Lay down with me upon this lovely grassy space…let the flowers dance about your head and body as the sun and the breeze conduct the music with which they move. Feel that music upon your skin, upon the tiny hairs along your body. Let it seep in through your pores. Hear the birds chirping. Perhaps a small animal is foraging. Are there clouds in the sky that we might play the “looks like” game? Let go your worry of an insect finding you enticing, for they have more to do than bother you presently. Let the air fill your precious lungs and realize what an incredible gift they are to help us become present, alive, expansive.

Perhaps you enjoy the night better? A quiet still space within a wooded glen. We are at a pond where moonlight shimmers upon her surface, just as it does upon your own surface. Fireflies dance among the reeds and invite us into the faeries’ realm. Frogs and crickets serenade the darkness as the stars whisper the secrets of the universe to the blessed cells of our bodies. We are as ancient as those stars, the Great Mystery encoded within us.

What if we were to find our company among the sacred cactus and the lizards in the desert? The intense heat driving us to seek the shade and rest until the close of day brought sweet relief. Perhaps we could fly with the birds during the dawn and dusk to find the best flowers for nectar. Or we could accompany the creatures who dwell only in the dark of night and learn to navigate the stark landscape using our finely honed senses?

Mountains calling? Would those peaks be blanketed with snow? Would you feel the wind’s strength along the edges of the ridge? Or might we meet deep silence, broken only by the occasional shift in rock or snowpack? Perhaps we have climbed to the timberline and are greeted with a bird circling in the sky. This vast spaciousness, steep angles, deep presence. A space that invites our understanding of life to ponder new perspectives.

Within the ocean, perhaps in coral reef or deep crevasse, what might our senses encounter within this watery world of mystery and imagination? Might we feel both the bouyancy and the pull of the deep? Could there be a mighty storm brewing or would it be peaceful and soft? Would we let it invite us to go within ourselves to depths that we may not have dared before?

What of the jungle? The deep jungle, where serpent and jaguar dwell, where gorilla and piranha dwell. Plants that climb the treetops, that feed and house the massive variety of life. The sacred waters that drip-drop from all the flora gathered here, raining from the sky to the ground, up through roots and trunks and vines, and back down upon the earth again. Here we are also offered to learn deep lessons of Ayni, and of sacred living, honoring all life. Let the atmosphere seep into your bones. Let the jungle’s heartbeat guide you deeper into your own, and ultimately to Our One Heartbeat.

All of these sacred spaces, and the ones we are still discovering, are our home. Lady Gaia has offered herself to all of us. We are her children. And all of us serve important roles within the whole, supporting our very intricate web of life. The more we understand this, the more we we will look for ways to support it; not only because we need every facet of this web in order to function as a healthy and thriving world, but because we begin to understand the sacredness of each life.

We are in a time of great intensity. And a time of great opportunity. As we bear witness to the great destruction upon our Earth Mother, we also are brought to awareness of our great responsibility and our great honor…that of being her caretakers, that of taking our place among our brothers and sisters, once again, in communion with our Earth Family.

When we forget the sacredness of where we come from, we can also forget our sacred interconnectedness and how important it is to care for the whole and all its parts. We are now arrived at the time where we are remembering. And we are finding ourselves a bit overwhelmed at the mess we must clean up in order to care competently for our Home and our Family.

Nature often speaks to our hearts through beauty and inspiration…those moments of awe that bring us into connection and introspection. This gifts us an opportunity to tap into the precious essence that dwells within every one of us. It reminds us of how precious all life is. It inspires us to cultivate that communion.

The destruction, or the falling apart, of things that we witness also has an aspect of beauty, even when the sadness or the rage comes. Within that pain is also etched greater understanding. We are asked to look deeply and genuinely into the message it has come with. This is where we can also find the guidance and inspiration for what we can learn and grow from, and ultimately how we can now apply this to our lives.

Thankfully, Lady Gaia is always whispering to us, sending us brothers and sisters who have agreed to help us remember, and to guide us in the restoration of our world: both our inner world, and the outer world where we experience one another.

This need not be a dismal journey in our realization. It is meant to be an awakening, yes, but that awakening is meant to spark our desire to create with joy and appreciation, with the remembrance of how precious and beautiful all life is.

How can we build a beautiful, thriving, vibrant Earth if we are stuck in despair and in hopelessness? We cannot. Coming from that painful space, our focus can only bring us more of it. We can only create the beauty we envision through inspired engagement. Through knowing and imagining how we would like to experience our world, whether it be through peace, through pure soil, air and water, through seeing the natural world teaming with vibrant life where everyone (human, animal, plant, element) has a place to live, a place to be safe and a place to create a beautiful ecosystem where all parts are in balance and welcome.

