Wild Connections
This service is led by Jinjer Stanton
Once, when I sat down to write about plant spirit medicine for Twin Cities Wellness, I realized I had no idea what to say. In a moment of silence, I asked what the plant spirits wanted me to share. Immediately they came crowding into my mind and said, "We want everyone to be aware of our love for them."
A memory came to me of a hot, summer, Sunday afternoon when I was working with several healers to help a friend of mine. Sweat poured down our faces and armpits, only intensified by the energy channeling through our bodies. Then I felt the spirit of Lovage come bustling into the room--tall, green as celery, and cool. She went straight to the head of the treatment table and to work healing my friend. Immediately, my friend's body began to accept the healing more readily. At the same time it seemed as though either the temperature lowered or our ability to handle the heat improved (something lovage is known for).
I have always felt happiest among green and growing things. But incidents like those mentioned above have made me realize that when I am among plants, I am among friends and I feel a real connection to the natural world. To the non-human world.
Anyone who has had a pet has had a moment when personal emotion has made her feel profoundly alone until the cat nudged its way onto her lap, or until the dog flapped its ungainly paw onto her lap, or until the horse press it's nose into her chest. My dog, Skippy, used to rest her head on my thigh and look soulfully into my eyes when I was sad. The change in the human's emotional state can be profound. It might not be from grief to joy, but it could take one from isolated to relating. I hear time and again from people who say that the only thing that got them through the loss of a loved one was the companionship and love of an animal.
And what of wild animals? I think it's meaningful that so many of us desire to have a "totem" animal or an animal spirit guide. That we feel a soulful yearning to acknowledge the wild within us in this way indicates to me that we are all aware on some level of our own deeper connection to these undomesticated denizens of our world. Many of us work hard to renew through spirit guides the awareness of the connections between ourselves and the rest of the planet (that our ancestors took for granted).
There is a sense that our connections with plants and animals is also a magical leap across a gulf of consciousness. The most domesticated animal represents something wild and uncontrollable that makes their consciousness seem alien to us. We can feel in our own souls what it is to prowl through the woods at night with easy skin that allows our muscle and bone to glide and melt into shadow. The most common vegetable, pepper, peas or tomato, if we pay attention, reveals the magic of life unfolding out of ineffable mystery -- something out of nothing. We feel the living reality of our own mystery.
And the connections don't end with the "living" beings we share the earth with. The very fabric of the earth has spirit and intelligence to match ours. Spirit lives in the most mundane of items from computers and chairs to toothbrushes and dish detergent. Every stone has a life history that stretches into unimaginable yesterdays. Still we are connected and supported. The stars and the dust between the stars are part of our expanded selves.
So, my suggestion for today's meditation is that you sit quietly and breathe and as you breathe, let go of your narrow definition of self. Allow the separation between yourself and the world around you to dissolve. Rest in the space that opens up where the boundaries once were. Feel the way your authentic being flows out beyond the boundaries. Perhaps you'll feel the love that vibrates in the air. Perhaps you'll feel what the butterfly feels when it beats its wings. Perhaps you will flow like water beneath the earth to nourish begonias and dandelions. Your experience expands to include miracles and there are allies at your side who love you.
Perhaps, one night, when the full moon shines upon your pillow, when you hover between waking and sleeping, a spirit will slip from the magic of the night to whisper secrets in your ear.
Thank you for coming.
Namaste
For more from Jinjer Stanton, you can visit her website www.jinjerstanton.com and for more about meditation you can visit "Just One Percent", an offering of Miracles of the Spirit created by Jinjer Stanton.