as you meet life right now:
Life,
This week, may our connecting word be Presence.
Help me to be present in you, present for others and to feel it fully when others are present with me,
May we realise that presence, bodily presence, is what's calling and may we answer that call.
Amen