When we can imagine this, we can follow our inspired action, small and great. In time, this grows and starts to connect with inspired engagement in other parts of our world, and when they start to come together, look out! because things are really gonna start happening! But we always have to start where we are, with what we feel inspired to do…not from a space of despair, but from a space of “Wow! Wouldn’t it be so great to have *THIS* happen?!” and ask the Universe to help us with it. And then be on the lookout for the moments where we sense an idea or a prompt that feels really good.

Your prompt may be to write a letter, or to learn about butterflies and the plants they live on. Maybe you enjoy farming and want to learn more about soil health, or you want to learn how to create a native habitat in your backyard, or your apartment window, so that more of the wildlife AND humans can have a space to thrive. Maybe you heard about a turtle in distress and want to learn how to help it live in a safe and healthy place. Or you are really interested about carbon in the atmosphere and want to learn how to help restore the ice caps or the snow caps, so you start to look at the research and get familiar with the innovative ideas that are coming out. Perhaps you join a group of like minded souls, or perhaps you might feel a nudge to go somewhere… so you do, and then you end up meeting someone, or have a conversation, or some animal comes along your path, perhaps a tree gives you a moment to pause and become present, which gives you a thought that inspires you to engage someting… and then on and on and on…..so many moments of inspired action are tiny in their initial understanding, but they always lead to a larger experience.

These are building blocks upon which more and more comes to be. The really big Ah-HA moments are super too, but they are not always the main players. It is often the small moments, the little things that lead us to more and to more and to more. These little moments are so very important as well….be on the lookout for them!

It is easy to see destruction and despair in our news. It is also easy to find the inspired stories if we really want to find them. So many of us are focusing on how to create a thriving and healthy world. Many of us have been waiting for our government or our community leaders to do something, and some of them genuinely are. But many of us have decided that we want to contribute without waiting for them to do more. We have the desire to feel into what we personally and as a community can do.

In celebration of that, I am listing some resources, persons, etc. that I have come to be aware of or have personally engaged. This is by no means exhaustive, and will continue to expand and/or change, but rather serves as inspired opportunities for any of us to go further and find more, find something or some things that feel good to look into further. To grow with and see where we want to take it. My hope is that if you desire to create from a space of love and inspiration, or even if you are feeling anxiety about how to start or if it’s even possible, look at these links, find something that peaks your interest…and look beyond them to find more and more and more. It’s out there.

We have so much to learn and to share with one another in this new becoming. Will we all struggle sometimes, wondering if it can be done? Yep…and yet we can continue to engage from the desire to co-create a beautiful, thriving world. Each one of us that takes even the first little step puts more into motion. Let that first step guide you into another. Let your joy of dreaming a thriving, beautiful world guide you in the directions that are waiting for your personal touch, which is also joining the collective creation. Blessings my friend!

Jane Goodall, anything by her including documentaries, books, causes. Her website: https://janegoodall.org/

Sir David Attenborough, anything by him including documentaries, books, etc. No official website could be found, but he is all over the internet on YouTube, PBS, and Smithsonian.

The Good News Network, started by Geri Weis-Corbley, was her inspiration to share good news from around the world because she wanted to see more of it available to everyone: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/

Home Grown National Park, creating native habitat in our own backyard, with Douglas Tallamy: https://homegrownnationalpark.org/

We Are the ARK, restorative kindness for the earth, with Mary Renolds :https://wearetheark.org/

The Native Habitat Project: https://www.nativehabitatproject.com/

Interspecies Communication, restoring our heart-centered connection/conversation with all life:

Pea Horsley: https://animalthoughts.com/

Penelope Smith: https://www.animaltalk.net/

Suzan Vaughn: https://www.animalwhisperer.net/

Anna Breytenbach: https://animalspirit.org/

Bioneers, started by Kenny Ausubel and Nina Simons, is an innovative nonprofit organization that highlights breakthrough solutions for restoring people and planet

the Munay Ki Rites: the sacred relationship to all life here on Earth and Beyond:

The Four Winds Society: https://thefourwinds.com/the-rites-of-the-munay-ki/

Shamanism and coming back to wholeness within ourselves and our world, with Sandra Engerman: https://www.sandraingerman.com/

Native Plants Nursery:

Bosky Dell Natives (Pacific Northwest of the United States)

Plant Spirit Medicine, with Stephen Harrod Buhner: https://www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/

Children and Nature Network: Field Guide/Resources links

For the love of animals: Steve Irwin

Cool things about nature and some ways to conserve it, with Griff Griffith: https://jumpstartnature.com/, https://www.facebook.com/GriffWild

Kiss the Ground: a movie about soil health and regenerative farming