April 28, 2021

I’m a hugger. Everyone who knows me knows that about me. I’ll hug anyone, sometimes to the chagrin of those who are with me. And hugging is something I’ve really missed in this pandemic hibernation. Even on the occasional forays from our MossTerra bubble, like everyone else I’m relegated to eye contact for any attempt at meaningful communication.

Hard stuff for us huggers. And then I had a conversation with our dog. More accurately, she had a conversation with me.

There are no issues beyond Ema being an eleven-year-old Great Pyrenees with a life span of ten to twelve years. I ‘got’ that it was time to check in with her. So we contacted Crystal, an animal communicator we’ve worked with before. She was a bit stunned by what she got from Ema. Dennis and I were beyond stunned. We were weepy.

One of the questions I asked was about Ema staring at us for intense and prolonged periods of time. I thought she was trying to tell us something and we just weren’t getting the message. This was really the catalyst for contacting Crystal. Here is some of what Crystal shared with us.

I enjoyed your warm Ema so much. Here’s what I asked and found out…it felt extraordinary as I listened. She says her health overall is good! She’s just slowing down, like you sensed in your notes. Ema says “Don’t worry about me; I couldn’t be more happy. You have given all to me, and more.”

There are more intense weepy bits so I will just leave this here. But these messages from Ema gave me pause, pun intended. Perhaps this time of pandemic and wearing masks is an opportunity to develop my hugging eye contact, to look at people over my mask with an intense gaze that says, “Relax and feel my essence. I am hugging you!”

Thank you, sweet Ema.
Thank you.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

April 20, 2021

What do we want? Peace. Justice.
When do we want it? Now!!!

I can hardly believe it was fifty years ago when this chant was fundamental to our protests of the war and racial injustice. The war in Vietnam ended, but we still don’t have peace or the justice we were marching for.

Fifty years later and standing at a place of accumulated decades in my life, I have a different perspective. I still find myself longing for immediate change. But now that is tempered with a long view. I’ve been watching several documentaries on people now gone from us who lived through the horrors of nazi and fascist regimes in Europe, and racial inequity in this country. And things have changed. While so many of us are absolutely horrified by the current rise of white supremacy, the general fabric of our culture is not what it was even a few decades ago. We have a long way to go, but there has been progress.

In one of the documentaries there was discussion about how change, real and lasting change, never happens from the center. It always happens at the edges and then moves to the center. 

Sitting with this I think about the rich diversity that Biden is welcoming to his administration. Those appointments would not be possible if the general fabric of this country hadn’t shifted to our current culture of acceptance and understanding that all voices and perspectives make us a strong and vibrant nation.

Sitting with this I think about the frustration so many of us have about being so distanced from the power to effect massive and meaningful change on a national level. And I wonder at the narrative I’ve long held that systemic change only happens when I’m part of the system. I remember being told all those decades ago that rather than protesting for change I needed to become part of the institutions we were criticizing because change only happens from the inside, from the center. Yet now I see more clearly that change, real and lasting change, happens at the outer edge. The outer edge where most of us live. 

We at the outer edges have more power than we imagine – an inconvenient truth for those claim the power of the center. And I believe that fifty years from now those who can hold a long view will marvel at the change made manifest by those of us the outer edges. 

What do we want? Peace. Justice.
What will we do? Light the fires of change at the outer edge.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

April 19, 2021

Contrary to popular belief, the seed that grows a pearl is not a grain of sand but a parasite. The essential energy of pearl offers balance, harmony, and connection with with our inner wisdom and divine purpose. These insights enhanced the metaphor of pearl in contemplating the wisdom found in this time of parasitic pandemic hibernation.

A few of my sister circles have been exploring the wisdom they’ve found and have discovered a shared reluctance to rush headlong back into the world, especially the world that was. We’ve grown very comfortable with these new life rhythms and patterns.

Ironically, just hours after one of these amazing conversations with one of my sister circles, I drove two hours to Seattle to spend time with my sister and niece who is considering the University of Washington for her undergraduate studies. It’s the first time I’ve wandered far from my forest bubble in over a year and it was an emotionally violent experience. Did I not listen to what I has shared in the morning circle? Lord, girlfriend! I sensed the inner wisdom eye roll.  Apparently I needed the jarring visceral reminder. Too much traffic, too many people, too much concrete, and too much fast moving city energy.

A pearl of wisdom for me has been a deepening connection to the natural rhythms and Earth energies here at MossTerra. When I drove home I could feel the land wrap her arms around me as I slipped into those rhythms again. Lesson learned. Pay attention to the pearl for this wisdom is not just for this time…but for all time.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

April 15, 2021

The Light Of Ancient Wisdom

Invisible moving forces
that influence the physical world

In quantum physics it’s called the field. In spirituality it’s called Spirit, the force that animates all life. An agreement of universal truth. And we are so disconnected from it.

I created this piece days ago and have been waiting for a story to land. There are just so many stories and examples of our profound separation from these energies. But I think I will just let this sit here. The image really says it all.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

April 2, 2021

The Light Of Ancient Wisdom

It was of course a practical decision. Living in a round tipi at ground level, not much of our old furnishings fit. Not much of our old lives either. So when we moved to the land we gave away most of what we owned with the intention, even after we built the house, to only put back what was essential. When we built the house my mother was appalled at the lack of closets and storage space but that was deliberate. We didn’t want to store stuff we didn’t need. And what we need is still, forty five years later, under constant scrutiny. We continue to round down.

I’ve been thinking about this as we’ve now been a year in pandemic hibernation. We all gave away much of our old lives, although not by choice. And now we have the opportunity to consider what is essential to us as we build back our lives. Many are rushing headlong to go back to exactly where we were but the narrative of creating a new normal is compelling. What rhythms and patterns of this pandemic time do we want to keep…beyond pants that don’t button? What lessons and insights will shape how we live our lives?

We’ve had the opportunity to slow down to the speed of wisdom. What wisdom did we gain? What wisdom will manifest in our lives? How will we round down?

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com

April 1, 2021

When the moon
hits your eye
like a big pizza pie
in the Suez…

When the ground becomes saturated and houses start sliding down the tall clay cliffs that overlook Puget Sound, we blame the rain. When houses built at sea level flood, we blame the tides. Of course the real cause is people building in places that are historically proven to be vulnerable. But somehow we continue assume and assert our will and in that we name Mother Nature as adversarial. She just won’t cooperate. She just does what she does.

Last week the adversarial narrative shifted for a moment. I was intrigued to read the following the the New York Times. After almost a week of dredging, drigging and tugging — and with some help from the moon — salvage teams yesterday freed the giant container ship that had been stuck in the Suez Canal. The crews working to dig out the ship were largely dependent on forces beyond their control: the moon and the tides.

Forces beyond their control. When will we learn that the forces of nature, the terrestrial and cosmological seasons and cycles, are always beyond our control? Yes. Our ancestors knew how to work with these energies, a knowing we have largely lost. But it was an alliance of harmonic coexistence never a relationship of control. Rescue is only an illusion.

Beannacht,
Judith – judith@stonefires.com